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Did ‘Breaking Bad’ Star Aaron Paul Audition for ‘Malcolm in the Middle’?

Bryan Cranston’s future co-star read the pilot for the Fox sitcom, but how close did he come to starring in it?

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Before landing the role of Walter White on the hit AMC crime drama Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston was best known to TV audiences as Hal, the quirky father from Malcolm in the Middle. The Fox sitcom aired for seven seasons between 2000 and 2006, and starred Frankie Muniz as Hal’s son, Malcolm, an immature child prodigy, and the middle child of the family. Also appearing in the series was Christopher Kennedy Masterson as Malcolm’s older brother Francis, a character that some sources report was almost played by Cranston’s Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul. If taken at face value, one would be led to believe that Paul actually auditioned for the part, but is there any truth to that?

During a Reddit AMA from 2013, Paul was asked what he thought would’ve happened if he’d been cast as Francis on Malcolm in the Middle. In response, he said, “I definitely wouldn’t have gotten the role of Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad, that’s for sure.” Paul went on to say that “the funny thing about that is a lot of people thought I auditioned for Francis but in reality they never would see me. I read the pilot of Malcolm in the Middle because it was sent to me and I desperately wanted to audition but they kept passing me.”

Elsewhere in the AMA, somebody asked if Paul was a fan of Malcolm in the Middle, and he said, “Absolutely. And Hal was my favorite character on the show. So when I was auditioning for [Breaking Bad], I knew they were getting the goofy dad from Malcolm in the Middle to play Walter White, which confused me. But I was also very excited at the chance to work with Bryan.”

In a funny twist, when Paul and Cranston appeared as themselves in a 2023 episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Paul was repeatedly mistaken for Muniz, the now-grown actor who played Malcolm on Malcolm in the Middle—“One of the greatest shows of all time,” according to Mac. Charlie Day’s character even refers to the pair as Mr. Malcolm and Mr. Middle. “My name is not Mr. Malcolm, it’s Aaron,” Paul tells him at one point. Take a look at a clip from the episode (entitled “Celebrity Booze: The Ultimate Cash Grab”) below.

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