quotes

[sangreporsangre]

"It was something Vince said that convinced me. He said it was about hiding in plain sight. Gus was affable and generous and would work to help people to be their best selves and bring them to prosperity. Gus was hiding from everyone, but he was hiding in plain sight, where everyone saw him as ambitious and community-minded and didn’t see the darkness in him. ... And their writing inspired me to think, to create someone who was polite, threatening and poignant."


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"You know, Gus when he’s in Los Pollos is my favorite. He’s a man in service, but he’s hiding something. He owns it all. When Gus comes out of his chicken-man costume, he has really good taste in clothing. He’s fastidious and well put together."


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(I recently spoke with Jonathan Banks and he reminded me of the scene were Gus is first meeting Walt and tells him, “No, Mr. White, we have nothing in common.” Do you think that’s true that Gus and Walt had nothing in common?)

I don’t think it’s true. At that point in time, they had less in common, because Walt was making mistakes. I told him that you never make mistakes twice. You can’t trust junkies, so when Walt brings Jesse to a meeting and he’s obviously on drugs, Gus scolds him that his partner is high and that’s not an acceptable way to do business. Gus is very smart. He’s upstanding in business. He wants to sell a good product, no matter what the product is.

Having come to the end of the journey of both Breaking Bad and Walter White, when Walter says that selling and making drugs made him feel alive, well, that wasn’t the same for Gus. It was intrinsic to Walter’s character to feel like he was alive and living, but that wasn’t the case for Gus. He wasn’t looking to stay alive, he was cultivating a business in a wide variance of business. Walter was focused on being alive and filling the emptiness inside. Later, when Walt’s in New Hampshire in that cabin and he is asking Robert Forster to stay with him for two hours and he’ll give him $10,000 and then Robert Forster only stays for one. That is one lonely man who knows he has lost his soul.

--Giancarlo Esposito


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"Certainly, there is a deep and abiding love between Gus and Max. Was it romantic? I don't know. You've got to make up your own mind to see if it was.

I know, for me, I'm European. I was born in Copenhagen, raised in Italy. My father's Italian, my mother's black. My father kissed me on the lips my whole life, or cheek to cheek. We held hands. Is that looked at oddly in America? Of course it is. I would think that Gus has those same sensibilities. I would go for the professional aspect of it, to be honest with you, that he really cares about another human being.

Being that this is a guy he took off the street, put through school and trained him to be a chemist, to have his life dream come true, even though it played into what Gus wanted, is more important than whether they were lovers or not. Could they very possibly have been sleeping together? Of course they could have. ... To label it, to name it, to know, I think it's much less interesting."


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(What truly motivates Gus, especially going forward, now that he's got his revenge on Don Eladio and Tio? He has money, he has power, what keeps him ticking now?)
"I think that what motivates Gus for much of what we've seen has been revenge, building his empire, playing his cards right. But since that really horrible moment that we finally see in ("Hermanos"), we understand him a different way. It's not only revenge, but the revenge has played into taking over, into making this family his family.

I think if we were to go back even further than that, we'd see his connection to the Pinochet government and where all the previous incarnations of Gus came from and what his dream for his empire is.

We haven't seen that yet, but I think the motivation is a two-fold motivation. It's to bring people to their best selves in whatever they do, which is why he has such patience for Jesse, who is a ne'er‑do‑well drug addict.

And, I have to say, what moves Gus is the family. It's to take care of the family. It's outlined in Gus' "a man provides" speech to Walt. This is really how he feels. You do the hard things that you have to do, some of them you will not want to do, to take care of your family. That is your gig. That's your job. That is the marker of a man. You don't want any complaining. Walt is a whiney complainer. You don't want any complaining. Yeah, you've got cancer and you're dying. Suck it up. Live the rest of your life and croak, like a man. (Laughing)"


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(Right. That is what Gus would do, how he would play it.)
"That's what Gus would do. I really, really feel like that's his motivation. He wants to bring people to their best selves. He wants to teach people how to be in control and have self‑control. He wants to teach people how to be successful and he wants to allow them to be smart. Walt has missed the boat, in terms of understanding that little good piece of what Gus is trying to display."

--Giancarlo Esposito


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Giancarlo Esposito Interview


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Giancarlo on Talking Bad