

Bryan Cranston in the short film “Writer’s Block.” (Youtube)

When “Breaking Bad’s” Bryan Cranston isn’t winning Golden Globes or shooting new projects, the award-winning actor apparently devotes himself to making the dreams of his underlings come true.

“Writer’s Block,” a 13-minute short film starring Cranston, was directed by a self-taught, 20-something production assistant, on Cranston’s request. During a break in filming “Cold Comes the Night” last year, Cranston told the film’s PAs that he would read scripts from each of them and act in his favorite. The winner, by Austin, Tex., native Brandon Polanco, chronicles a writer’s struggle for inspiration — “a chaotic love affair that evokes my true feelings toward writing,” as Polanco put it to the Austin Chronicle in November. The resulting black-and-white film is evocative, strange, and, as you might imagine, really well-acted.

Polanco is now, according to his LinkedIn bio, a freelance filmmaker and producer. Cranston, meanwhile, just won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Walter White in “Breaking Bad.”

“I literally had to pull myself away from my computer last night,” Polanco wrote on Facebook this morning. “The amount of support and buzz that has been swirling around this little film… well I just don’t know what to say other than thank you.”

You can see some scenes from the making of “Writer’s Block” below.