Seth Rogen went on a Twitter spree on Monday for the ten-year anniversary of his stoner film, “Pineapple Express,” and it led to a pretty shocking revelation: Producer Judd Apatow turned down actor Bryan Cranston for a role in the movie as a drug dealer because he didn’t seem “scary enough to seem like a real drug dealer.”
Rogen shared a slew of fun tidbits about the movie, including that he did 99% of his own stunts and Danny McBride’s character, Red, had an ex-wife played by Stormy Daniels.
But the most interesting fact was shared by Apatow, in response to one Rogen’s tweets:
Cranston fans will surely find this anecdote both laughable and totally false, considering the actor’s iconic tenure as Walter White in AMC’s “Breaking Bad.” As White, Cranston plays a chemistry teacher-turned-meth maker who gets increasingly bloodthirsty over the course of five seasons. The show premiered in 2008, the same year that “Pineapple Express” came out.
While Season 1 Cranston might have fit Apatow’s description of not “scary enough,” the Cranston of Season 5 would have far surpassed his expectations.
The drug dealer role Cranston auditioned for ultimately went to Gary Cole, who does a pretty damn convincing job at being both unhinged and believable.
Well, luckily the loss of Cranston for “Pineapple Express” was still our gain.