MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE’s Bryan Cranston Talks Stunt That ‘Shut Down’ His Body

Published: February 6, 2024

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE’s Bryan Cranston Talks Stunt That ‘Shut Down’ His Body

By Movieguide® Contributor

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE star Bryan Cranston recently recalled a time on the show when a stunt caused his whole body to “shut down.”

“One time, I did a thing where my character was in a depression, and he started painting, and I was completely covered in blue paint,” Cranston said on THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW. “Completely, head to toe, in blue paint.”

The actor was referring to a scene in the episode titled “Hal Quits.”

“As you shoot, you’re moving around, and then there was a part of me, at one point, I was like starting to shut down the circuits,” Cranston explained. “And they went, ‘Boom,’ and they grabbed me, and they threw me in the shower and they just – it was weird.”

“I was gonna say, that’s not safe, Bryan,” said Bryce Dallas Howard, who appeared on Norton’s show with Cranston.

Cranston agreed, explaining it isn’t safe “because your body can’t regulate the heat if you’re covering up all your pores.”

He brought up Shirley Eaton’s near-death experience when she almost “died from asphyxiation after being painted metallic gold.”

Despite the “weird” accident, Cranston is open to a possible MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE reunion movie.

“There was some talk about the possibility of doing like a reunion movie of MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE,” he said to E! News. “We had such a great family on that, and I certainly would be open to that if there was a good idea that came up like, ‘Oh, that would be fantastic to explore what happened to this family 20 years later.’ I can’t believe it’s already that, but that would be fun to do.”

Movieguide® previously reported on MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE star Frankie Muniz:

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE star Frankie Muniz recently shared why he left Hollywood after finding fame as a child actor playing Malcolm on the Emmy-winning show, which ran from 2000 until 2006.

“When I was on MALCOLM, I was just so excited to be working on a show. But also in that same sense, when the show ended, I kind of left the business for a little bit,” Muniz told Fox News Digital.

As he’s gotten older, Muniz is grateful for the time he took off and realizes why “so many people go down a bad path” that typically include drugs and alcohol.

“I think for a lot of people, it’s probably difficult to go from having such success at a young age where you always have people going like, ‘Oh, I love you,’ and everyone wanting you here and there. And then that starts to fade,” he explained.

“A lot of people try to replace the missing feeling of [being] wanted with something else. And that really is a negative for a lot of people,” Muniz continued. “Whereas for me, I’ve always been super focused on what I was currently doing because I wanted to be the best at whatever I was doing. And that’s how I am.”