Bryan Cranston is playing the baddie in upcoming spy movie Argylle, but his inspiration for the character is an interesting choice. Maybe he just watched Michael’s worst moments during The Office and got some really great inspiration. Or Cranston really wants the world to know the truth about Steve Carell.
During an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Cranston was asked about his inspiration for playing Ritter, the leader of the spy organization that is at the source of conflict in Elly Conway’s (Bryce Dallas Howard) life. While Stephen Colbert and Cranston joked a bit about acting beforehand, the question of who he looked to for the evil energy behind Ritter came up.
“Your buddy. My buddy, Steve Carell,” Cranston said, which, if you know anything about Carell’s career, was a wild pull without any explanation. At first, I assumed he watched a lot of “Scott’s Tots” and “Dinner Party” to get that darker side of Michael Scott into his performance.
The reality is that he had a much more understandable inspiration from Carell’s career, but at first, Colbert and Cranston poked a bit of fun at their friend. “So few people know how evil Steve Carell is,” Colbert joked back, and Cranston kept up the bit.
“One of the most vicious human beings I have ever encountered in my life,” he teased.
They continued, with Colbert talking about Carell’s nice reputation, saying, “It’s like that candy coating of niceness? Poison.”
To which Cranston said, “You break that open and it’s nothing but darkness inside.”
The reality is that his inspiration stemmed from Carell’s performance in the Despicable Me franchise as Gru, a caricature of a bad guy who is softened when he is put in charge of kids, who then change his (and his Minions’) life.
“No he does that character Gru, there’s something so charming even though he does rotten things and I thought ‘That’s kind of a template of where I want this guy to be,'” Cranston said. “So I did think of Steven doing Gru when I was doing this mustache twisting.”
Having seen Argylle twice now, I do have to say that he’s not wrong in saying that Ritter has that charming quality about him. In all his “villain” actions, he still has to have that appeal for the audience to care about what he’s going to do next.
Now, knowing that Cranston used Gru as his inspiration? I think I’m going to have to go back and watch Argylle for a third time, for science, obviously (but also because it rules). Cranston is one of our best actors out there, and now I want every single journalist to ask him who his inspiration for his roles was.
Did he watch a lot of Spock to get the science of it all down for Walter White? Who did he look to for Malcolm in the Middle? These are the questions I need answered, and hopefully they’re all different Steve Carell characters.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
