“Have you ever walked into a bank and thought: ‘There’s a lot of money here’?” asked Giancarlo Esposito recently. “And the door is right there and you see a sweet young cashier. And you know it’s green. What if you go and say, ‘Put the money in this bag’? Am I okay with that?” It is nothing more than a fleeting dream of the protagonist of the new Netflix series Kaleidoscope.
But it’s normal inside an actor always immersed in thoughts about his workboth as a blockbuster who wants black faces on the wall photo of the neighborhood pizzeria (the character Buggin’ Out in do right), to a ruthless drug lord (Gus Fring in breaking Bad Y Better call Saul) or a remnant leader of the Galactic Empire (Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian).
Prolific, palpably thoughtful, Giancarlo Esposito seems omnipresent. But he is constitutionally incapable of not doing what corresponds to him. His work is extremely personal. Y Kaleidoscopenoteworthy, it’s a series about a master thief who seeks revenge, assembles a team, and confronts his deadly condition.
Who is he, what does he do, how does he do it?
“I’m a very busy actor“Esposito said in a recent video interview, dapper as ever, in a black shirt, silver jacket and clean-lined glasses.
“I believe my work heals my personality, allows me to know more about who I am and feel more emotions. So I can better understand what my motivations are in life. I see my work as a meditation, as a spiritual journey. For me, it’s an investigation.”
For most of his career he has conducted his pursuit in supporting roles, discreetly stealing scenes from more well-known stars. In KaleidoscopeGiancarlo is the main attraction, the head of a criminal enterprise and a cast that also includes Paz Vega, Rufus Sewell, Rosaline Elbay and Jai Courtney.
This is a rare opportunity to see a famous character actor ring the bell in a lead role.
But it’s not like those supporting roles haven’t given her room to shine. In the current chapter of her career of hers, which started when she reached breaking Bad in 2009 and reported five Emmy Award nominationsGiancarlo stimulates a fascinating but careful consideration of good and evil.
Fringe he went down in history as one of television’s indelible villainsa soft-spoken assassin who never stepped out of character as a pillar of the business community.
Gideon, the role that made Esposito part of the fanatically popular universe of Star Warshe is a war criminal who believes in law and order.
In Godfather of Harlemwhich launches its third season on Jan. 15, plays Deputy Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a man not immune to moral compromise.
His double role in Kaleidoscope
In Kaleidoscope, whose non-linear structure allows you to view the episodes in any order theoretically Esposito’s character actually has two identities and two names.
One is Ray Vernon, a devoted family man who also happens to be a jewel thief until he lands in prison. When he runs away years later, battling Parkinson’s disease and closer to the end of life than the beginning, he becomes Leo Pap.
Consumed by the desire for revenge against his former partner in crime (Rufus Sewell), whom he blames for both his imprisonment and the death of his wife, Leo assembles a motley crew and clearly flawed to get one last job done, in classic heist movie style.
The character is a typical Giancarlo Esposito creation: a good bad guy, or a good bad guy, or perhaps a reflection of the fact that even the best of us have demons to tame. The actor’s facility for these kinds of roles helps explain his current popularity in an era of television that, even though the heyday of Tony Soprano and Walter White has passed, still worships his anti-heroes.
“We fight with our own nature,” said Giancarlo. “To keep it real, I feel like people have all these facets within them. If I don’t represent it, I’m make believe. For me, acting was a way to share with others who I am: the good, the bad, the uglyWithin the industry, however, Esposito has a reputation for being one of the good guys.
The speech for the extras
The creator and showrunner of KaleidoscopeEric Garcia recalled a somewhat misleading prison scene where inmates are offered a meal that contains magic mushrooms intended to create a distraction for a possible escape.
It’s a weird and very funny sequence where hardened criminals who fill an entire cafeteria are reduced to cackling uncontrollably, amazed and speechless in front of life. Many extras and extras attended the filming. Garcia wasn’t sure how it would turn out.
“Then Giancarlo gave them a talk about how you are your vessel, that’s what the performance runs through,” Garcia recalled. “It was five or ten minutes, straight off the sleeve. After we finished, each artist was Marlon Brando. They were all certain that they would be something special, simply because Giancarlo had just imbued them with it. And as a result they are excellent in the scene, and it was a great day of shooting.”
Esposito’s good humor isn’t always so formal. “My favorite thing was when he would come up to you between takes and mumble a joke under his breath, something that would make you laugh in between takes,” said Rosaline Elbay, who plays Judy, the pharmacist of the gang of robbers. Kaleidoscope.
One day, on the film set, Rosaline gazed in awe at one of the miniature animals that Leo Pap sculpts to keep her hands busy. “On the last day of shooting, Giancarlo put it in my pocket,” she said. “He’s a really lovely team leader and collaborator and he made the experience very, very good for me.”
a fragile character
Esposito’s performance in Kaleidoscope he draws much of his strength from his humility, especially once Ray is released from prison and becomes a Leo. We see it increasingly fragiledealing with his illness and a life full of regrets.
“He has mental abilities, but his body is gone,” explains Giancarlo. “In a way, this is the tragedy of our lives. As we get older we become more delicate and fragile. I still have the brain and perception of a younger man, but to think ‘I have to be careful lowering that cord’, is fucking.”
“When Leo realizes how sick he is, it’s already too late and he knows things are going to go wrong. So this job becomes very important to him,” says the actor.
Esposito, 64, caught a passion for acting early. Born in Copenhagen, the son of an Italian stagehand and carpenter and an African-American opera and nightclub singer, he made his Broadway debut as a child in the musical Maggie Flynnabout the New York riots of 1863 for the draft of the American Civil War.
“I had a feeling that the world I could live in was different from the world most people lived in,” she said.
how did his career
His first film roles for Spike Lee -in rowdy classessince 1988; Mo’Better Bluesof 1990) and, above all, do rightfrom 1989- convey a feeling of youthful euphoria.
But his many television roles are marked by a sense of unrelenting serenity that denotes the maturity that has come from a long career. She thinks of Fring as she adjusts her tie with half a shocked face as she walks away breaking Bad.
“He’s very calm and always tries to give his best energy to create a good atmosphere around him,” noted Paz Vega, who plays Ava, Leo’s lawyer. “When you have to work and you’re always in a hurry and you do many things with many elements, it’s nice to have someone like him in front of you”.
And the starring role? okay but it does not give the impression of signifying a special weight or pressure for Giancarlo Esposito. He doesn’t seem to have a problem doing meaningful work or getting recognition. His schedule is busy for the foreseeable future, including a Netflix movie for brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, The electrical state.
Giancarlo is one of those guys you tend to believe when he says it’s just about work.
“I love what I do,” she says. Being versatile is important and I’ve had the aptitude and opportunity to diversify my career.. And man, I feel so lucky.”
Source: New York Times
Translation: Romano Garcia Azcarate
WD extension
Source: Clarin
