Bryan Cranston said he lost 16 pounds for 'Your Honor' season 2 because he wanted his character's ri

• Bryan Cranston said he lost 16 pounds for the second season of his show "Your Honor."
• The actor told The Independent that he wanted his character's ribs to be completely visible.
• Cranston also said he had trouble avoiding pasta while losing weight for the role.

Bryan Cranston said he lost about 16 pounds for the second season of his show 'Your Honor' because he wanted his character's ribs to be visible onscreen. 

In an interview with The Independent's Annabel Nugent published Saturday, the actor spoke about his lifetime love of acting and his extensive career. He currently stars as Michael Desiato, a morally corrupt former judge entangled with an organized crime family, in the Showtime series "Your Honor."

Cranston said he lost weight for the show's second season, which premiered on January 15, to reflect what Michael went through in the events of season one. He also grew an unruly beard for the role.

"I wanted my ribs to be very apparent. I wanted people to go, 'Oh my God, he's very thin.' This is a man who has lost everything," he said.

Although the "Breaking Bad" star shaved his beard and put weight back on after filming wrapped, he said he had trouble adjusting to his loss of freedom with food.

"It was tough. You see these big, delicious bowls of pasta that you can't have. I'm always surprised when people ask how I gained weight back. I'm thinking, how did I lose it?" Cranston said. "My beard was big and bushy. It grew wherever it wanted to, so there was freedom in that, but the discipline came in the weight loss."

The actor said the transformation paid off and helped him go deeper into his character, comparing the process to osmosis.

"Any time you can look in a mirror and believe what you're seeing, it helps tremendously. For actors, every time we start a new project, the character is outside of ourselves. It's out there somewhere," Cranston said. "It's almost like osmosis, and then once you have it inside, you think, thank God, it's there."

Cranston has previously opened up about losing weight for other roles. He told Page Six in 2017 that he also lost around 16 pounds for the drama film "Wakefield," which was released in theatres the same year. He called his weight loss for the movie a "fast blast" for which he drank a "potion of nutrition" recommended to him by a friend.

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