Giancarlo Esposito Almost Hired A Hitman
There are some actors out there who just play the bad guy, well, perfectly. In fact, they are so adept at laying on an evil vibe, you almost get the sense they are like that in real life. It’s so hard to divorce what you see on the screen from what that person might be like just walking around as a regular civilian. Giancarlo Esposito is one of those dudes, having played some of the most iconic villains we’ve seen in decades.
By all accounts, he’s an amazing guy, completely different than the people he’s played on the big and small screen. But it doesn’t mean there are some bad thoughts in there. Apparently, Giancarlo Esposito had them because he admitted there was a time in his life when he thought about hiring a hitman. A real-life stone-cold killer.
Hiring A Hitman?
Now, before we go too far, let’s clarify one thing. Giancarlo Esposito admitted that his potentially hiring a hitman wasn’t so he could take out an enemy. No, he considered finding someone to off him. Totally nuts.
In an interview with The Guardian, Giancarlo Esposito talked at length about his career, and all of the ups and downs he’s seen in Hollywood over the last many decades.
In A Bad Place
It was the 1990s, and Giancarlo Esposito had worked as an actor, but not nearly enough to support his lifestyle or his family.
He admitted to having “too many kids, too fast,” ended up getting divorced, and even filed for bankruptcy. It was during this time that he says he considered hiring a hitman to take him out. The reason? He thought his family could collect the insurance money and be set financially.
Collecting A Life Insurance Policy
Giancarlo Esposito says this thought process stemmed from his ex-wife’s family, who were all in the insurance game. There was an outsized policy on his own life, and he started asking questions to see if he could actually pull it off. Thankfully, he came to his senses and didn’t hire a hitman to do the deed.
Though this line of thinking might have helped the stone-cold killer vibe the dude has brought to the screen in recent years.
Gus Fring On Breaking Bad
Giancarlo Esposito originally gained some acting traction with roles in Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X while taking smaller parts through the years. But his big break came in 2009 when he appeared as Gustavo “Gus” Fring in AMC’s Breaking Bad.
The seemingly quiet, straight-laced, and thoughtful owner of chicken joint Los Pollos Hermanos is actually one of the biggest drug kingpins in the Southeastern United States. He eventually employs (and then comes at odds) Bryan Cranston’s Walt and Aaron Paul’s Jesse. It was a masterful television turn, one of the best ever.
So Many Villains
Giancarlo Esposito didn’t stop there with the villain turns. He’s gone on to play Off Gideon in The Mandalorian, Stan Edgar in The Boys, and most recently, Stanley Johnston in Netflix’s The Gentlemen series. Each one of these scene-stealing characters further proves Giancarlo Esposito is one of the best villains around. And thankfully, he is still around, not going through with a hit on his own life.
Source: The Guardian
