Bryan Cranston on Playing Powerful Role of President Lyndon B. Johnson

— -- Bryan Cranston and Anthony Mackie are about to give viewers a powerful glimpse into U.S. history.

The two actors star in the upcoming HBO film "All The Way," the story of how President Lyndon B. Johnson championed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Mackie, 37, plays Martin Luther King Jr. and Cranston, 60, is LBJ, a role he has played on Broadway.

"It seemed to be the right man, for the right time, for the right purpose and, yet, he ascended to that office by the most tragic circumstances," Cranston said on “Good Morning America” today. "In order to accomplish what he was able to accomplish, he had to go against the people who helped get him there. He had a lot at risk and he lost a lot, but he did the greater good."

Mackie has been asked to play King in the past, but this time, he said couldn't pass up the opportunity.

"For me, it was the first time in a script that I saw Dr. King portrayed the way I knew him to be," Mackie said. "He was a very radical thinker and speaker. I’d never seen him portrayed as such a great politician."

He added: "Dr. King and LBJ kind of has this innate ability to play both sides of the field. They could go into one side of the aisle, then go to the other side and meet in the middle somewhere because they were the great compromisers and that's something we don't see today in our society, our politics, at all."

"All The Way" premieres on Saturday on HBO.