Bryan Cranston Won’t Apologize for the Role That Sparked a Backlash Over Authentic Representation

Bryan Cranston is still answering for The Upside. The 2019 remake gave him one of his most controversial roles yet: a quadriplegic billionaire, played by an able-bodied star. The movie did well enough, but the casting blew up into a full-on debate about who should play whom in Hollywood. Cranston has a defense. People have thoughts.

Quick context on The Upside

• What it is: A Hollywood remake of the 2011 French hit The Intouchables
• Who plays who: Bryan Cranston as Philip Lacasse, a quadriplegic billionaire; Kevin Hart as Dell Scott, his ex-con caregiver; Nicole Kidman co-stars
• Director: Neil Burger; genre: comedy-drama
• Based on: The story of French businessman Philippe Pozzo di Borgo
• Timeline: Premiered at TIFF in 2017; wide U.S. release in 2019
• Themes: friendship, privilege, race, disability, resilience
• The controversy: Casting an able-bodied actor as a disabled lead sparked backlash from disability advocates
• Sequel: In development as of 2025, with Cranston and Hart set to return
• Where to watch: Streaming on Hulu in the U.S.

What Cranston said

Asked why he took the role, Cranston leaned on the craft argument and the realities of studio casting. In one interview, he put it this way:

As actors, we are asked to be other people, to play other people. If I am a straight, older person, and I am wealthy, does that mean I cannot play a person who is not wealthy, does that mean I cannot play a homosexual?

He also described taking the part as a business decision and said the final call was not his alone. In his words, it was not even his decision, and he added that the pushback should refocus the industry on creating real opportunities for disadvantaged and disabled actors.

The immediate backlash

That first quote landed with a thud. Actor and advocate Adam Pearson (Under the Skin) called the phrasing a poor choice of words in a now-deleted tweet. Cranston did not retreat, but he did try to widen the lens: he has worked with RJ Mitte, who has cerebral palsy and played Walter Jr. on Breaking Bad, and he says more authentic representation is necessary. He also says criticism comes with the job.

The larger fight over representation

Cranston has pointed to past award-winning performances by non-disabled actors playing disabled characters, naming Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, arguing that if you bar those choices, we would have missed some great performances.

Advocates counter that this is exactly the problem: Hollywood loves disability narratives, but disabled actors are rarely given the roles. Pearson noted a stark Oscars imbalance over roughly 90 years: about 16% of wins have gone to films or performances centered on disability; more than 20 wins have gone to able-bodied actors for such roles; only two disabled actors have won, with the most recent being Marlee Matlin back in 1987. Add in examples like Sam Claflin in Me Before You and Eddie Redmayne winning for The Theory of Everything, and you see the pattern.

Where this lands

So Cranston is not apologizing for The Upside, and he is not pretending the choice existed in a vacuum. He is saying the system picked him, it was a business call, and the system needs to open the door wider. You can agree, disagree, or land somewhere in the mushy middle — but the conversation is not going anywhere, especially with a sequel in development.