Giancarlo Esposito confessed on SiriusXM’s “Jim & Sam” show that he once contemplated arranging his murder to secure his children’s future. The confession paints a stark picture of the actor’s life before his breakthrough role as Gus Fring in the acclaimed series “Breaking Bad.”
Giancarlo Esposito says that before he was cast as Gus Fring, he was severely broke and contemplated arranging his own murder to ensure his children would receive life insurance money
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Esposito faced extreme financial challenges before he became affluent. He was on the verge of going bankrupt in 2008 and cited that.
“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. 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” .
Esposito’s desperation led him to contemplate a chilling scheme. He considered arranging his murder, a ‘death by misadventure,’ so his four children could benefit from his life insurance. “I thought of self-annihilation so they could survive. That’s how low I was,” he confessed.
But, there was a problem – Esposito was struggling with the morality of his plan. He has come to realize that if he committed suicide, his children would be traumatized for the rest of their lives, continuing the chain of generational trauma that he was trying to break. This had changed his life.
Breaking Bad had changed it – his portrayal of Gus Fring had saved him from the brink of self-destruction and turned him into a superstar. He would later reprise it in a prequel to the show ”Better Call Saul” and has shown great interest in a show comprised of Gus’s backstory, a prequel to the prequel.
“Yeah, I would love that,” he said. “My backstory is he was a military guy who worked his way up through the ranks and could have become president, even possibly the dictator, and have taken over. But he wanted to do something that others could not control, and he wanted to control his destiny. And so he took off to create a new life for himself in America and become a meth dealer, a businessman.”
It is hard to believe that today, Esposito’s career is doing better than ever with The Mandalorian and The Boys among his other projects. There is no doubt that the shifts, from contemplating drastic changes in his life to fulfilling his passion, have had an impact on his perception of life and success. Overall, Esposito’s life is another reminder of the human element within the superficial charm of Hollywood and an example of overcoming trials.
