--- description: The movie will chronicle LBJ's journey from JFK assassination to the night he is elected to the office title: See Bryan Cranston's Transformation into Lyndon B. Johnson for HBO Biopic image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See Bryan Cranston's Transformation into Lyndon B. Johnson for HBO Biopic by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2015 7:19 PM CUT by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2015 7:19 PM CUT After breaking box office records on Broadway as Lyndon B. Johnson in _All The Way_, Bryan Cranston is bringing his LBJ to HBO — and [PEOPLE has the first look](http://www.people.com/article/bryan-cranston-lyndon-b-johnson-hbo-biopic-all-way "undefined") at Cranston in character as America’s 36th president. Cranston won a Tony for his performance in Robert Schenkkan’s play, which is now being adapted into a 2016 HBO movie. Melissa Leo is playing First Lady Claudia Alta Taylor “Lady Bird” Johnson, with Anthony Mackie joining the cast as Martin Luther King Jr. Director Jay Roach [told PEOPLE](http://www.people.com/article/bryan-cranston-lyndon-b-johnson-hbo-biopic-all-way "undefined") the biopic has just started shooting, with the plot beginning immediately after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963\. “It covers the amazing 11-month journey from when LBJ takes office after JFK’s assassination, through LBJ’s fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his own presidential campaign, culminating on the night LBJ is actually elected to the office — no longer the ‘accidental president,’” he said. See Cranston’s transformation below, and for more on _All The Way_, head to [PEOPLE](http://www.people.com/article/bryan-cranston-lyndon-b-johnson-hbo-biopic-all-way "undefined"). > [](https://twitter.com/Breznican/status/639114571999936512) _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/02/bryan-cranston-lyndon-johnson-hbo-biopic "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4020411/hbo-bryan-cranston-lbj/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4020411/hbo-bryan-cranston-lbj/"},"headline":"See Bryan Cranston's Transformation into Lyndon B. Johnson for HBO Biopic","datePublished":"2015-09-02T19:19:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:38:58.617Z","description":"The movie will chronicle LBJ's journey from JFK assassination to the night he is elected to the office","url":"https://time.com/4020411/hbo-bryan-cranston-lbj/","keywords":["movies","HBO","celebrities","Bryan Cranston"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4020411/hbo-bryan-cranston-lbj/","name":"See Bryan Cranston's Transformation into Lyndon B. Johnson for HBO Biopic"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"100 Years of Blockbusters in 5 Minutes","description":"Time has taken the highest grossing film each year for the past century and crammed them into 5 and a half minutes. No Intermission.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tfrXo5zL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-02-12T15:57:58.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tfrXo5zL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4020411/hbo-bryan-cranston-lbj/","duration":"PT5M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4020411/hbo-bryan-cranston-lbj/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```