Bryan Cranston Got Cast In A Death-Defying Mars Bar Commercial - By Lying

Long before Bryan Cranston climbed to the top of Hollywood's A-list with his riveting turn as methamphetamine kingpin Walter White in the classic crime series "Breaking Bad," the actor had to scale another mountainous gig that actually put his life in peril.

Cranston admitted in a 2017 interview with "Conan" host Conan O'Brien that as a young actor looking for any kind of showbiz break, he fibbed about having special skills required for a Mars bar commercial he did in 1983. Cranston landed the tasty gig that touted Mars' roasted almonds bar not because he had an affinity for the famed chocolate brand, but rather for saying he had experience in an activity that would take him to towering heights. "My agent called me one day and said, 'Have you ever rappelled off a mountain?' and I go, 'Oh yeah! Oh yeah!' Who hasn't? Absolutely,'" Cranston told O'Brien.

Cranston said his agent then told him about a Mars candy bar commercial where the company wanted to show off the California lifestyle, which for some reason involved rappelling and mountain climbing. He recalled the conversation with his agent where he said, "'Oh, yeah, I've done it a thousand times,' which [in reality is something] I never even wanted to, do let alone do it."

As Cranston soon discovered, saying he had climbing and rappelling experience was merely his first step in completing the rigorous requirements for the commercial.

Naturally, saying yes to an opportunity to do a commercial is only the first step to landing the job for any actor. As Bryan Cranston discovered, he needed to audition for the spot by showing off his rappelling skills. "They said at the [casting] call, 'If we call you back, we're going to have you rappel off the three-story building next door,'" the "Breaking Bad" Emmy winner recalled for Conan O'Brien. "[They said], 'How do you feel about that?' [I said] 'Fine. Absolutely great. 'I love it! Love it!'"

While Cranston had a good feeling about landing the commercial, he had to take care of two crucial things first: He had to learn how to climb and rappel. As such, the actor said he called an outdoor company, and an employee named Chad said he could teach him what he needed to know — including the proper climbing and rappelling jargon — in a five-hour time frame. "it was horrific. The first time I went down I was hugging this [rope]," he explained, mimicking the actions of a scared climber.

Cranston then remembered the terror of the first rappel, but at the end of the training, he got what Chad promised him. "After the five hours, I got penduluming and doing 360s and [was] actually enjoying myself," he said.

After Bryan Cranston got called back to audition for the Mars bar commercial, he arrived at the building he'd be rappelling off of, only to discover there were four other actors he'd be competing with for the gig. After seeing how easy the first two auditioners made the rappelling look, he decided to imbue the scene with a display of self-confidence.

"So, I go up to the producers and the directors and I said, 'Do you mind if I hook myself up to a single gold line through the carabiner?' I said, 'It's kind of like packing your own chute,'" Cranston told Conan O'Brien. In his mind, the actor admitted he felt sheer terror as he looked over the building's ledge, but then, for the lack of better words, he took a leap of faith.

"I jumped off, did one bounce in the middle of the building, twirled around, and came down," Cranston recalled while bouncing up and down in front of O'Brien to mimic his landing on the ground. "It was like you could feel the deflation of the other guys. It was like, 'That was mine.' I got the [job] ... I nailed it." Cranston added that the commercial was shot at the Chatsworth rock formation in Los Angeles, where he trained for climbing with Chad not long before.

In addition to the above recollections, Cranston talked about his unlikely path to landing the Mars commercial in his 2017 memoir, "A Life in Parts."