Hi I'm John Carlo Esposito and this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.
I was in an anime—what was it? Go to Google, baby.
Google: What games is John Carlo Esposito in?
I am in Far Cry, which is a great game. I play Antón Castillo, the head of a small Latin American country—a dictator, a very interesting man. I'm also in—I play the dentist in... oh my gosh, my brain is going—Payday 2! Yes, I got it.
What is John Carlo Esposito most famous for?
He's most famous for playing Gustavo Fring, kingpin of the meth world in Breaking Bad. “You are done.” I got into an airplane, I wanted to go to the bathroom and a woman was standing there. She turned around and she just froze—she was totally in shock and she hit the wall. She's up against the wall and she’s like, “You—you—you can go, Gus.” And I was stunned. I said, “No no, please, you know—ladies first, you go.” “No no no no no no, you go.” And so I went inside the bathroom, did what I had to do, came back out, and she's still up against the wall—peeled, pinned to it. And I said, “Thank you very much.” And I walked away.
What languages does John Carlo Esposito speak?
English, baby. My first language was a bit of German, as my mother and father were working in Hamburg. My mother was singing at the Hamburg Staatsoper, and then Italian. My father is from Naples, Italy, and so my father and mother spoke Italian in the home. Then when we got to Germany, some German. And then my third language is gibberish, because my head was so full of languages that I really couldn’t process them all. And English was throwing me. And so the third language was gibberish. And then the fourth language—through the roles I play, I said, I'm part Italian and part African-American, but I couldn’t get those African-American roles, so I learned how to speak a little Spanish.
What is John Carlo Esposito’s accent?
Well, when I say my name—John Carlo Jeppe Alessandro Esposito—my accent is Italian. For many years I pronounced my name “Espazito,” and I grew up with, you know, the Espazito brothers who were hockey players, so I understood that to be the pronunciation. I went back to Italy and I could literally be riding a bicycle in the mountains outside Milan—Lake Como—and someone would roll down the window: “Giacarlo!” And I’m like, okay. And I had a buddy in Italy who said, “Why do you pronounce your name Espazito? It’s so American. It’s just not you. And everyone says that sounds Spanish.” Because there is an “Esposo.” I said, “No, I’m very—look at me—very Italian: Giancarlo Esposito.”
Where is Giancarlo Esposito from?
My mother was performing with Josephine Baker in Copenhagen, in a supper club, and so I was born there. However, I grew up in Rome, Italy, because my father was from Naples. He was working in the opera house, and my mother and father traveled around with each other as he became sort of her manager. And she sang in different supper clubs and opera houses, eventually winding up at La Scala in Milano. They met in the San Carlo Opera in Napoli. So I’m very proud of where I’m from, and I’m very proud to be raised in America—but I’m completely proud of my Italian heritage and my African-American heritage.
When did Giancarlo Esposito start acting?
I started acting at 8 years old. We were living in a basement apartment in Yonkers, New York, and we were really poor because my mother and father were getting divorced after 11 years of marriage. I was watching a TV show called Gigantor with my brother, and there was a commercial that came on—and it was the first time I ever saw a brown-skinned person on a commercial. It was a kid, like 15 or 16 years old. My brother came home and I said, “I can do this. We can do this. We’re eating franks and beans, we’re eating grits with ketchup—we can do this.” And she took us to an agent, Ernest McClendon, and I auditioned within two weeks for my first Broadway show called Maggie Flynn with Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones. That was 58 years ago.
When Wednesday dances...
Oh yeah, that’s it, right? When Wednesday dances—this is a special one for me because I got a call—and I love Jenna Ortega—and I got a call to do this Netflix promo. And I love Netflix. I've had a number of shows on Netflix—you can look them up, many of them are on now. But I have to tell you, to be loosey-goosey and have fun—this was one of my most favorite things I ever did. So getting there, I’m doing my research, checking out Wednesday, checking out her moves, and figuring out how to just be that Castilian—very big and very wonderful—and I had a blast. A real blast doing this. And I want to do more. What fun that was.
Does Giancarlo Esposito like playing villains?
I am a dramatic actor, and I have always resisted this question. So when you ask me this question, I want to say to you—I will kill you. But I was thinking about this in the last 24 hours, and I thought to myself—you know what? You love playing villains. This is my favorite thing in life. I saw a picture with James Cagney—many of you will not know who James Cagney is—many years ago, Public Enemy, and at the end he is on top of a scaffold with a machine gun, and he’s like, “Top of the world, Ma! Top of the world!” And I saw that movie and I went—this dude is having so much fun. I went—the villain is complicated. The villain is interesting. The villain is someone that we don’t know—we wonder why he’s so villainous. And if you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound. If you’re going to do it, you gotta do it right. The villain is the antithesis of a hero. And some of them have good intentions. Many of them, not. But they’re interesting, and they drive the story, and they’re electric, and they’re exciting, and you can’t take your eyes off of them. So yes—I have just outed myself to say I love to scare the **** out of people.
Does Giancarlo Esposito like anime?
I love anime. I have no favorite anime, but I think anime is extremely interesting. I do go to Comic-Cons and I do see people dress up. I was in an anime called Cyberpunk, and it was a really interesting thing—it was a really great project for me to do, playing Faraday. To make that guy live and breathe in our American culture but have the influence of that Japanese anime.
How long did Giancarlo Esposito live in Denmark?
Okay, the answer is—I can’t remember. No, just kidding. The answer is one year. Again, my mother was performing with Josephine Baker, who years ago I eventually met in Toronto when I was nine years old, doing my first out-of-town tour for Maggie Flynn. But I lived in Denmark for one year and I loved it.
How did Giancarlo Esposito get famous?
You know—wow, what a question that is. How does anyone get famous? How did I get famous? If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. So I commit—I commit myself to the reality of what I do. I realize that there are ups and downs in everyone’s careers. I never tried to be a celebrity or a star—I just try to be me and to understand what my connection is to the work I’m doing. And that’s probably how I got famous.
How did Giancarlo Esposito start acting?
Well, I told part of this story. It was through needing to have a better life economically, after my mother and father’s divorce. It was realizing that I loved performing. There were other things I loved too, but it was asking myself a question—after many years of ups and downs—is this what I was meant to do? Like, we’re meant to do a lot of things. I asked myself—is this what you were meant to do? And I was meant to be a storyteller. That’s what I do. I think my true calling was to tell a story and to move people from one place to another in their consciousness. After 15–20 years of acting in the theater, I decided I wanted to move to film and television. But I also knew that took work—that took a different acting style. That took becoming smaller, more compressed, having a thought in my head when you’re watching me that you can’t read and you’re wondering, “What is he thinking right now?” That is committing to doing something you love but also going to class, figuring yourself out. And I think we’re all on that journey. I know I am.
How do you pronounce Giancarlo Esposito?
Well, my name once again is Giancarlo Jeppe Alessandro Esposito.
Is Giancarlo Esposito Italian?
Yes. Completely Italian.
Is Giancarlo Esposito a nice guy?
Oh my gosh. I know these are not your questions, Wired—I know these are the fan questions. I am a nice guy. You know, I have a lot of integrity for who I am today—but I may not be that tomorrow, and that’s okay. But underneath it all, I believe people are intrinsically good. That’s certainly my life. So yeah, I’ve come to realize I’m not all the characters I play—but I really love life and I love people. I’ve done one comedy—Nothing to Lose—no one asked that, but I’m going to tell you. But I also want to do a romantic comedy, and it would be nice to figure out—how do you do a romantic comedy with someone who is maybe a little more mature than our young romantic comedies? And so we’re going to figure that out. But yeah, I’m a nice guy—most of the time.
Is Giancarlo Esposito a director?
Wow. Yeah—I am a director. That changed my life too. You make these turns in your life. I’ve directed two feature films. I love directing because I feel like you can tell more personal stories that are relatable to an audience that sometimes doesn’t get targeted with movies they can really understand—about everyday people. And so yes, I’ll direct more. Look out for that. You have to go see it—you gotta go to the theaters, people.
Does Giancarlo Esposito have children?
I have four daughters who I absolutely adore. And they’ve changed my life—Shane, Kale, Seir, and Ruby. And they’re all in their 20s. And they’ve changed the way I think about the habits that I’ve taken on from my father. My girls have grown me in the world of—you know what I say—my girls have really helped me be a real man.
Giancarlo Esposito, Do the Right Thing?
I love Ossie Davis’s line in that. He tells Spike Lee, “Young man, always do the right thing.” I love this movie. I love Spike Lee. It was really fun to do—creating the character of Buggin’ Out, that guy who is questioning how it all works—“Why don’t you have any... why you got no brothers on the wall?” It was a very, very special experience for me. The movie lives on. I saw it in the Netherlands about five years ago and it really still holds up. And it’s been great to have this friendship and love for Spike Lee and all that he stands for.
Giancarlo Esposito laughing meme
Oh my gosh. I get these laughing memes five times a day from people that I know. We are not the same. It’s a whole other world to get famous in. And I’m really happy that it came out of a really organic place that people know me.
Giancarlo Esposito The Residence
A show I really love—a show that’s on Netflix right now. It is Knives Out in the White House. I play AB Winter. I start out on the floor—you see my feet. AB Winter, Chief White House Usher, responsible for all the workings, comings and goings to have a smoothly working White House. And this role of Cordelia Cupp by Uzo Aduba is absolutely spectacular. It is a fantastic show. The White House is recreated within inches of exactly what it is. You get a tour of this place, but you get a chance to see the show through all the suspects’ eyes to figure out—who done it? You know I didn’t, because I’m dead on the floor. But who done it? You’re gonna love it, and I’m very proud to have been in it.
Giancarlo Esposito voice acting
You know, part of what I do requires a lot of it—a lot of imagination. And if I can encourage you guys to have anything and to cultivate anything, it would be your imagination. And so when I’m in the room, in the booth, voice acting—I really love it. I’m cultivating my imagination. Sometimes I close my eyes and I take the journey of the character. Because many times—whether you know it or not—I’m not looking at a screen, matching something. I’m creating the voice so they can match to me. I use my voice well from my Broadway acting days, and I love voice acting. And I’ll continue to do that till the day I die. I love it.
See you next time. Those are all the searches. I want to thank you for having me today—it’s been so much fun.
This transcript is from Wired’s Autocomplete Interview with Giancarlo Esposito, originally published on Wired’s YouTube channel. All rights belong to Condé Nast/Wired.
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