Bryan Cranston being included in the cast of the upcoming Power Rangers is one of the most exciting aspects of the film. The Breaking Bad actor will be playing Zordon, the mentor to the rangers.
But how did get involved in the film to begin with? Well, he’s actually known the creator of Power Rangers, Haim Saban, for years.
“Haim Saban called. I know Haim and 35 years ago I was doing voice overs when I was first starting out and I would do it when they were dubbing into English and they had to change everything.”
Cranston admits he wasn’t immediately on board with being in Power Rangers at first, but then he read the script and changed his mind.
“I thought, ‘Power Rangers? It’s kind of the [1960s] Batman television show – Pow! Zing! Whap!’ And I had a phone call with the director and he said, ‘Think of it this way… Like Batman came from TV and became a completely different animal in the movies, so too is it here. We’re going to take this and revamp it and it’s going to be grounded and real.’ And I thought “Okay, with that, let me read it.’”
And once he read it, Cranston realized that the screenplay was worth it, if only because the teens in the film actually felt real and playing Zordon also ties in with his own voice-over career from years ago.
“I read it and went ‘You’re right,’” Cranston continued. “The kids sound like real kids and not everyone is this great athlete and everything is working out. I thought, ‘This might be a nice bookend to what I was doing before,’ since I started out doing voices.”
Cranston further discussed his character and how he is a “frustrated mentor” to the Power Rangers.
“He is a frustrated mentor of these kids. They’re not advancing as I’d hoped. Some of them are not taking this seriously, the responsibility that has been placed upon them or that they have been chosen for. And yet, you’re a mentor. It’s almost like being a coach. You want to break down the individuality of them so that they can grow as a team.”
Power Rangers hits theaters March 24, 2017.
Source: IGN