I always love getting the inside scoop on how an artist became the person we know them as, and how other performers and creatives have helped them grow. It’s especially exciting when it’s about someone you’re a big fan of, and that recently happened to me with Brett Goldstein. The actor/writer/producer was giving a talk to actors about how to make it in the industry, and he relayed a piece of advice he learned from Bryan Cranston. That advice, along with his own experience hiring the cast of Shrinking created a really interesting inside look into the casting process, while the Emmy winner also provided some fantastic lessons.
As Brett Goldstein spoke with the cast of Apple TV+’s Shrinking, he ended up talking about advice that would help young actors land roles. While speaking to the SAG-AFTRA crowd, which is a group made up of people who are in the actor’s union, the comedian got real about a piece of acting advice he learned from Breaking Bad alum Bryan Cranston. The Roy Kent actor explained:
[Bryan Cranston] says, and he's absolutely right, he says, 'It's not your job to get the job. Get that out of your head. Your job is to present your version of this character.' That's your job. You go in, you show, 'This is what I would do with it.' It might not be right for them, and that's fine. Then you walk away and you forget about it, and you might get it. That's completely right. If you go in with the attitude of 'I fucking need this,' then you can feel that and it doesn't feel right.
It feels very on-brand for Goldstein to drop an f-bomb in his explanation, and while that’s a bit funny, what she’s saying is sincere advice. This lesson the Ted Lasso writer is referring to originated from a video Bryan Cranston made for the Oscars, and he recalled it almost perfectly. You can see the Asteroid City star’s excellent audition advice here:
Hearing that this lesson left a mark on Goldstein is not only inspiring but makes a lot of sense. His audition story for Ted Lasso famously goes like this: he was a writer working on the show, and he decided to submit an audition for Roy Kent. He made a tape, and emailed it to the creators, noting that if “this is shit,” they should just all forget it happened, as he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. It sounds like he really did try to give it his all, and then set it and forget it. It's safe to say it really worked for him.
As he talked about auditions, Brett Goldstein also spoke about the process from the side of the creators, producers and writers. Not only is this actor a star in Ted Lasso, but he’s also a co-creator of Shrinking, and he played a big part in casting the series. He spoke about how he just knew who the right people for the job were, explaining:
Often, it's sort of annoyingly magic, like you just know. Like with this [cast] I don't think there was any, it wasn't like 'mmh' with any of this lot. It was like 'Yeah, them.' And so that’s hard for the other people. There were other people who read, and they did good versions, but they weren’t the right versions. They didn’t feel quite right, and they did nothing wrong. There’s no crime in it.
While I’m no actor, even in general life this is fantastic advice. It’s important to understand in any hiring process that the human likely picking the new employee doesn’t think poorly of the other candidates, they’re simply looking for the perfect fit. Goldstein and the cast of Shrinking continued to elaborate on this idea, and gave some tips for auditioning in the full interview with SAG-AFTRA:
Considering both Bryan Cranston and Brett Goldstein have won numerous Emmys for their respective roles in Breaking Bad and Ted Lasso, this feels like advice that has worked for them, and would likely work for up-in-coming actors.
All three shows mentioned in this story have been critically acclaimed, and both actors have gone on to have wildly successful careers. To see what I’m talking about, you can give Shrinking a chance and check out Ted Lasso with an Apple TV+ subscription. Also, to see Bryan Cranston as the notorious and beloved Walter White, you can stream Breaking Bad with a Netflix subscription.
