Tribeca TV Festival 2018 Day 1: Retrospective Looks At The Careers Of Bryan Cranston & Rosario Dawson

There is nothing better to attend just after the induction of Film Inquiry television coverage than the Tribeca TV Festival. This was the second year of the festival, building on the success of its inaugural year last year and expanding the content available to attendees. It was exciting to be submerged in the world of television for the first time, listening and watching the stars who have garnered my attention week in and week out.

Tribeca Talks: A Conversation with Bryan Cranston

It would be a lie if I didn’t say this was the event I was most excited for. Bryan Cranston was not on my radar of actors to watch until his indomitable take on Walter White in the immensely successful series Breaking Bad. Yet, from the moment I became engrossed within the story, Cranston‘s performance became a resounding presence.

Shortly, after learning who he was, I was shocked to discover all the films and shows he had been in previously that I had seen: X-Files, The Pretender, and Saving Private Ryan. And while I had never seen Malcolm in the Middle, he was suddenly recognizable in an “oh that guy” moment.

I am sure I’m not the only one who went through this revelation. While he is a man defined by his role as Walter White, he transcends in performances past and present – embracing that which everyone recognizes yet reaching out for more. In a conversation moderated by New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein, it was a night of retrospection, Bryan Cranston recalling (and sometimes acting out) his childhood, his discovery of acting and the most devastating scene for him during his time on Breaking Bad.

The night, unbeknownst to many until moderator David Edelstein informed the crowd, began with Bryan Cranston banging on the plexiglass in the back of Spring Studios screaming “Elaine!” – a revelation that hinted to the carefree and spirited vibe for the night’s conversation. Following The Graduate tribute revelation, Edelstein dove into the conversation, asking Cranston about his acting process, to which Cranston responded “I perform for myself. I have a high plateau that I want to reach and whatever I want to do is secondary to that… you’re only as good as you dare to be bad.”

Cranston would continue, stating “actors have to be risk takers, they have to put themselves in emotional jeopardy often”. Later on in the discussion, while reminiscing about Breaking Bad, Cranston displayed this vulnerability and the permanence of this emotional jeopardy recalling a pivotal scene, as well as the process and multiple takes behind it, in Breaking Bad where Walter White is starring over Jesse’s (Aaron Paul) girlfriend who is cracked out and choking on her own vomit. Walt just watches as she turns herself on her back, restraining himself from providing any help to his partner’s young girlfriend. He knows the danger she poses to both his partner and the business, and her death would be a means to an end.

Still to this day, he is haunted by the scene of Jane (Krysten Ritter) dying as he overlooked what his character Walter White could have prevented. He talked of the different ways the scene had been shot, and the emotions he had felt each time he had to run them, stating, “There are times when you’re acting and you get caught in a spiral of emotions. It’s like an eddy and you keep swirling and swirling.” He would continue on, discussing how he needed to write a pros and cons list for Walter, reasons for why she should live and why she should die.

“One of the things that I wrote, aside from ‘she’s going to kill Jesse and ruin our lives and she’s a junkie anyway’… There were a significant amount of pros, and one of them is that she’s a young girl and she could be my daughter,” he confessed to Edelstein, fighting back the emotions that still rush back to him even now. “Even as I say it now, I get a little choked up about it because as a parent, that’s the only thing that scares me. That’s the risk — there’s my daughter choking to death and it scared the hell out of me.”

Cranston reminisced about his childhood, one filled with an absent father and an alcoholic mother, and  the trouble he would find himself in, garnering the nickname “Sneaky Pete”. ” I have a larcenist sort of background,” Cranston revealed, immediately teasing Edelstein to a chorus of laughter, “I have your wallet, which now I am shamed and I am going to give it back to you. There might be a twenty missing.”

As he got older and entered college, he had begun studying criminology with the intention of joining the LAPD post graduation. This all changed when a general education requirement pointed him in a different direction. Having originally chosen an acting class for an easy A, his first direction was “a couple is making out”, a scene that would have multiple levels of hilarity.

“I was standing next to a very attractive woman and I thought I better make myself more presentable. I felt like one of those birds in Nat Geo – check out my plumage. But then she read that opening line, and looked up to see me and c*cked her head and smiled. And I was like YES. That was victory to me,” Cranston recalled, confirming to Edelstein that “It WAS” in that millisecond his entire career was made.

Cranston would continue on a bit later in the evening, drawing back to this first direction. Shamelessly imitating himself reading the first line and throwing the script to the ground, he began acting out to the audience making-out with his costar, yet finding himself confused as she began to tap him on the side of his leg. This continued for some time, until he realized that if he had read further in the direction, he was suppose to push her away!

The room lit up with laughter as Cranston tried to portray the entire scene. Though his story didn’t stop there. He was convinced that his acting partner for the scene was in to him, convincing himself a date was a sure thing. Disappointment followed as his request for a date was denied and he realized she was acting. Yet, it was the power of this acting, the ability to convince someone that they liked, you that fascinated Cranston – the power of acting.

Following his first acting class experiment and term, Cranston “jumped on a motorcycle and left his home state of California”, running away from the career decisions he needed to face. He knew he no longer wanted to be a police officer but “could I be an actor? ooooh.” Nerves and insecurity his driving force, he worked odd jobs before embracing the task of becoming an actor. He would eventually begin taking classes, leaving when he deemed himself the top of the class. Wanting more lessons he would train with a teacher for as long as it took to learn everything he could, and he would move on to next lesson. This revelation brought the entire conversation full circle, exemplifying Cranston having “a high plateau that I want to reach”.

Tribeca Talks: Rosario Dawson with Laverne Cox – The Journey Inspired

The final panel of the night, Tribeca Talks:  The Journey Inspired by TUMI – A Special Conversation with Rosario Dawson began with a fierce Red Carpet including both Rosario Dawson and moderator Laverne Cox. The familiarity between the two stars was unmistakeable –  like two friends connecting after a period apart. The smiles, joy and laughter set a carefree and relaxed mood that would carry into the night’s event.

Laverne Cox began the evening’s discussion with nothing but awe and praise, stating she was proud of “All the fierceness and courage you’re bringing into the world. You are an incredible person and I’m SO happy to be doing this will you.” As Rosario Dawson teared up for the first time of many this evening, and the audience responded in a resounding show off agreeance, Cox continued, attributing much of this fierceness to her mother, “you have a fierce Mom”, who was in attendance for the evening.

Following mutual praise bestowed onto Laverne Cox by Dawson, Cox immediately dived into the evening, starting with Rosario Dawson‘s affinity and constant work in activism. “What was it – was it your upbringing, your Mom – that made you want to live an activist life?” Cox asked. A member of the board for V-Day and Scenarios, as well as a spokesperson for several programs including Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders and National Geographic Society, Rosario thought for a moment before responding, many times which became emotional for her to recall.

She continued to reminisce about being a squatter as a child, the homes with no septic and electricity she would live in, the tanks that rode down 13th street to remove squatters (including the amount of money the city used to remove them and the friends she grew up with that are no longer around. “Growing up on the Lower East Side during the AIDS crisis, housing epidemic – before we had cell phones and social media and could bring awareness to things. It just opened my eyes so much, ” she responded, further commenting that she was discovered on stoop. When I think back to her role as Mimi in Rent, her portrayal instantly had a new meaning.

Turning the conversation back towards her acting career, Cox inquired into her aspirations before she began acting – “Did kids inspire you to act or did you always want to act?”. Calling back to her comment of  how she was discovered on a stoop, Dawson seemed to have had a different life planned out, but was unafraid to jump at opportunities as they came. “I always wanted to go to college and get a job – but when that opportunity [acting] came, I knew everyone I knew would kill for that chance and I had to take it and run with it”. The audience erupted into applause as she expressed how thankful she was the opportunity came along.

Before the evening ended, there was no way Cox was going to miss the opportunity to discuss Dawson‘s participation within multiple Marvel stories on Netflix, asking “What inspired you to step into the Marvel genre?”.  Dawson, who has been starring as Claire Temple in Netflix’s Luke Cage, The Defenders, Iron Fist, Daredevil and Jessica Jones, boldly went where no Marvel answer has gone before replying,” I’ve always loved Star Trek. I marveled over a future that was based on exploration and not this hamster wheel we are on now. I loved the street level fighters – not these superheroes. I really liked that. I loved the idea of championing the human.” It is note-able to mention, when asked her favorite Star Trek, Dawson happily acknowledged, stating The Next Generation and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) as her favorite Captain. Trekkies rejoice!

Turning the attention back to her time as Claire before time had run out, Laverne Cox was particularly intrigued by a moment in a recent episode of Luke Cage. “There’s a moment in Luke Cage where he punches the wall and the whole convo is about men, masculinity, race. What’re your thoughts about playing the scene with everything going on in the world, masculinity, femininity?”

After a moment to collect her thoughts on the question, Dawson responded stating, “I feel really grateful because it was looking like it was going to be my final scene for Claire – the way it was originally written was a little more his side. And I approached the writer and said you know I think we should add this in and give a bit more of Claire’s perspective. He gave me an amazing compliment and asked if I wanted to join the writers room!”

Stay tuned to Film Inquiry for more coverage of the Tribeca TV Festival!