A new Power Rangers movie is coming out that sees Bryan Cranston playing Zordon.
Actually, Cranston worked on the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers providing voice work.
The character of the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston, was even named after Bryan Cranston.
Back in 2009, Bryan Cranston spoke with IGN (see below) and talked about working on the series and getting the Blue Ranger named after him. Cranston made a joke that being named after the Blue Ranger was a “problem” because Billy was the “fey” one.
Following the casting news of Cranston as Zordon, David Yost, who played Billy, took to Twitter to blast Cranston’s seven-year-old comments saying it’s “not cool” and called Bryan Cranston a “homophobe” equating “fey” to mean “gay.”
Apparently, David Yost was bullied on the set of the series for being gay in real life, which seems to have fueled his fire.
Bryan Cranston is known for defending LGBT rights (see video below).
And “fey” doesn’t mean “fay” (fairy), it means strange.
I think it’s safe to describe the Blue Ranger as being strange or weak or even nerdy. Not all gay people are like that, just like not all straight people are like that.
Not cool. I’m not a fan of homophobes https://t.co/QfJ5O60ay0 last page last line. Fey/gay = a problem https://t.co/qVHwILjNVV
— David Yost (@David_Yost) June 22, 2016
From IGN (dated March 5, 2009):
IGN: Bryan, I was looking at your IMDB credits and it’s a long and impressive list, but there’s one I just have to ask about it, because it jumped out at me, which was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Gilligan: You were on that? How did that suit fit?
Cranston: [Laughs] Well, I was younger then.
One of my jobs as a young actor starting out was voiceover. I also did dubbing. A lot of dubbing and a lot of voiceover. So foreign films would come in and I’d go in. One of the places that did a lot of that was Saban Entertainment. And they would take movies and then cartoons from all over the world and we’d go and do the English dub. And the Power Rangers came in and I did some voices for that. I had already been there for a number of years, just as a freelance guy coming in and coming out. And it paid like $50.00 an hour, which was fantastic. And you’d work two, three hours at least a day. So I had been there for awhile already and then the Power Rangers came in . They actually named one of the Power Rangers after me.
Gilligan: Yeah?!
Cranston: The Blue Power Ranger’s last name is Cranston.
IGN: [Laughs] Wow, that’s pretty funny.
Gilligan: That’s an awesome story!
Cranston: He’s the fey one, that’s the problem.
