what could have been

AMC Wanted John Cusack or Matthew Broderick to Play Walter White on Breaking Bad

Matthew Broderick.
Matthew Broderick==ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY’S 2012 Spring Gala Honoring ROB MARSHALL==Hammerstein Ballroom, New York==March 12, 2012==©Patrick McMullan==Photo-JIMI CELESTE/patrickmcmullan.com== Photo: Jimi Celeste/PatrickMcMullan.com

It’s hard to picture Walter White as anyone but Bryan Cranston, but AMC was not sold on him initially. They had at least two other suggestions for the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter: John Cusack and Matthew Broderick, who both passed on playing America’s most emotionally broken chemistry teacher. Broderick did a version of the teacher-goes-off-the-rails thing for Election, and Cusack probably should be starring in a cable drama by now, but holy moly can you even imagine the world in which John Cusack or Matthew Broderick were on Breaking Bad? Wearing tightie-whities and looking scabby? We cannot.

AMC Wanted Cusack, Broderick for Breaking Bad