In his new film The Infiltrator, Bryan Cranston plays Robert Mazur, a US Customs agent who went undercover as a crooked mob accountant to bring down the money laundering operation of Pablo Escobar.
This is Cranston's third real-life character in the past year, but unlike Dalton Trumbo and Lyndon Johnson (who he played in the film All the Way), Mazur is still alive. "It was a terrific advantage to be able to play a non-fictional character and that person is actually alive and well and functioning and desires to work with you and consult with you and help you in any way possible," Cranston says. "He gave me tremendous insight on the details his undercover operation, and I was able to question him about what it was like then going home every night and becoming the dad and husband again. And what it was like to become friends with Roberto Alcaino, and then to arrest him and send him to jail. What does that do to you emotionally?"
Cranston felt that Mazur's double life made him an unusually fascinating character to play. "Actually, I play three different characters at one time," he says, referring to the family man, the customs agent and the bogus mobster. "But it's not difficult for an actor to assume that responsibility. The difference is the repercussions of playing it. I am not in danger, but Bob Mazur is never done. To this day, he won't appear on camera and his voice is augmented. He needs to protect himself and his family still, because he put a lot of people behind bars who hold a grudge, and they don't like that."
Cranston says that his own family keeps him grounded. "My wife and daughter are my foundation," he says. "And you need that to be able to go off and do some pretty crazy things."
Speaking of which, for his next project Cranston plays the Power Rangers' iconic mentor. "I am Zordon," he says proudly. "It's going to hold true to a lot of the previous Power Rangers versions in that sense, but it's a completely different, reimagined experience. So there is no corniness that there was to the old Power Rangers show. No, this is going to be a big film and a completely reimagined approach to telling the story. But there are certain tenets of that story that you want to hold true to. And yeah, Zordon is a spirit, in the head, in walls, omnipresent in their lair."
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