Giancarlo Esposito: Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad and Do The Right Thing

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2020

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

We're joined by guest host Linda Holmes for a very special interview with Giancarlo Esposito. Giancarlo plays Gus Fring, the brilliant villain on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. He also played Buggin' Out in Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee's masterpiece. Esposito talks us about the complexity of his characters, his time on The Electric Company and his work on Do the Right Thing. Plus, we'll talk to him about a very difficult time in his life and working through the trauma of racial profiling.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jessie Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:11.0	Coming to you from my home office, it's Bullseye.
0:22.8	I'm Linda Holmes and for Jessie Thorn.
0:24.9	Giancarlo Esposito is born in Copenhagen.
0:28.1	The son of an Italian stagehand and an American singer.
0:31.8	He and his family moved to New York City when he was six years old, then before long he
0:35.6	took a back thing.
0:36.6	Performing on Broadway at first, then as he grew up, movies, he appeared in many of Spike
0:41.7	Lee's early films.
0:43.5	And if you remember him for one role back then, it's probably as buggin' out, the guy
0:47.3	who organises a boycott of Sal's pizzeria and do the right thing.
0:52.0	He's appeared in dozens of other movies and TV shows.
0:55.4	Recently he's gotten a lot of acclaim for playing Gus Frank.
0:59.6	Gus first appeared in Breaking Bad, a mild-mannered but intense owner of a restaurant franchise,
1:05.3	who Moonlight's is a massively influential drug kingpin.
1:08.7	Giancarlo reprises his role in Better Call Saul, which just wrapped up its fifth season
1:13.4	on AMC.
1:14.8	The role has earned Giancarlo two Emmy nominations.
1:18.6	And you're about to hear why.
1:19.8	This is an iconic moment from Breaking Bad.
1:22.5	Gus has just met Walter White, the protagonist of the show played by Brian Kransden.
1:26.8	And then this scene Gus is trying to convince Walter to work for him, no matter the cost.
	...

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