Bryan Cranston Says He Felt Like He Fell 'Off a Cliff' After Father Abandoned Their Family: 'Lots of Confusion'
- - Bryan Cranston Says He Felt Like He Fell 'Off a Cliff' After Father Abandoned Their Family: 'Lots of Confusion'
Rachel RaposasJanuary 29, 2026 at 2:22 AM
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Bryan Cranston.
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Bryan Cranston recounted the traumatic upending of his home life when he was 11 years old
The Breaking Bad actor went to live with his grandparents after his father abandoned the family and his mother began drinking
The instability in his childhood tends to "come out in my work later," Cranston said, noting acting is a form of therapy for him
Bryan Cranston is opening up about his difficult childhood, and how it continues to impact him as an adult.
The Breaking Bad alum, 69, appeared on Jessie and Lennie Ware's Table Manners podcast on Tuesday, Jan. 27, and shed light on his tumultuous upbringing. When neither of his parents could care for him in his pre-teen years, his grandparents took him in — and while his new living arrangement was stable, Cranston's family remained fractured.
At first, Cranston's family and home felt nurturing and fulfilling, he said. He learned a lot from his parents, who were both involved in raising him and his siblings.
"Parents are always teaching their children. In the best case scenario, it's how to be. What is a good family, what is a respectful, loving environment," Cranston said. "Under the best circumstances, your parents are [teaching] by example. They're not telling you, 'this is how you should live,' they're just living it."
His parents lived that way for years, and Cranston felt his home life was "really great," he said — "until it wasn't."
When the Breaking Bad star was 11, Cranston's father abandoned the family to pursue his own dreams of being an actor, and PEOPLE previously reported that his mother began drinking to cope with the loss. The sudden change in his home life felt like he "fell off a cliff," Cranston said.
Bryan Cranston.
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"A lot of confusion going on, at 11 years old — all of a sudden, you don't see your father anymore," Cranston recalled. "And I didn't see him again until I was 22."
The result of his father leaving was the foreclosure of their family home, and as neither parent could care for their children, Cranston and his brother went to live with his maternal grandparents on their small California farm for a year. (His mother and his younger sister went to live with his father's mother, Cranston added).
Cranston said that he never had a falling out with his father, because he didn't get the chance. "He was just gone," the actor said, noting his father didn't try to keep in touch with them.
Cranston felt "completely" stable in his grandparents' home, despite the fact that the four of them shared the space of a one bedroom, one bathroom house together.
"We slept either on the floor in the living room during the winter, or on the patio during the spring and summer," Cranston said, adding that only his grandmother got to use the inside bathroom, and he and his brother had to go outside.
Cranston recalled he and his brother went to the farm "kicking and screaming," deeply unhappy with the shift. But by the time his mother was ready to take them in again, and the boys had to leave their grandparents' farm, neither wanted to go.
The upending of his life didn't feel scary at the time, Cranston recalled — instead, he realized later in life, he had internalized the feelings of abandonment and instability. "They've come out in my work later," Cranston added of his childhood experiences.
"This is my own therapy. Doing what I do is my own therapeutic experience," the actor shared, though he noted he does see a professional therapist.
Bryan Cranston.
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Cranston's father, Joe, died in 2014, but he lived to see his children welcome him back into their lives, the actor told PEOPLE in 2016. Cranston said a note his father wrote just three days before his death read, "The highlight of my life was when my children forgave me."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
