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Between Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Mandalorian, and even the short-lived Revolution, Giancarlo Esposito has positioned himself as an in-demand actor who excels at playing villains. However, he didn’t always enjoy such good fortune in his career. During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim & Sam, Esposito recalled a time in 2008 when he was near bankruptcy and so desperate for a way out that he considered placing a hit on himself to provide for his family with the insurance money.
“My way out in my brain was: ‘Hey, do you get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get the bread?’ My wife had no idea why I was asking this stuff,” recalled Esposito via Variety. “I started scheming. If I got somebody to knock me off, death by misadventure, [my kids] would get the insurance. I had four kids. I wanted them to have a life. It was a hard moment in time. I literally thought of self-annihilation so they could survive. That’s how low I was.”
“That was the first inkling that there was a way out, but I wouldn’t be here to be available to my kids,” continued Esposito. “Then I started to think that’s not viable because the pain I would cause them would be lifelong, and there’d be lifelong trauma that would just extend the generational trauma I’m trying to move away from. The light at the end of the tunnel was Breaking Bad.”
Esposito’s role as Gus Fring on both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul was a transformational moment for his standing in Hollywood, and he’s been constantly working ever since. Ironically, Esposito had a starring role in 2017’s The Show, a movie in which he played a desperate man, Mason Washington, who contemplates committing suicide on a live TV show in order to provide for his family. In case of art imitating life, Mason also chooses to survive.
Parish, Esposito’s new drama series, is currently airing Sunday nights on AMC.
