8 Little Known Tics In Bryan Cranston's Performance That Made Walter White Awesome

5. He Pictured His Daughter During The Jane Death Scene

The moment that is generally marked as the turning point for the show and the character of Walter White, the crossing of the threshold from which there was no turning back, was when he stands by and watches as Jane, Jesse's girlfriend, chokes on her own vomit and dies. It's a brutal scene, one that really highlights just how far Walter is willing to go to protect his empire, but for Cranston it had an even more powerful and emotional resonance. The actor has said that while filming he started thinking about how he could just let her die, given it's someone's daughter, and then he started to project his own daughter's face into the scene. As it plays out, the conflict within Walt over what to do comes from this. Cranston said: "...I look at her again and I said, 'She's just a girl €” she could be my daughter,' so you have an impulse again to do something. But then I think, 'But she got Jesse on heroin and she's going to kill that boy who I have an affinity for.' So he's going back and forth trying to make sense of this whole experience."