Tony Awards 2019: Bryan Cranston makes veiled attack at Trump during acceptance speech

Cranston plays newsman in Network

Bryan Cranston accepts the best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for Network onstage during the 2019 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on 9 June, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

Bryan Cranston took a thinly veiled jab at Donald Trump in his Tony Award acceptance speech on Sunday night.

The actor picked up the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for his performance as newsman Howard Beale in a stage adaptation of Network.

He dedicated his award to “all the real journalists around the world” saying they are “in the line of fire”.

“The media is not the enemy of the people,” Cranston said, contradicting one of the president’s frequent claims.

“Demagoguery is the enemy of the people.”

Upon taking the stage, Cranston jokingly shouted: “Finally, a straight, old, white man gets a break!”

Beale, the newsman played by Cranston, in the midst of a nervous breakdown, famously screams “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

The role won him an Olivier Award in London.

This is Cranston’s second Tony Award. The former star of Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle has also won six Emmys.

Cranston, whose portrayal of Walter White on AMC’s Breaking Bad cemented his stardom, won a Tony for his Broadway debut as President Lyndon Baines Johnson in All The Way. He also earned an Oscar nomination for Trumbo.

Additional reporting by agencies