Giancarlo Esposito considered orchestrating his own murder when his career was at a standstill

“The light at the end of the tunnel was Breaking Bad.”

It's hard to imagine now breaking Bad And still less Better Call Saul without Gus Fring, the trafficker and owner of the restaurant chain Los Pollos Hermanos, played by Giancarlo Esposito. However, all this could never have seen the light of day…

Guest on the air of the Jim & Sam Show, an American radio show, to promote his new series ParishSpike Lee's favorite actor (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm among others) made a moving revelation. He admitted to thinking about orchestrating his own murder in 2008, when he was going through a dark period of financial problems.

And if the dictator to whom he lends his features in the video game Far Cry 6 exclaims, laughing devilishly “I was acting. Or was I?” (in French : “I was joking. Or maybe not?”), in real life, the actor doesn't laugh at all.

His idea was to die so his family would get the life insurance money to pay the bills:

“My idea was this: 'Wait, do we get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get any money?' I started to put together a plan. If I found someone to kill me, an accidental death, my family would get the insurance. I had four children. I wanted them to have a life. It was a very difficult time in my life. I literally thought about killing myself so they could survive. That’s to tell you how low I was.”

Nobody knows then. But ultimately, Giancarlo Esposito changes his mind: “And then I thought it wasn’t a viable solution because the pain it would cause them would be lifelong.”

As if by miracle, in 2009 the actor was offered a role in the series breaking Bad and it was a meteoric rise that began and which took him to the Emmy Awards where he was nominated five times: “The light at the end of the tunnel has been breaking Bad“he confirms.

Since then, Esposito has notably starred in the series Star Wars, The Mandolarian where he plays Moff Gideon. He will also soon be showing in MaXXXinethe third installment of Ti West's horror saga, and Megalopolisthe brand new film by Francis Ford Coppola in official competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Breaking Bad: Giancarlo Esposito pitches a spin-off on Gus Fring