There is nothing that Bryan Cranston won't do in the name of art.
This week, Cranston stopped by “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to chat about Hulu's revival of “Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair,” which premiered Friday, nearly 20 years after the original series said goodbye to audiences.
Colbert took Cranston on a trip down memory lane, revisiting all of the wild stunts the actor would be involved in during the beloved comedy's initial run.
Cranston, who played Malcolm's father Hal in the series, was tied to the front of a moving bus, painted blue from head to toe, drank a concoction of raw eggs and ground beef on camera and learned a disco skating routine that he performed to Queen's “We Are the Champions” while wearing a spandex bodysuit.
When Colbert presented a photo of the Emmy-winning actor covered in bees during a Season 1 episode of the screwball family comedy, Cranston recalled a rather unfortunate injury he suffered while filming the Fox hit.
“I had 60,000 bees on me and they stung me twice,” he said. “And a couple of things you realize when you're wearing 60,000 bees: You shouldn't be surprised if you get stung.”
“So when I got stung, I was like, 'Oh, I think I got stung!'” Cranston said. “And the beekeeper (he's ready to scrape it off, right) says, 'Where is it?' And I say, 'In my scrotum.'”
“And he says, 'You're alone.'”
According to Cranston, the stunt team was able to cover the actor with bees using pheromones from the queen bee.
“They take it out with a dropper and put it everywhere,” he continued, adding that the team used insect repellent on their face to keep the bees away from that area.
Colbert put out another series of the actor appearing naked and obscured by an open newspaper while his wife, Lois, played by Jane Kaczmarek, shaved his back.
“And here they're shaving you completely,” Colbert joked.
“As one does,” Cranston said.
The four-episode revival, “Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair,” premiered Friday on Hulu, and according to series creator Linwood Boomer, it was all Cranston's idea. The reunion brings back viewer favorites Cranston as Hal, Frankie Muniz as Malcolm, Kaczmarek as Lois and a pair of Malcolm's TV siblings.
