Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito was once so down on his luck that he started plotting his own murder. In a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim & Sam show, the actor revealed the scheme was all part of a plan to pass down life insurance money to his family.
Esposito told the story while reflecting on narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in 2008. “My way out in my brain was: ‘Hey, do you get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get the bread?’” he recalled. “[My wife] had no idea why I was asking her this stuff. Then, I started scheming. If I got somebody to knock me off, death through misadventure, [my family] would get the insurance. I had four kids. I wanted them to have a life.”
He continued, “It was a hard moment in time. I literally thought of self-annihilation so they could survive. That’s how low I was.” Thankfully, Esposito put an end to those thoughts after thinking about how losing their father would impact his kids.
“That was the first inkling that there was a way out, but I wouldn’t be here to be available to my kids,” Esposito continued. “Then, I started to think that’s not viable because the pain I would cause them would be lifelong, and [there would] 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.” Watch a clip from the interview below.
Esposito’s breakout role as unlikely drug kingpin Gus Fring started as a guest spot in Season 2 of Breaking Bad before he became a series regular. As Esposito told Jim & Sam, however, he actually turned down the first contract because he wanted the freedom to take on other roles until he knew where the character was headed.
“This was the first step to my empowerment,” he said. “It wasn’t about the money… it was really about me finding my own strength to know I could create my own projects.”
Following Breaking Bad, Esposito reprised the role in Better Call Saul, and he’s also made memorable appearances in The Mandalorian, The Boys, and Dear White People. Esposito currently stars in Parish, AMC’s new remake of the BBC Series The Driver, which he also executive produces.
Actor Giancarlo Esposito, who played Gus Fring in “Breaking Bad,” reveals he considered suicide when he was broke and bankrupt in 2008.
(🎥 notsam/Youtube) pic.twitter.com/GQJgmlrEc9
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) April 14, 2024