Secret's Out: Cranston Reveals What Breaking Bad's Prop Meth Really Tastes Like
Bryan Cranston had played a lot of roles in films and series throughout his career, and while most of these roles were small, among them were a number of beloved characters, such as Hal from Malcolm in the Middle.
However, his most famous role is no doubt Walter White, a school teacher turning into an illegal meth producer and then a full-blown drug trade kingpin, from Breaking Bad. Walter White became an iconic character, not infrequently making his way onto "the best villains ever" lists.
Not a small feat for a character whose only real skill at the beginning was chemistry, which allowed him to cook unusually good meth in his hidden lab.
But one has to wonder, out of what the show's crew made Walter White's signature blue meth?
Bryan Cranston himself has the answer ready: the powder that imitated meth on the screen was made from rock candy. And it had the flavor of cotton candy.
As Bryan said in an interview with First We Feast, the YouTube channel dedicated, appropriately, to food culture, at first he never tasted the substance which was used to represent Walter White's drug on the screen. Until one night, during a particularly long and tiresome filming session, when his character was supposed to be working in his meth lab, he saw Aaron Paul (who played Jesse Pinkman) reaching into the prop meth when off-camera and throwing handfuls into his mouth.
Bryan apparently was getting too much into the character, observing the rule of not using one's own drug (which all the intelligent drug dealers have) despite the fatigue and the drug being just a prop. He even went "what are you doing, you can't eat the product".
And strictly speaking, the candy was indeed similar to meth in a fashion – though nowhere near a powerful stimulator like methamphetamine, eating nearly pure sugar like rock candy that can help you maintain your vigor, when you're overworked and exhausted, like Bryan and Aaron were on that night.
But after some more urging from Aaron, Bryan Cranston decided to try some, and found it pretty good. So, they've kept helping themselves to it.