As we gear up for FanX 2023 - the 10-year anniversary of the convention, which is crazy - I thought it would be a good time to transcribe another panel or two from last year and put it out into the blog-o-sphere. I felt that Giancarlo Esposito put on the best panel of the weekend, so it pains me that I waited so long to publish this one. I thought he did a masterful job of taking the cliche convention questions ("Do you have a funny story about so-and-so? Did you ever steal something from a set? What has been your favorite role?" Stuff like that...) and turning his responses into teaching opportunities. I didn't capture all of his words of wisdom, but did boot up my recorder to catch a few great moments.
A fan asks Esposito whether he enjoyed working more on “Breaking
Bad” or “Better Call Saul.”
I love the comparisons. They both are favorite shows of
mine, for different reasons. I love that in “Breaking Bad,” I could come in for
four or five days and really… For an actor who does… I come from theater, and
then I moved into television, then I moved into film. Film is a continuum – you’re
doing two pages a day. Television, you’re doing six pages a day. And in order
for an actor to get a run on what he does, it’s always good to have your work
put together so you can focus.
See, focus in life is really important. Asking for what you
want is also important. We sometimes feel that we don’t have the power
to ask questions when you’re hired to do a job because you may be new – it may
be your first day or second day. How often do you go to a job interview and you’re
asked all these questions – how often do you ask a question? “What do
you have to offer me? How can I help your organization run in a way that’s
different. What do you see in me that could help bring your business a new
energy and a more empowered or more inspired way of working?” So, for me, I
feel like that’s my position in life, and I realized that to ask for what I
want is important because I want to be a contributor. I want to contribute to what
I do.
So, I loved both shows – “’Breaking Bad” because I was so
able to focus my energy and attention, come in four or five days, do my work,
pinpoint it, have them be inspired with what I do, get on a plane and go out,
come back in another two weeks and do the same thing again. But I asked for my
work to be put together so I could feel like I had the engine behind me. In “BetterCall Saul,” I spent more time on the set, which was great. But I also was able
to cultivate a more sensitive, vulnerable and astute Gus [Fring – his character
on both shows] because he had a problem – a problem that was very specific. “Saul,”
as a show, was more specific than “Breaking Bad” because it was about Jimmy.
Right? It was about Gene, Jimmy, Saul… Good-man… right?
The focus… you have to know who you are within what you do
and what you’re being asked to do. So go back to the job interview – how often
are you asked, or do you ask, “What is my position here? What would you
like me to do here? What is my strong point, my strength and my talent?” When
you ask those questions of yourself, you will be put in the perfect position
that is right for you in anything that you do. I say that what you do today
determines your tomorrow. There’s no doubt in my mind about this. How you envision
your life is how it will be. How you see it is how you then begin to create it.
Both of these shows are great for me, for different reasons,
and I had different experiences related to those reasons because I
started to see and say to myself, “What is the experience that I wanna
have?” What is that experience? You see it, you create it – what you think
grows. What you think grows.
A fan asks which of Esposito’s villainous characters is the
most evil.
Another very interesting question – and it’s a difficult
question for me to answer because I believe, and I think the success of the
villains that I have played are because I inherently have thought that the
anti-hero, the villain, is simply the fallen hero. That fallen hero is someone
who feels that they are unseen, that they aren’t given credit for what they are,
that they have to take a different route because no one is listening to them,
that their ego is too big – insurmountable – for them to get beyond that they
use force to get what they want. I feel like… which ones are evil? None of them
are inherently evil, but then they take a road that guides them and leads them
to being evil. You haven’t seen Season 3 of “Star Wars” yet – of “The Mandalorian” [at the time of the convention] – but even without seeing it, I have to say that hubris, the great
word, that we [Moff Gideon] start to feel a little powerful and we want more.
People start to listen and bow down to us and we want more, and then we start
to want more and more until we start to have the power to control that becomes out
of our control. So, if anyone is connected more to evil, I think it’s Moff Gideon
than anyone.
Esposito responds to rumors that Marvel planned to cast
him as Professor X.
I have to say, I love what Marvel does. I say it when I’m
asked this question, always. I know some folks on the TV side and it sort of
got out there that I talked to them a few years back, and that blew into, “Oh,
he’s talking to them, he’s going to be at the [convention], they’re going to
announce it,” all these things… Professor X was the last character to
come up. I am fascinated by other characters in their universe, in their world,
and I have to say: Magneto is one of them. [Audience cheers] Yeah, baby! I have
to say: Freeze is another. I’m intrigued by the kind of majestic feeling of
Freeze trapped in what he’s trapped in. I like that whole concept. I don’t know
what it will be; I know that one day, Marvel is gonna hit for me, and I’m going
to have a great time doing it. So, whatever that is, I’m hoping that they will
be as excited as I am to work on something together.
Esposito tells a story about teaching his young daughter
that he and the characters he plays are not the same person.
…That’s Gustavo Fring, and that’s not me. That’s someone else. So, whatever he does, that’s Gustavo, and this is your father. Well, the lights went down and, you know, I did a very ugly deed in [“Breaking Bad” Season] 4 [Episode] 01 “Box Cutter,” and the whole episode was galvanizing for her; she never took her eyes off the screen. She turned to me when the lights came back up. Without skipping a beat, she said, “Good kill, Papa.” [Audience gasps, laughs and applauds] I was just mortified! And then she went away - she had a couple more days of being with me in Albuquerque - and then she went home and she started watching the series from the beginning. She said, “This is such great storytelling, great filmmaking, I’m hooked.” But I swear, she never looked at me the same way again. [Audience laughs]
Esposito, on the importance of paying attention to those
around us.
When we start to come back to who we really are, and we
start to imbibe the gift that will never go away, ‘cause all it takes it to be
able to listen and really hear – not just with your ears – with your heart,
with your eyes, with your whole body – then, inspiration comes, and the right
answer is always at the tip of your tongue because it’s organically the truth.
It’s time for us to pay attention to each other again.
*****
Do you have a favorite Giancarlo Esposito role? We loved hearing him as Baxter Stockman in the recently released "TMNT: Mutant Mayhem," and really enjoyed the very un-family friendly Netflix series "Kaleidoscope." Leave us a comment below, follow us on Twitter (here and here) or hit us up on Facebook.
We're looking forward to FanX 2023 in a couple weeks. Are you going? There's still time to grab your tickets for what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest conventions in the history of the Beehive State.
Surely, we'll be back after the convention to post highlights from some of our favorite panels. Until then, keep it tuned here.
Until next time.
