Breaking Bad actor Giancarlo Esposito may be a household name by now, but he was once so down on his luck that he considered hiring someone to kill himself so his family could get insurance payments.
The actor revealed that before he took on the iconic role of Gustavo Fring on Breaking Bad, he experienced two bankruptcies and a foreclosure on his home.
Speaking in an interview with SiriusXM, Esposito said, "The way out in my brain was: 'Hey, do you buy life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they buy bread?' My wife had no idea why I was asking these things."
Esposito continued:
"I started making plans. If someone was going to kill me, it would be an unfortunate death and my family would get the insurance. I had four children. I wanted them to live a life. It was a difficult moment in time. I literally considered destroying myself so that they could survive. That's how low I was."
It was around 2008, a year before Esposito's return, when the evil drug lord in the famous series completely changed his luck. Although Esposito had been working in the industry since the 1980s, people only started noticing him after his role in Breaking Bad.
"I started to think it wasn't valid because the pain I'm going to inflict on them is going to be lifelong, and a lifelong trauma is going to prolong the intergenerational trauma that I'm trying to get away from," Esposito admitted, "Breaking Bad was the light at the end of the tunnel."
BETTER CALL SAUL REJECTS OFFER
Esposito returned to play Fring in the Better Call Saul spinoff series, but later decided not to continue.
The famous actor spoke about this decision:
"I guest starred on that show, and even then, after you guest star on one, they come back to do another one. They offered me a contract and I said 'No.' That gave me strength. The reason I said no was because it was the end of the third season and they wanted me to sign a six-month contract. They would give me some money, which would be great, it would be a holding fee, but I would have to go to them and say, 'Can I do the Disney project? Can I do this? Can I do this?' I was afraid they would say no. I also didn't know what their intentions were."
