Updated April 16, 2026, 5:46 p.m. ET
Bryan Cranston just went all Walter White on Shia LaBeouf.
Cranston took a shot at the troubled actor during an interview with his “Malcolm in the Middle” son Frankie Muniz, who discussed missing out on LaBeouf’s role in “Holes” to star in 2003’s “Agent Cody Banks.”
“I was signed to be in the movie ‘Holes,’ and it was all 100%, like, they’re about to start filming, but then ‘Cody Banks’ was greenlit,” Muniz said in a conversation with Cranston for “Esquire,” released Wednesday, April 15. “They were like, ‘Which one do you want to do?’ I immediately picked ‘Agent Cody Banks,’ but I remember everybody really pushing me to do ‘Holes.'”
Muniz said the thinking behind it was that the Walt Disney Pictures film was more dramatic, with the actor wondering if he would have been “taken more seriously as an actor,” especially given that the prison comedy-drama film jumpstarted LaBeouf’s film career.
“I wonder what my career or my life would have been [like] … I mean, that’s what every decision you’re making,” Muniz continued.
But Cranston found the silver lining.
“You could’ve ended up with Shia LaBeouf’s life,” he said, leaving Muniz to chuckle as the “Breaking Bad” actor turned to camera.
After a long, exaggerated sigh-whistle, Cranston added: “Keep that one in. Shia, get some help.”
Following a stint of hit 2000s films, LaBeouf has been in and out of courtrooms, over multiple instances of disorderly conduct and physical assault over the years.
Most recently, the former “Even Stevens” child star was arrested in New Orleans after allegedly assaulting two men outside a bar after being thrown out during Mardi Gras. He framed the brawl, in which he apparently yelled homophobic slurs, by saying he felt “scared” near gay people.
The “Transformers” star was ordered to rehab at a court appearance in February.
As for Cranston and Muniz, the pair is promoting their much-anticipated “Malcolm in the Middle” reboot, “Life’s Still Unfair.”
Muniz pointed out to USA TODAY that he is not far from Cranston’s age when the now 70-year-old started playing Malcolm’s dad, Hal, during the original run in 2000.
“It’s pretty wild when you think that because I remember thinking he’s so old, you know?” Muniz confesses. “I’m not that old!”
Contributing: KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY