Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston clarifies that he is not retiring from acting after an interview with a liberal news outlet suggested otherwise.
During an interview with GQ published on June 8, writer Anna Peele suggested that Cranston would temporarily retire in 2026.
“Then, in 2026, one of the greatest actors of this era will retire – at least temporarily. Cranston is planning to shut down his production company, sell his half of Dos Hombres, and abscond with Dearden to a foreign country, probably France, for a minimum of six months,” Peele wrote in her interview with the veteran actor.
Cranston, however, was merely explaining that his wife has “led her life holding onto [his] tail” and wants to rest for a while.
“My wife and I have been going to therapy together since before we were married,” the Emmy-winning actor said. “I look at it like the warning light going off on your dashboard. It’s telling you, ‘You might want to pay attention to this.’ I love my wife, and we want to go the distance, but I want to do it in a healthy way. I don’t want to just be with her. I don’t want to just have the two of us go into a restaurant and no one says a word.”
He went on to say that he and his wife will be living in a small village and learning the language, how to cook, and how to grow a garden.
“I want to have that experience,” Cranston continued. “I want to go for day trips and have the fire in the fireplace and drink wine with new friends and not read scripts. It’s not going to be like, ‘Oh, I’ll read and see what I’m going to do.’ No, it’s a pause. It’s a stop. I won’t be thinking about [work]. I’m not going to be taking phone calls.”
Following the interview, Cranston posted on Instagram to clear the air that he would not be retiring from show business.
“Some news came out that wasn’t entirely clear even to me. So I wanted to set the record straight. I am not retiring,” he captioned his post.
“What I am going to do is hit the pause button for a year after I reach my 70th birthday in 2026. Holy crap – 70!” he explained. “I’m not even sure what ‘pausing’ means entirely, but at this moment, I think it means that by taking a year off it will provide several things.”
