After many ups and downs, Giancarlo Esposito’s moment seems to have finally arrived, and he’s not about to let it go.

When Giancarlo Esposito introduces himself, there’s nothing left to chance, no room for ambiguity. The way he pronounces his name, the Italian way, rolling the “r,” is a statement in and of itself. It’s as if he’s saying, “You may consider me African-American, but don’t forget I’m also half-Italian.” You get the feeling that it’s been a lifelong quest for him — to get the world to know him for who he really is, not for who people think he is. And this year might very well be the year it finally happens.

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During the last decade, he has been steadily increasing his profile, from playing the drug kingpin Gustavo Fring in the hit series Breaking Bad to the Mandalorian’s nemesis, Moff Gideon, in the very successful TV series that saved Star Wars. In 2024 alone, he’s in five different TV shows and movies, with more on the horizon. It’s not just a late career renaissance for Esposito. He’s actually reaching new heights he’s never attained before — not even during the late ’80s and early ’90s when he did four movies with Spike Lee, including Do The Right Thing.

“Spike Used To Joke With Me And Say, ‘we Have A Revolution… Are You Going To Choose The Italians? Or The Black Side? Which Side Are You Going To Choose?”

Surviving a mid-career slump, Esposito came back into the public consciousness by playing bad guys to perfection but also by managing to reveal a bit more of his true self. His villains are elegant, controlled and thoughtful. They pay attention to every detail, and the real Esposito is focused on the minutiae, too. “They say a man with a hat that’s not brushed doesn’t have a woman in his life. I don’t want to look desperate!” he says, laughing and making sure his black felt hat is immaculate when he arrives at our Beverly Hills location.

Off-screen, Esposito is very warm and has a loud laugh, which we haven’t seen in his movies or TV shows yet. He is the father of four daughters, whom he shares with ex-wife Joy McManigal. He can get emotional, too, far away from the sometimes-cold protagonists he portrays in his work. While getting prepared for our photo shoot, Esposito recalled a recent trip to Naples, the city his dad was from. It was the first time he had ever been to Naples, and he went there with his daughters. “I realized everyone there was like me, my size, and they talked like me and got intense like me,” he says, the tone in his voice showing how much it meant to him. “These were my people! It was a revelation.”

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Earlier this year, it was announced that Esposito, after years of saying he’d love to do it, would finally be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in an upcoming movie. “I can’t talk about it,” he’s quick to say. But the glee in his eyes leaves no ambiguity as to how excited he is about that. Esposito is making up for lost time, and there’s nothing that is going to stop him.

DOLCE: Do you have memories of growing up in Italy?
GE: I do have memories. My mother was performing in Rome, and she started in Naples at San Carlo Opera, where she met my father. And so, my earliest memories were of being taken to that theatre when I was very, very young, probably a year, two years old, seeing that beautiful space and feeling that energy. When I went back last July, I walked in, and they said the theatre was closed. And so — I was with two other folks who were talking to the gentleman — and I snuck in, and I stood there and cried. I have memories of Rome as well, Rome, Italy, when I was young, but fuzzy memories, and I have been back. I went back on a trip with my father, Giovanni, and really enjoyed seeing a lot of Rome with him. That was many, many years ago. But I go to Italy once a year.

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DOLCE: Did you father’s job influence your decision to pursue acting? Your mom was also a performing artist.
GE: What really, truly influenced my decision was my mother and father’s breakup. We moved from New York City to Westchester County. And we were living in a flophouse. My brother and my mother and I were sleeping in one bed, and I just finally went, “You know, Mom, was there any way that we could help?” — my brother and I both approached her — “because we just don’t want to live like this.” And so we went to an audition for Maggie Flynn and sang “Happy Birthday.” They put me in. They said, “He can go over there and join the other group.” And that was my beginning. So, it was really love, but it was necessity and survival as well.

DOLCE: Which actor had a big influence on you when you were starting out?
GE: My mother was a singer, an opera singer. So, of course, she wanted me to be an opera singer. So I was learning arias and learning, you know, songs when I was very young. Paul Robeson was a big influence on me. He was a great, great singer and an African-American. He was someone for me to look up to. I remember listening to Mario Lanza when I was a kid and Caruso. Caruso always played in our house, and I always wondered, how could I ever reach the high notes of Enrico Caruso, you know? And then no one knew, really knew, who Mario Lanza was. He had an equally incredible voice, not as realized as a star as Enrico Caruso, but great, too. So, I was gearing to go into opera. But my opportunity came on the Broadway stage, and my life changed in many different directions away from musical comedy, because I wanted to be a dramatic actor eventually, and that’s what I pursued.

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DOLCE: Do The Right Thing is a movie with quite a legacy. But was Spike Lee aware of the effect it would have on you? Your character, Buggin’ Out, is not Italian at all in the movie. But you are. And the movie talks about the strife between the Italian and the African- American communities.
GE: We had many back-and-forths about it all. I know he didn’t cast me on purpose because we had our relationship started years before, when he was wanting to do a movie called The Messenger, which we never got a chance to make. Spike knew it was going to cause turmoil within me. He used to joke with me and say, “We have a revolution … are you going to choose the Italians? Or the Black side? Which side are you going to choose?” He would rib me about it and joke with me about it. And at that point in time, Spike was very, very open, but he really wanted to project something important with this film. I was nervous because my father, Giovanni, was still alive. Giovanni, at that time, was teaching Italian and Spanish in the New York City school system. What he was afraid to tell me and eventually did was that he was working in Howard Beach, which was one of the most racist areas of the city at that time. I was wondering if he’d understand [Do The Right Thing] or what his reaction might be. And so, you know, it was interesting for me.

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I went through great pains to create a character who had a small amount of knowledge, but who had a large amount of excitement and exuberance for the cause. And then there was my whole relationship with Danny Aiello, God rest his soul, and John Turturro and Richard Edson, who are all Italians. I’m a different kind of Italian than they are. I’m a mixed-breed Italian who was born in Italy. None of those guys were born in Italy. I was born in Copenhagen but raised in Italy. I was closer to Italy than they were. There was this whole dynamic between us, as well. And Danny, God rest his soul, I had a beautiful relationship with him. We stopped talking on the movie weeks before we got to that last scene. We were just really cool with each other, knowing we had to unleash on each other in that last scene, and, when all that happened, we both, after certain takes that were so emotional, broke down and we just hugged, and we cried in each other’s arms. This was because of all the N-words. All that stuff came up in the takes. He unleashed stuff on me that he grew up with, and I unleashed on him what I grew up with.

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And so, in a way, it turned out to be a bit of an exorcism for us both to release all of that, all those slurs that we felt about our races. It was difficult for me because I’m both. But I did understand, having been talked to that way. I went to an all-Italian and African-American high school in Elmsford, N.Y., and I wasn’t accepted by the Italians or the Blacks. My best friends became the Jews because they didn’t care. I remember Ronnie Carbone stopping me in the hallway, calling me the N-word, pushing me up against the wall. And before I was about to cry, I said, “I want to tell you something. I’m more Italian than you are. My name is Giancarlo. Giuseppe. Alessandro Esposito. What’s your name? Ronnie Carbone. You don’t even know how to say it!” So, that was my defence, that I somehow was more connected to my culture than many in that place who didn’t want to accept me.

“You Can’t Lead Unless You Can Follow.”

DOLCE: In recent years, you’ve specialized in playing bad guys, from Breaking Bad to The Mandalorian and The Boys. How do you approach those kinds of characters? Are these guys villains in your eyes?
GE: That’s a great question. I don’t approach them as villains at all. I approach them completely the opposite of that. The antithesis of a hero is a fallen hero. And so I like to look at my villains as being real human beings who, somewhere along the line, go off track, and they commit to a life of villainy so that you’re able to see both sides within them. Because otherwise I feel like they would just be stereotypical. So, if you’re able to see, even without words, behind my eyes, that there used to be a light on that’s now dead because of some kind of past trauma … maybe trauma changes our lives, especially trauma we can’t talk about. We wake up, we don’t even know why we’re angry. And I know for me, it took a lot of years to understand that I was carrying this angry Black man, angry Black and Italian man inside of me. Wasn’t until close to my father’s death that I realized that he was an angry Italian man because he wasn’t accepted in America. His name was Giovanni. He changed his name to Johnny Expo. Giovanni Esposito becomes Johnny Expo because he wanted to fit in, and he came into the union in New York as a stagehand. They were all Irish. They looked Italian, but he wanted to fit in. So, he changed his name to fit in. I started to see the bigger picture of how to understand who I am and where I belong. So, there are no bad guys. There are no real good guys either. There’s the choice that you make as a human being to be who you are or to be something other.

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DOLCE: I heard you used yoga techniques to play your character, Gus Fring, in Breaking Bad …
GE: When you’re asked a question, the impulse is to answer right away. As opposed to being thoughtful about what your answer might be because we live in this society of immediacy, where you’re expected to know the answer all the time. And if you’re anything like me, who tells his daughters, “I’m impatient,” if you’re impatient, you want to answer like that, right? But that’s not honouring your own rhythm and energy. So, in Breaking Bad, I realized that I couldn’t. I didn’t wish to change the dialogue because the dialogue was perfect. How could I measure myself? How could I measure the timing? And it came to me. To breathe. Breathing would give me the time I needed to study you closer. To really look at you. To really take you in. To really show you, in my eyes, whether I love you or whether I have disdain for you. It’s a timing and a rhythm and allowing the audience to see inside of me. And that’s how I use my yoga practice — because I realized the only way to time my being is to breathe, is to leave space. We’re not used to hearing space. But if you leave space, you become truer to your own organic rhythm.

“There’s The Priest In Me, There’s The Architect In Me, And Then There’s The Archeologist Because I’m Really Interested In History And My Past.”

DOLCE: Can you talk about MaXXXine and your other upcoming projects?
GE: MaXXXine is out. I’m excited about this film. This film takes place in Hollywood in the ’80s, and it really charts Maxine’s journey, the same character she’s played in other movies in different time periods. Maxine, when she screams and yells in previous movies, is, “I want to be a star.” She’s putting away the past, trying to escape her past, working in the porn industry and then becoming a movie star. I love this film, and I think people are going to really enjoy it. It comes out real soon. I also have a series I’m very proud of called Parish on AMC. It’s a beautiful show that has six episodes, that I was able to adapt with partners, from a British show called The Driver, and we placed it in New Orleans. It’s a crime drama about a family man who’s not making it.

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I was able to sprinkle some of the family man in my life who wasn’t making it into this story. It also has a haunting piece of it in that this man has lost a son, and he’s trying to figure out what happened to his son. He falls in with some other criminals to be just a driver. He has driving skills, and he thinks that’s all he’s going to do. He gets in too deep, and he has to get out. He also has a past that he’s been running away from, that he hasn’t shared with his family. It’s about ghosts. It’s about the ghost of your past and the ghost of your present and what you will do to save your family, which is what I love about this show. I produced it. It took me years to bring it on the air. I’m so really excited about that because I think it came about during the pandemic, where I had to wonder if I was going to be bankrupt again. All those demons came back up for me, and I was afraid. This show, Parish, was also about an everyman who had his own business that was failing, and it was the last hope he had to be able to provide for his family. During COVID, I started to look around, and I thought, “There are people out there that are worse off than I am, and I can last a little time.” I wanted the story to be about an everyman. Out of that moment came this show.

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DOLCE: Typically, you wouldn’t think of a commercial as a vehicle to express a person’s identity, but somehow, in that new Fiat commercial, you did that. It’s actually you telling the world who you are!
GE: I texted Spike Lee. I said, “Fiat reached out to me,” and he said, “I got to rewrite it. I got to rewrite it.” I said, “OK.” Then next thing you know, it’s Spike and me. Spike’s like, “It’s for us.” We spoofed Do the Right Thing. We’re also able to tell the world who I am.

Spike called in Turturro to play the waiter. A guy from Once Upon a Time, who was Italian, came and played the gelato man. It was just great. He got real Italians to come and play with us. I had so much fun on this commercial because Spike, believe it or not, I know he’s from Brooklyn, I know he’s a Black man, but he’s so Italian, too. You know what I mean? He’s like, “No, I’m not.” [GE speaks with his hands, imitating Spike, making everyone laugh.] So, he, I think, trusted me and knew that we were meant to play together in that sandbox, and it was a load of fun, truly.

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DOLCE: What is living la dolce vita for Giancarlo Esposito?
GE: It’s living in the truth of who I am and not being afraid to allow people to know that I’m fun. Many people know me as Gus Fring or some villainous character, which I don’t carry with me every day all the time in my back pocket. Don’t be fooled. I can pull that out in a heartbeat. However, living the good life to me is doing the most intense work I could ever do and then taking a vacation in Italy and going to the seaside — then coming back and reading a good book and being inspired. What I love is to be inspired, and inspiration then allows me to be inspiring. So, I remind myself, don’t wait to be great. It’s never too late to tell the truth. Be who you are, love yourself. That, to me, is living a good life. I love food. I love fine cuisine. I’m learning how to be good to myself. And so many of us or, I should say, so much of me has waited so long to enjoy life. But why? Why? I deserve to enjoy life. I deserve the best. So, la dolce vita, baby!

RAPID-FIRE QUESTIONS
DOLCE: How would your friends describe you in three words?
GE: Electric, moody, exciting.

DOLCE: What is the best gift you have ever received?
GE: The Per Lui jacket. The gift of love.

DOLCE: What is the first thought or the thing you do every morning or night before you go to bed?
GE: Pray.

DOLCE: What is your favourite saying or quote?
GE: You can’t lead unless you can follow.

DOLCE: If you could change anything about your past, what would it be?
GE: I would maybe go back to that moment where I wanted to be a priest because part of me, inside my heart, is a missionary, and that would be fulfilling to me. So, there’s the priest in me, there’s the architect in me, and then there’s the archeologist because I’m really interested in history and my past.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: MICHELLE ZERILLO-SOSA | PHOTOGRAPHER: JESSE MILNS | VIDEOGRAPHER: LISMERY LOYOLA
FASHION STYLIST: ORETTA CORBELLI | GROOMER: COURTNEY HOUSNER | ASSISTANT WARDROBE STYLIST: ALESSANDRA MAI VINH