Bryan Cranston underwent some physical torture on the sets of the original Malcolm in the Middle. But nothing compared to the time he was covered in 60,000 real bees.
The Breaking Bad actor spoke to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show about filming the excruciating scene, one of the most memorable bits from the Fox comedy’s first season.
“I had 60,000 bees on me, and I was stung twice,” the 70-year-old actor shared. “And a couple things that you realize when you’re wearing 60,000 bees, you should not be surprised if you get stung.”
Cranston continued, “I went, ‘Oh, I think I got stung.’ And the bee wrangler said he’s ready to scrape it off, right? He goes, ‘Where is it?’ And I go, ‘On my scrotum.’” At that point, the actor shared with a laughing audience, the bee wrangler told him, “You’re on your own. I’m not going to help you.”
The award-winning actor revealed that the on-set stunt required considerable preparation. It included taking pheromones from the queen bee, held in a vial, and placing them on Cranston with an eyedropper. They then put insect repellent all over his face, “where they didn’t want the bees to go because they didn’t want to cover up my face.”
Cranston shared the hilarious anecdote in celebration of the Emmy-winning sitcom’s revival, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.
The reunion comes 20 years after the original show, with most of the original cast reprising their roles: Cranston, Frankie Muniz, Jane Kaczmarek, Christopher Masterson, and Justin Berfield have each returned for the four-part Hulu special.
Cranston told the Daily Beast that he personally pushed for the reboot. “I planted the seed. I told Linwood Boomer, the creator of the show, that there’s cause to revisit this,” Cranston said on Obsessed: The Podcast.
“It’s a lot of unfinished business,” he revealed. “There was some resistance at first because we’ve all moved on. But I think once you get a certain distance away, it’s a little easier to turn around, look back, and go, ‘Yeah. You know what? Maybe, maybe, maybe...’”
