Better Call Saul, three years ago, was one of the most anticipated moments in the spin-off of Breaking Bad. Certainly, when the Chilean drug dealer who owns a fast-food chain as a front appeared in the first show created by Vince Gilligan in one of the last episodes of season two, he became one of the favorite characters in the story very quickly. We spoke with Giancarlo Esposito on the phone about his experience portraying Gus in both shows, and even if the veteran actor, born in Denmark to an American mother and an Italian father and raised in New York, has an amazing and rich career in film and television with more than 170 credits, including recent titles as The Mandalorian and Godfather of Harlem, Esposito is such a fan that we only were able to talk about the character who gave him two Emmy nominations, one for Breaking Bad in 2008 and the other for Better Call Saul in 2015.

Has playing Gus in Better Call Saul been any different from playing him in Breaking Bad?

Breaking Bad, I have had to track the milestones of how his personality grows and how I am able to cultivate maybe a little bit more vulnerability, maybe having a little more of a flair of anger when things don’t go his way, all to be able to lead you to the doorstep of Breaking Bad. And I feel Gus is more solidified and unified in his quest to take over the Cartel and he’s also more identifiable in his demonstrative nature. Gus has certain ways and attitudes of dealing with his anger, and how he moves the chess pieces are very important to me as an actor in Better Call Saul. So, it’s created a fresh way for me to look at Gus. And at least that is what I have been trying to manifest in my performances.

So, when you are playing him in Better Call Saul, do you have to forget about how everything ends before in Breaking Bad?

  Yes, of course, I blank out what the end story is, not only the story for me and where I end up, but his different relationships with Hector Salamanca and in normal’>Breaking Bad. It’s blocked out of my mind. I think mostly about having the audience feel that Gus is not quite in control as completely of his world in Better Call Saul, as he was in Breaking Bad. I want you to feel that, I want you to feel a guy who is still sensitive maybe, but is on his way to be that man that you will meet once these bookends of two shows are complete.

As an audience member, I feel that the two shows are getting closer and closer. Did you feel the same while making Better Call Saul? 

Better Call Saul. Jimmy has been Gene; he has been Jimmy and now he is transitioning to being full-time Saul Goodman. He’s made a choice. So, this is a demonstrative season where that choice is fully realized. I am going to represent people who are a little bit like this and I am going to work to get them justice, whatever his personal reasons are. He feels most comfortable as the flashy Jimmy, because he is a talker and a storyteller, and he can make you what he wants you to do. So, this season he’s going to get into a world where he’s going to be more and more of a fish out of water. But he has to solidify himself within that world. He loves the courtroom. But he’s going to get involved with the Cartel which is going to change things for him a bit and is much more dangerous than I think he ever bargained for. So, the show is taking a turn for the dark. And it’s more and more coming to a place where a man is realizing this is the world he is most comfortable in. He doesn’t want to be in jail, but he has decided to be outside the law, for fun or whatever, to gratify his ego, to see if he could do it, whatever that is. But don’t forget Kim. He is getting Kim on his side, who was once completely good and a great lawyer, but it’s titillating for her to be with a man who is as smart and is as reconcilable as Jimmy, as Saul will become. So, this season is going to be the season where the worlds will collide and have come together closer and closer obviously for our sixth season, which should be explosive. But this is a difficult one, a big season, a lot of action and there’s a lot of explosions and a lot of things to get your attention. All that juxtaposed to the main story, which is that story of Kim and Jimmy and Saul. So, I do agree with you, it feels that way for us. This is the most filmic season we have ever shot, the most challenging. It’s been a joy, it’s been painful, but you see it in the work, you see it in the season, it’s all of a sudden jumped up to another level of filmmaking. 

So how long did you know that Gustavo was going to be back?  When they announced that it was happening, did you know at some point?

Better Call Saul at all when they started this show. After all, remember, And when you finished Breaking Bad, did you feel that your work was complete, or did you have a lot of questions that were not answered?

Breaking Bad, I didn’t have questions that weren’t unanswered, I had desires to reach into the backstory of Gus in a more in-depth fashion. Because there was a lot that was unanswered. But my understanding was, the less we know about Gus in Breaking Bad and in   So yes, I wanted to explore his connection to Santiago, I wanted to explore his connection to family. In that dinner back in Breaking Bad we see pictures on the wall, maybe children and a wife, we see things around him that look like he has a family. I want to see if that is true. I want to know more about his relationship with Max Arciniega, it’s always been fuzzy surrounding the Pollos Hermanos. And I want to know, he is an interesting man. So yes, I felt incomplete and that completion would be by having a show about Gus all by himself. That is not ego talking, there are enough ideas there from Vince and from me, that would satisfy that. But I have to say, what this has created and within the realm of these two shows, he has allowed me to share my view of what Gus is and could be. I would have to say that that would be a call that Vince would have to make. But in my brain, yeah, there’s a world of ‘the rise of Gus’ that I think people would be interested in. But look, again, I am very humble and gracious to be a part of this incredible show. But I am not at all disappointed that this particular dramatic show and the comedic show is not about Gus. I feel like I have been able to bring a great part of my style and my stillness and my awareness and my intuitive nature to playing this character. And who knows, if everything was laid out for us and we saw exactly who he was, we might not be as interested in him as we are now.