The Top Choices to Star on “Breaking Bad” Were John Cusack and Matthew Broderick . . . Bryan Cranston Wasn’t Even On the Radar

“Breaking Bad” just started its fifth season, it’s won a billion awards . . . and BRYAN CRANSTON has gotten universal praise as the lead character.

Turns out, back when the show was first starting, Cranston was NOT the first choice. He wasn’t even in the discussion. AMC wanted to cast a big-name star . . . and targeted either JOHN CUSACK or MATTHEW BRODERICK.

But they both passed . . . and the creator of the series, Vince Gilligan, pushed for Cranston. At that point, Cranston was best known for over-the-top comedy as the dad on “Malcolm in the Middle”, which made him a hard sell.

One AMC executive said, quote, “We all still had the image of Bryan shaving his body on ‘Malcolm’. We were like, ‘Really? Isn’t there anybody else?’”

Gilligan says he showed them an episode of “The X-Files” he wrote back in 1998, where Cranston guest starred and played a desperate man suffering from radiation exposure.

Quote, “That was a tricky part to cast. We needed somebody who could be dramatic and scary yet have an underlying humanity so when he dies, you felt sorry for him. Bryan nailed it.”

(–Here’s a scene from the “X-Files” episode with DAVID DUCHOVNY and Cranston.)