Bryan Cranston says military veterans deserve more help to re-enter society

US actor Bryan Cranston has said every country should do “everything possible” to help veterans re-enter society following their service.

The Breaking Bad actor, 69, is starring in a London production of Arthur Miller’s play, All My Sons about a factory owner who begins supplying the military at the same time as his eldest son goes missing in action.

Reflecting on the messages of the play, Cranston told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “It’s not just your blood relative. It’s your brothers and sisters or sons and daughters who served – it’s honouring all of them.

“My character realises, ‘I was so hyper-focused on my work for my son, but all these men and women who serve really should be considered all of our children’, and have that feeling, that deep sense of responsibility to heal them and help them.

“That’s why coming back from any deployment, every country should do everything possible to help them re-enter society, and job training and things like that.

“There’s something more important than just your particular personal family: it’s the family of your community, of your city, of your country, of the world, and I think that’s the lesson in this.”

Cranston stars as Joe Keller in the West End production of the play alongside Hard Truths actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Joe’s wife, Kate, and I May Destroy You star Paapa Essiedu who plays their son, Chris.

Miller was investigated during the 1950s when senator Joseph McCarthy  headed an anti-communist campaign across the United States which included widespread censorship and repression, with many prosecuted for their suspected beliefs.

Asked whether freedom of speech in the US is under attack following the reinstatement of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night chat show that had been suspended over remarks the presenter made in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Cranston said “it definitely has been assaulted”.

He added: “The problem comes in to me when people have a different opinion and use this hyperbolic refrain about it.

“And it’s like, ‘let’s settle down, it’s a different opinion’.

“You and I may go through a bunch of different subjects, and we may not agree on everything, but I don’t necessarily feel you’re out to ruin the country.

“I think when the finger-pointing starts is when the listening stops.

He adds: “This play, All My Sons, really starts to examine the fracturing of the family due to differences in ideology and opinion, and I think that’s what we can learn from it.

“Whether you’re in this country or my own (the US), to have a different opinion is not a bad thing.”

Cranston won four Emmys for playing chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White in TV drama Breaking Bad.

He also plays Hal, the father in sitcom Malcolm In The Middle, a role he will reprise in a reboot mini-series, Malcolm In The Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.