Bryan Cranston on winning the Emmy and what's important in life

At the Press Tour session for AMC's "Breaking Bad," which won Bryan Cranston a surprise but deserving Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama last September, the actor recalled the evening:

"I had three previous nominations and didn't win, so I was pretty comfortable with not winning, and familiar with that feeling, and I was preparing myself for the same thing. My wife, on the other hand, was starting to hyperventilate a little bit and get sweaty palms, which is very attractive, one of the reasons I married her. And I just told her to relax; don't get all worked up because they're not going to mention my name; let's just have fun and enjoy this. And then Keifer Sutherland said, 'Bryan Cranston,' and (I thought), 'That sounds familiar.' And then you realize, oh, my God that's -- that's me. The one thought I had after I kissed my family and started to walk up the stage was, please, please, God, let me put a sentence together with a -- you know, a nice noun and a verb and adjective, perhaps. I'm not too choosy. And not to say, 'Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, God. This is so surreal. Oh, God. Oh, times up. Oh, God oh, God. Oh, wow.'

"Because, you know, you don't want to look back on that and go, 'That's what I said?'"

Series creator Vince Gilligan added that he enjoyed Cranston's victory vicariously.

"That was one of the finest moments of my life," Gilligan said. "And I kid you not, when they called his name, I just -- I teared up, and I yelled loud as I could, not even realizing I was, like, jumping to my feet, doing it. And it was one of the greatest nights of my life. I've never had kids. That would be first, I would think ..."

Cranston interrupted: "No. No. I've had kids. It's not. It's the award."