When a TV show is a hit, it stands to reason that it may have caught the attention and appreciation of some A-list actors. From time to time, we'll hear a celebrity chat on a talk show or in an interview about their obsession with a certain show, breaking our misconception that they spend all of their evenings out at trendy night clubs and lavish Hollywood parties, when they're not on set shooting their next whatever. Sometimes they're at home in yoga pants watching Scandal, or in the case of Anthony Hopkins, marathoning through Breaking Bad from start to finish. Whether or not he was in yoga pants when he did this, we don't know, as he doesn't mention what he was wearing in the email he penned to Bryan Cranston, in which he unloads heaps of praise on the actor and the rest of the cast, whom he credits for having given "master classes of performance."
Gawker shared the letter below, citing Steven Michael Quezada's Facebook page, though the original post has since been removed:
Dear Mister Cranston.I wanted to write you this email – so I am contacting you through Jeremy Barber – I take it we are both represented by UTA . Great agency.I’ve just finished a marathon of watching “BREAKING BAD” – from episode one of the First Season – to the last eight episodes of the Sixth Season. (I downloaded the last season on AMAZON) A total of two weeks (addictive) viewing.I have never watched anything like it. Brilliant!Your performance as Walter White was the best acting I have seen – ever.I know there is so much smoke blowing and sickening bullshit in this business, and I’ve sort of lost belief in anything really.But this work of yours is spectacular – absolutely stunning. What is extraordinary, is the sheer power of everyone in the entire production. What was it? Five or six years in the making? How the producers (yourself being one of them), the writers, directors, cinematographers…. every department – casting etc. managed to keep the discipline and control from beginning to the end is (that over used word) awesome.From what started as a black comedy, descended into a labyrinth of blood, destruction and hell. It was like a great Jacobean, Shakespearian or Greek Tragedy.If you ever get a chance to – would you pass on my admiration to everyone – Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, Aaron Paul, Betsy Brandt, R.J. Mitte, Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Steven Michael Quezada – everyone – everyone gave master classes of performance … The list is endless.Thank you. That kind of work/artistry is rare, and when, once in a while, it occurs, as in this epic work, it restores confidence.You and all the cast are the best actors I’ve ever seen.That may sound like a good lung full of smoke blowing. But it is not. It’s almost midnight out here in Malibu, and I felt compelled to write this email.Congratulations and my deepest respect. You are truly a great, great actor.Best regardsTony Hopkins.
Praise from Anthony Hopkins, or "Tony Hopkins" if you and he are like that, is certainly something to brag about, so I can't blame Quezada (or whoever runs his FB page, if not him) for dropping that email on his Facebook page. And I can't blame Hopkins for falling in love with Breaking Bad, as he's among millions in that regard. But it's particularly great that this praise not only comes from an actor of such high caliber, but also from a man who knows a thing or two about villainous lead roles. Hannibal Lecter was something of an antihero. Hopkins played that character masterfully, with a blend of menace, charm and borderline likability despite Lecter's murderous and cannibalistic tendencies. Walter White was a very different character, but it's guys like Lector -- and performances like Hopkins -- that have paved the way for lead characters who do bad things.
Of course, Hopkins mentions none of that in his letter, as his focus is on the show, Cranston's performance and the performances of everyone in the cast, whom he says are the best actors he's ever seen.
