Bryan Cranston discloses the key to sustaining his 34-year marriage with his wife Robin Dearden.
Exclusively sharing the insights at the London premiere of his latest film Argylle on Wednesday, the 67-year-old actor delves into spending over three decades with his 70-year-old wife.
“Marry the right person,” Cranston advises, emphasizing the significance of five essential qualities in a partner. Reflecting on his marriage to actress Robin Dearden since 1989, he adds, “After that, let it go. We’re never going to be completely alike on everything.”
Cranston further expresses, “Someone said, ‘You don’t go shopping with your wife?’ I go, ‘No! Why would I do that? I don’t like it!’ I just don’t like it, and she doesn’t like things that I like to do either.
”Having a 30-year-old daughter named Taylor, the couple initially crossed paths on the set of the 1980s TV series Airwolf, ultimately exchanging vows on July 8, 1989.
Meanwhile, Cranston reveals to PEOPLE his choice to take a year-long hiatus from acting in 2026, emphasizing that dedicating more time to Dearden played a significant role in this decision.
“At some point, I want to slow it down,” the Breaking Bad alum says. “I want to have more life experiences, I want to travel, I want to feel it. When you’re working, I’ve been working for the last 25 years nonstop and that’s not real life. And I do feel like I want more real-life experiences.
I want to adjust the relationship that the industry has with me and also that it’s created for my marriage. I just want to kind of level that out and experience something new.”
Asked if spending more time with his wife was part of that, Cranston responds, “Yes! I like her. 35 years married, she’s a lovely lady.”
Until then, Cranston remains fully immersed in work, actively promoting Argylle, the upcoming spy thriller where he takes on the role of the villain, Ritter.
Expressing his delight in portraying a villain, Cranston shares with PEOPLE, “I enjoy being a villain. It’s so much fun. It’s just so much fun to be able to determine the fate of someone else’s world and life. It’s like, you know, I thought I liked you, but I don’t; you’re gone! And when I say gone, I mean gone.
”When asked about his attraction to the film, which features Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, Samuel L. Jackson, Ariana DeBose, and John Cena, Cranston credits director Matthew Vaughn for sealing the deal.
“He’s crazy, in a wonderful way, and audacious and bold, and he never plays it safe, and I like that kind of film-making,” Cranston explains to PEOPLE. “I like taking chances.
Now there are other stories where you want a small story, an intimate story about relationships; this is not that! This is big, broad, have fun, laugh, be silly. It was so much fun to shoot, and it’s even more fun to watch.”
The movie unfolds with Elly Conway (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), a reclusive author of a series of best-selling espionage novels.
She is joined by a real-life spy (played by Sam Rockwell), and together, they race “across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Elly’s fictional world and her real one begins to blur,” as per the synopsis.