Bryan Cranston had to let Walter White die before taking on LBJ in 'All the Way'

Walter White may be very much alive to those watching old seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix, but Bryan Cranston has put him to rest.

"What happens is there is a cleansing. That character, Walter White, washes away and I allow him to die and move him aside," he told USA TODAY at the Google + HBO party in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The festivities were an early celebration of HBO's new film All the Way, in which Cranston reprises the role of Lyndon B. Johnson that won him a Tony for the Broadway plan by Robert Schenkkan of the same name.

"It takes a little time, to then pick up the sensibility of another character who remains outside," he said about the transition to the portrayal of the 36th president. "And the more I read, the more I go back to the text, the more I talk to people who knew him, the closer and closer he comes. And I just have to trust at some point he comes inside."

From his demeanor on the red carpet, a few hundred feet away from the White House, we'd say the role as the late president has finally stuck. So much so that Cranston felt quite at home in the Oval Office earlier in the day.

"We worked on an exact replica of the Oval Office. When I walked into the oval office today and met the president again, I went 'Oh, I know this'."

All the Way premieres on HBO on Saturday, May 21 at 8 p.m.