Bryan Cranston wanted his daughter, Taylor Dearden, to choose a career she loved, even if it had nothing to do with acting.
The Breaking Bad star, 70, recalled that advice in an interview with PEOPLE published October 11.
Dearden, 33, is his daughter with actress Robin Dearden and the fourth generation of her family to enter the profession.
She plays Dr. Melissa “Mel” King on HBO Max’s The Pitt, a role that earned her a 2026 Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series.
Cranston Would Have Supported a Career Studying Insects
Asked about Taylor following him into acting, Cranston offered entomology as an example of another path he would have encouraged. If she loved studying insects, he said, he would have been happy to support that interest.
“If you find a pathway to happiness, then I’ll be happy,” he recalled telling her. “Don’t try to please me, it’s for yourself,” Cranston added.
Asked in a 2014 interview with Parade how much career advice he gave Taylor, Cranston answered, “Virtually none.” He felt she needed room to develop her own identity outside his shadow.
Dearden Chose Acting After Her Parents Encouraged Math
“My parents kept saying, ‘You’re good at math, go, go,’” Dearden recalled in an August interview with Backstage. She preferred performing, having already taken part in school plays and summer musical theater.
Her first television appearance came in the 2010 Breaking Bad episode “No Más,” directed by Cranston. She played a student credited as Sad Faced Girl in a school assembly following the fictional plane crash.
After graduating from the University of Southern California with a theater degree in 2015, she landed the role of Ophelia Mayer in MTV’s Sweet/Vicious. She later played Chloe Lyman in Netflix’s American Vandal before joining The Pitt in 2025.
Dearden Built Mel Around Anxiety Instead of Pep
Mel was originally described as peppy, Dearden told Backstage. She approached the role through anxiety instead, drawing on her own experiences with ADHD while making specific choices about the character’s social interactions.
Dearden said linking medical dialogue to her movements during rehearsal helped her remember the terminology. Earlier attempts at memorization had left her mixing up lines from different scenes.
Dearden asked creator R. Scott Gemmill to revise a season-two finale scene with Patrick Ball’s Dr. Frank Langdon, she told ELLE. She wanted the doctors to interact as peers, and Gemmill rewrote the exchange.
At a June 27 fundraiser, Cranston told PEOPLE that Taylor had mastered subtleties in her mid-20s that took him much longer to learn. “I truly think she is further along in her ability than I ever was at her age,” he said.
She Says a Cranston Cameo Could Distract From the Hospital Drama
Speaking with CNN and Variety at the September 14 Emmy Awards, Dearden was asked whether she wanted Cranston to play a patient on The Pitt.
“Never, never,” she replied, explaining that John Wells and the creative team generally avoid highly recognizable guest performers. “You want to stay in the plot, you want to stay in the moment,” she said.
Cranston Shared a Story About Taylor Helping a Choking Diner
During his April 8 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Cranston recalled Taylor rushing toward a man who was choking at a restaurant. The man began breathing again as she reached him, Cranston said, and she reassured him.
Cranston joked that the family finally had a doctor, referring to her television role. Dearden later told ELLE that she had received first-aid and CPR certification in eighth grade, years before playing a physician.