Two decades after ‘Malcolm in the Middle,’ Bryan Cranston could finally win his first Emmy for a comedy series

Bryan Cranston won four Emmys for playing a power-hungry drug kingpin on AMC’s landmark drama series Breaking Bad. But when he’s not masquerading as the ruthless “one who knocks,” the actor also enjoys showing off his comedic side.

Two decades ago, he received a trio of Emmy nominations for his role as Hal, the carefree husband and father on Malcolm in the Middle. He also earned laughs playing dentist Tim Whatley on Seinfeld, therapist Dr. Templeton on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and a heightened version of himself on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

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Now, he’s yucking it up as The Studio‘s Griffin Mill, the outlandish CEO of Continental Studios, who’s never met a psychedelic mushroom he didn’t like. Cranston is nominated in Best Comedy Guest Actor alongside last year’s winner, Jon Bernthal as Michael Berzatto for The Bear, plus four people from The Studio who are playing comedic versions of themselves: Dave Franco, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie, and Martin Scorsese. See the current Gold Derby predictions:

Comedy Guest Actor

Contender

Odds

1.

Bryan Cranston

The Studio

74.5%

2.

Martin Scorsese

The Studio

9.9%

3.

Jon Bernthal

The Bear

8.9%

4.

Anthony Mackie

The Studio

3.1%

5.

Dave Franco

The Studio

2.2%

6.

Ron Howard

The Studio

1.4%

Note that nobody has ever won Best Comedy Guest Actor for playing himself, which could hurt the chances of the latter four contenders. In the corresponding Best Comedy Guest Actress category, two performers have accomplished that feat: Betty White for The John Larroquette Show (1996) and Emma Thompson for Ellen (1998). Cranston’s The Studio costar, Zoë Kravitz, is hoping to become the third.

Cranston submitted the episode “CinemaCon” for Emmy consideration, in which Griffin, the boss of Matt Remick (Seth Rogen), is under pressure from his board of directors to sell the studio. He goes on a psychedelic-fueled bender in Las Vegas, vanishing on the eve of Matt’s make-or-break CinemaCon presentation. When the crew finds him, he’s unable to walk (or even keep his clothes on), and he eventually descends upon the panel via wires from the ceiling.

It’s perhaps the wildest and most physically demanding performance nominated this year, and it reminds Gold Derby of so many other times actors won Emmys for playing characters who were drugged up or intoxicated. Think Evan Peters as Detective Colin Zabel (Mare of Easttown), Jessica Lange as Constance Langdon (American Horror Story: Murder House), Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory), and more.

For Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston was nominated three times at the Emmys for Best Comedy Supporting Actor, losing twice to Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) in 2002 and 2003, and once to Jeremy Piven (Entourage) in 2006. His bad luck officially ended there, because two years later came a dramatic role that would change his life forever.

Breaking Bad followed the story of Walter White, a mousy chemistry teacher who began cooking crystal meth in order to earn money to pay for his cancer diagnosis. Over the course of five seasons (the final one split into two parts), viewers watched as Cranston’s character transformed into a terrifying, murderous figure who was feared by everyone in the drug world.

Cranston was honored with four Best Drama Actor Emmys in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014, and lost two other contests to Damian Lewis (Homeland) in 2012 and Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom) in 2013. As a producer of Breaking Bad, he claimed two additional Emmys in 2013 and 2014 when it won Best Drama Series.

Post-Breaking Bad, Cranston was nominated for producing and starring in the TV movie All the Way (2016), and for the comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm (2018). He won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actor in a Play for All the Way (2014) and Network (2019). And he received a Best Actor Oscar bid for Trumbo (2015).

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