10 Iconic TV Characters Only ONE Actor Could Play
8. Walter White - Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is often quoted as saying that his plan for the series was to turn "Mr. Chips into Scarface" - that is, to slowly mutate a fundamentally good and straight-laced man into an increasingly monstrous and less-sympathetic figure.
The masterstroke of casting Bryan Cranston in such a role, then, speaks for itself. Cranston, best known at the time for his hilarious performance as Hal on sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, couldn't have seemed like a less-natural pick to play a meth-dealing school teacher.
In fact, AMC originally balked at the idea of casting Cranston due to that association, and yet, that's precisely why it ends up working so well.
Cranston's work as Hal is so thoroughly ingrained in the viewer's consciousness that it adds a metatextual quality to Walt's journey from cancer-riddled teacher to meth kingpin.
In those earlier seasons we can feel the Hal-ness of Walt trapped in a criminal underworld where he doesn't belong, but by the end of the show, Cranston has completely transcended and emerged as something wholly his own.
Though Matthew Broderick and John Cusack were both considered to play Walt, each turned the part down, leaving the path clear for Cranston to swoop in and take the role he was truly born for.