Way back in January, The Disaster Artist writer Greg Sestero revealed that Bryan Cranston had been cast in a mysterious role in James Franco’s adaptation of his book—which chronicles the creation of The Room, the awful movie that Sestero co-starred in with the endlessly enigmatic Tommy Wiseau. The film has since been retitled The Masterpiece, and now we finally know who Cranston will be playing in it: himself. That’s according to The Sydney Morning Herald, which notes that the film is set in the early-2000s, so Cranston will technically be playing the Malcolm In The Middle-era version of himself.
As for why the Bryan Cranston character is in it at all, James Franco explains that he had worked with Cranston on the film In Dubious Battle and would later reunite on Why Him?, so he just thought it would be interesting to stick him in The Masterpiece as well. Franco also suggests that he simply thought it would be funny to have post-Breaking Bad Cranston play a guy who is still just the dad on Malcolm In The Middle. In other words, it doesn’t really make a ton of sense, but that’s totally fine for a movie about The Room.