Actor Bryan Cranston was on the verge of becoming a police officer before a passionate drama exercise convinced him to change his career path.

The Breaking Bad star graduated at the top of his police training class and hoped a job at the Los Angeles Police Department would give his life stability after an uncertain childhood as the son of two struggling actors.

However, an acting class Cranston was taking at the same time as his police training course gave him an insight into the movie industry and he changed careers after passionately kissing a beautiful classmate as part of an exercise.

Cranston tells Britain's The Guardian newspaper, "I asked the teacher: 'Should we kiss, or just pretend?' He was disgusted by my question. So I thought, 'Ok, I hope she's not offended, but I'm really gonna kiss her'. And it starts - and before I can even begin, she is on me. Open mouth, tongue, hands everywhere. It's very exciting.

"(Afterwards I asked her) 'Would you like to get some lunch sometime?' And she looked at me like I was a lost little puppy: 'Oh, no, no, I have a boyfriend.' And I thought: Oh, my God, that was acting! My head was spinning. That's when it clicked. She was just doing her job. And I realised this could be my work: to kiss girls! So I said: 'So long, police work.'"