Cranston Champions Freedom of Speech, Defends Republicans

By Lina Bryce

Bryan Cranston, famous for his recent role as the iconic Walter White on Breaking Bad, recently sat down with Marlow Stern at the Daily Beast to talk about his latest film venture, Trumbo, in which he plays a blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter.

In the film he plays the role of Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter blacklisted for being a part of the Hollywood Ten– a fraternity of communist sympathizers. Trumbo continued to write under a pen name while blacklisted, penning screenplays for films like Roman Holiday, Exodus, and Spartacus. 

The parallels with today’s polarizing political climate does not escape the actor, who believes that there is always lessons to be learned from films like these.

“…this can happen again—and it is happening again. There’s evidence of this type of suppression of First Amendment rights all the time. It could be in the name of the Red Scare or it could be under the name now of ‘terrorism.’ There’s all this fear mongering of, ‘Oh, if we don’t do this then the terrorists will attack us,’ and people go, ‘Oh! I don’t want the terrorists to attack us, so let’s take away this right.’ And the right of the National Security Agency to just wiretap unchecked—that’s an example of it. Our forefathers worked extremely hard to set up a structure of government of checks and balances so that no branch of government gets larger than it should. It works very well. Honoring the intent of the First Amendment and putting that into practice is always to be considered before making policy. Of course the world changed. And the number one responsibility of a government is to protect its people, absolutely. But at what cost?

Even if a presidential candidate Donald Trump‘s wording is problematic or Bernie Sander‘s socialist philosophy are demonized by association, Cranston defends an individual’s right to share these views.

“I think it’s great. Even if I disagreed, I think it’s great that there’s a groundswell of thoughts and ideas. I think it’s great that Donald Trump is in the mix. He’s a maverick. He says what he wants to say, and it forces the other candidates to be more real, more honest, and more open. That’s what’s getting through to the people—that this guy doesn’t give a sh*t and just says what he wants to say. But as his campaign is going along, you notice that Trump is getting more and more conservative in his speech and his policy, getting a little more controlled, and conforming. He’s becoming a politician, which is an interesting thing to see.”

Cranston says this shouldn’t happen and condemns the “polemic nature of politics.”

“In Hollywood, it’s castigating someone who doesn’t think the same way as you and branding them the villain.” Especially actors who identify politically as Republicans.

“I look at Fox News and I honestly don’t demonize them at all; I honestly believe that what they’re saying they believe in, and for that I can’t fault them. I disagree, but I hope they can say the same about me—that I’m truly fighting for what I think are in the best interests of the country—because I think they are, too.

The actor, who will always be remembered as a grisly meth dealer from Breaking Bad and the unassuming father from Malcolm in the Middle, concluded the interview with an astute observation on defining freedom of speech.

“We can have discourse and we can disagree with each other and as Trumbo says in the movie, ‘We both have the right to be wrong.’ That’s America.”

[WATCH Trumbo Trailer Here:]