Actor Giancarlo Esposito visit WIRED to answer his most searched for questions on Google. Where is Giancarlo Esposito from? Does he enjoy playing villains? What accent does Giancarlo Esposito have? What games has Giancarlo Esposito lent his voice to? What is Giancarlo Esposito most famous for? Giancarlo answers these questions and many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview
The Residence premiered March 20th on Netflix.
Director: Jackie Phillips
Director of Photography: Grant Bell
Editor: Samantha DiVito
Talent: Giancarlo Esposito
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Seth Craven
Sound Mixer: Paul Cornett
Production Assistant: Doug Archibald, Abigayle Devine
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
The Residence premiered March 20th on Netflix.
Director: Jackie Phillips
Director of Photography: Grant Bell
Editor: Samantha DiVito
Talent: Giancarlo Esposito
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Seth Craven
Sound Mixer: Paul Cornett
Production Assistant: Doug Archibald, Abigayle Devine
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Giancarlo Esposito, and this is the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.
00:05I was in an anime?
00:10What was it?
00:11Go to Google, baby.
00:12Google.
00:13What games is Giancarlo Esposito in?
00:19I am in Far Cry, which is a great game.
00:23I play Anton Castillo, the head of a small Latin American country, a dictator, a very
00:29interesting man.
00:30I'm also in, I play The Dentist in, oh my gosh, my brain is going, Payday 2.
00:37Yes, I got it.
00:39What is Giancarlo Esposito most famous for?
00:46What is Giancarlo Esposito most famous for?
00:49He's most famous for playing Gustavo Fring, kingpin of the meth world in Breaking Bad.
00:57You are done.
00:59I got into an airplane.
01:00I wanted to go to the bathroom, and a woman was standing there.
01:03She turned around, and she just froze, and she was totally in shock, and she hit the
01:07wall.
01:08And she's up against the wall, and she, you can go, Gus.
01:14And I was stunned.
01:15I said, no, no, please.
01:17You know, ladies first.
01:18You go.
01:19No, no, no, no.
01:20No, no, you go.
01:21And so I went inside the bathroom, did what I had to do, came back out, and she's up against
01:24the wall, still peeled, pinned to it.
01:27And I said, thank you very much, and I walked away.
01:30Okay, what languages does Giancarlo Esposito speak?
01:38English, baby.
01:39My first language was a bit of German.
01:42As my mother and father were working in Hamburg, my mother was singing at the Hamburg Staatsopera.
01:47And then Italian.
01:48My father is from Naples, Italy.
01:51And so my father and mother spoke Italian in the home, then when we got to Germany,
01:54some German.
01:55And then my third language is gibberish, because my head was so full of languages that I really
02:02couldn't process them all, and English was throwing me.
02:06And so the third language was gibberish.
02:07And then the fourth language, through the roles I play, I said I'm part Italian and
02:11part African American, but I couldn't get those African American roles, so I learned
02:17how to speak a little Spanish.
02:19Okay.
02:20Oh, wait.
02:21Am I in the right place?
02:22Yes, I am.
02:23Giancarlo Esposito.
02:25What is Giancarlo Esposito's accent?
02:29Well, when I say my name, Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito, my accent is Italian.
02:35For many years, I pronounced my name Esposito, and I grew up with the Esposito brothers who
02:40were hockey players, so I understood that to be the pronunciation.
02:44Went back to Italy, and I could literally be riding a bicycle in the mountains in Milan,
02:50outside of Milan, in Lake Cuomo, and someone would roll down the window,
02:52Giancarlo Esposito, Giancarlo Esposito.
02:55And I'm like, okay.
02:56And then I had a buddy in Italy who said, why do you pronounce your name Esposito?
02:59It's so American.
03:00Like, it's just not you.
03:02And everyone says that sounds Spanish because there is an Espinoso.
03:04I said, no, I'm very Italian.
03:05Look at me.
03:06Very Italian.
03:07Giancarlo Esposito.
03:08Next.
03:09Wow, you're so good at this.
03:15Where is Giancarlo Esposito from?
03:20My mother was performing with Josephine Baker in Copenhagen, in a supper club.
03:25And so I was born there.
03:27However, I grew up in Rome, Italy, because my father was from Naples.
03:31He was working in the opera house, and my mother and father traveled around with each
03:35other as he became sort of her manager, and she sang in different supper clubs and opera
03:40houses, eventually winding up at A La Scala in Milano.
03:44They met in San Carlo Opera in Napoli.
03:48So I'm very proud of where I'm from, and I'm very proud to be, you know, raised in America,
03:52but I'm completely proud of my Italian heritage and my African American heritage.
03:57When did Giancarlo Esposito start acting?
04:03I started acting at eight years old.
04:06We were living in a basement apartment in Yonkers, New York, and we were really poor
04:10because my mother and father were getting divorced after 11 years of marriage.
04:13I was watching a TV show called Gigantor with my brother, and there was a commercial that
04:18came on, and it was the first time I ever saw a brown-skinned person on a commercial.
04:22And it was a kid, like 15, 16 years old.
04:24My mother came home and said, I can do this.
04:25We can do this.
04:26We're eating frank and beans.
04:27We're eating grits with ketchup.
04:29We can do this.
04:30And she took us to an agent, Ernestine McLendon, and I auditioned within two weeks for my first
04:34Broadway show called Maggie Flynn with Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones.
04:38That was 58 years ago.
04:42When Wednesday dances Giancarlo—oh, yeah, that's it, right?
04:48When Wednesday dances.
04:49This is a special one for me because I got a call, and I love Jenna Ortega, and I got
04:53a call to do this Netflix promo.
04:56And I love Netflix.
04:57I've had a number of shows on Netflix.
04:59You can look them up.
05:00Many of them are on now.
05:01But I have to tell you, to be loosey-goosey and have fun, this was one of my most favorite
05:07things I ever did.
05:08As I'm getting there, I'm doing my research, checking out Wednesday, checking out her moves
05:13and figuring out how to just be that Castilian, very big and very wonderful.
05:19And I had a blast, a real blast doing this, and I want to do more.
05:23What fun that was.
05:24Wow, I'm getting this a little bit now.
05:27Okay, so does Giancarlo Esposito like playing villains?
05:34You know, I am a dramatic actor, and I have always resisted this question.
05:41So when you ask me this question, I want to say to you, I will kill you.
05:45But I was thinking about this.
05:46In the last 24 hours, I thought to myself, you know what?
05:50You love playing villains.
05:53This is my favorite thing in life.
05:55I saw a picture with James Cagney.
05:57Many of you will not know who James Cagney is.
05:59Many years ago.
06:00Public enemy.
06:01And again, he is on top of a scaffold with a machine gun.
06:04He's like, top of the world, top of the world.
06:11And I saw that movie and I went, this dude is having so much fun.
06:14I went, the villain is complicated.
06:15The villain is interesting.
06:16The villain is someone that we don't know.
06:18We wonder why he's so villainous.
06:20And if you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound.
06:21If you're going to do it, you got to do it right.
06:23The villain is the antithesis of a hero.
06:25And some of them have good intentions.
06:27Many of them not.
06:28But they're interesting and they drive the story and they're electric and they're exciting
06:31and you can't take your eyes off of them.
06:33So yes, I have just outed myself to say, I love to scare the other people.
06:42Next, does Giancarlo Esposito like anime?
06:45I love anime.
06:46I have no favorite anime, but I think anime is extremely interesting.
06:52I do go to Comic-Cons and I do see people dress up.
06:56I was in an anime called Cyberpunk and it was a really interesting thing.
06:59It was a really great project for me to do, playing Faraday, to make that guy live and
07:04breathe in our American culture, but have the influence of that Japanese anime.
07:10How long did Giancarlo Esposito live in Denmark?
07:17Okay, the answer is, I can't remember.
07:20No, just kidding.
07:21The answer is one year.
07:23Again, my mother was performing with Josephine Baker, who years ago I eventually met in Toronto
07:29when I was nine years old, doing my first out of town tour for Maggie Flynn.
07:34But I lived in Denmark for one year and I loved it.
07:37How did Giancarlo Esposito get famous?
07:42Wow, what a question that is.
07:45How does anyone get famous?
07:47How did I get famous?
07:48If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.
07:50So I commit.
07:51I commit myself to the reality of what I do.
07:53I realize that there are up and downs in everyone's careers.
07:55I never try to be a celebrity or a star.
07:58I just try to be me and to understand what my connection is to the work I'm doing.
08:02And that's probably how I got famous.
08:04How did Giancarlo Esposito start acting?
08:10Well, I told a part of this story.
08:12It was through needing to have a better life, you know, economically after my mother and
08:16my father's divorce.
08:17It was realizing that I loved performing.
08:20There were other things I loved too.
08:21But it was asking myself a question after many years of up and downs, if this was supposed
08:25to be what I was meant to do.
08:28Like, we're meant to do a lot of things.
08:30I asked myself, is this what you were meant to do?
08:32And I was meant to be a storyteller.
08:34That's what I do.
08:35I think my true calling was to tell a story and to move people from one place to another
08:39in their consciousness.
08:40Because after 15, 20 years of acting in the theater, I decided I wanted to move to film
08:45and television.
08:46But I also knew that that took work, that took a different acting style, that took becoming
08:51smaller, more compressed, having a thought in my head when you're watching me that you
08:56can't read and you're wondering, what is he thinking right now?
08:59That is committing to doing something that you love, but also going to class, figuring
09:05yourself out.
09:06And I think we're all on that journey.
09:07I know I am.
09:10How do you pronounce Giancarlo Esposito?
09:12Well, my name, once again, is Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito.
09:22Next.
09:24I'm getting into this now.
09:25Come on, bring in some more cards, mama.
09:27Okay.
09:28Is Giancarlo Esposito Italian?
09:31Yes, completely Italian.
09:33Is Giancarlo Esposito a nice guy?
09:36Ha ha ha ha!
09:38Oh my gosh!
09:39I know these are not your questions, Wired.
09:42I know these are the fan questions.
09:43I am a nice guy.
09:45You know, I have a lot of integrity for who I am today, but I may not be that tomorrow.
09:52And that's okay.
09:53But underneath it all, I believe people are intrinsically good.
09:55That's certainly my life.
09:57So yeah, I've come to realize I'm not all the characters I play, but I really love life
10:02and I love people.
10:03I've done one comedy, Nothing to Lose, no one asked that, but I'm going to tell you.
10:06But I also want to do a romantic comedy, and it would be nice to figure out how do you
10:09do a romantic comedy with someone who is maybe a little more mature than our young
10:14romantic comedies?
10:15And so we're going to figure that out.
10:17But yeah, I'm a nice guy most of the time.
10:19Is Giancarlo Esposito a director?
10:22Wow!
10:23Yeah!
10:24I am a director.
10:25That changed my life too.
10:26You know, you make these turns in your life.
10:27I've directed two feature films.
10:29I love directing because I feel like you can tell more personal stories that are relatable
10:33to an audience that sometimes doesn't get targeted with movies that they can really
10:39understand about everyday people.
10:42And so yes, I'll direct more and look out for that.
10:45You have to go see it.
10:46You got to go to the theaters, people!
10:48Does Giancarlo Esposito have children?
10:50I have four daughters who I absolutely adore, and they've changed my life.
10:55Shane, Kale, Cyr, and Ruby.
10:59And they're all in their 20s.
11:00And they've changed the way I think about the habits that I've taken on from my father.
11:06So my girls have grown me in the world of...
11:09You know what I say?
11:10My girls have really helped me be a real man.
11:13Giancarlo Esposito, do the right thing.
11:17I love Ozzie Davis's line in that.
11:20He tells Spike Lee, young man, always do the right thing.
11:24I love this movie.
11:25I love Spike Lee.
11:26It was really fun to do.
11:27Creating the character of Buggin' Out.
11:28That guy who is questioning how it all works.
11:34And why don't you have any...
11:35Why don't you got no brothers on the wall?
11:36Is a very, very special experience for me.
11:38The movie lives on.
11:39I saw it in the Netherlands about five years ago, and it really still holds up.
11:43And it's been great to have this friendship and love for Spike Lee and all that he stands
11:46for.
11:47Giancarlo Esposito.
11:48Laughing meme.
11:49Oh my gosh!
11:50I get these laughing memes five times a day from people that I know.
11:54We are not the same.
11:56It's a whole nother world to get famous in, and I'm really happy that it came out of a
12:00really organic place, that people know me.
12:02Giancarlo Esposito.
12:05The Residence.
12:06A show I really love.
12:07A show that's on Netflix right now.
12:09It is Knives Out in the White House.
12:10I play A.B. Winter.
12:12I start out on the floor.
12:14You see my feet.
12:15A.B.
12:16Winter, chief White House usher, responsible of all the workings, comings and goings, to
12:21have a smoothly working White House.
12:24And this role of Cordelia Cup by Uzo Aduba is absolutely spectacular.
12:31It is a fantastic show.
12:32The White House is recreated within inches of exactly what it is.
12:37You get a tour of this place, but you get a chance to see the show through all the suspect's
12:40eyes to figure out who done it.
12:43You know I didn't, because I'm dead on the floor.
12:46But who done it?
12:47You are going to love it, and I'm very proud to have been in it.
12:50Giancarlo Esposito.
12:51Voice acting.
12:52You know, part of what I do requires a lot of it, a lot of imagination.
12:58And if I can encourage you guys to have anything, and to cultivate anything, it would be your
13:02imagination.
13:03And so when I'm in the room, in the booth, voice acting, I really love it.
13:06I'm cultivating my imagination.
13:08Sometimes I close my eyes, and I take the journey of the carriage, because many times,
13:12whether you know it or not, I'm not looking at a screen matching something.
13:16I'm creating the voice so they can match to me.
13:18I use my voice well for my Broadway acting days, and I love voice acting, and I'll continue
13:23to do that until the day I die.
13:24I love it.
13:25See you next time.
13:27Those are all the searches.
13:29I want to thank you for having me today.
13:30It's been so much fun.