His life was hanging in the balance due to crippling poverty, but then Breaking Bad came along

It’s rarely mentioned as a coincidence, but when the first season of Breaking Bad aired, thousands of Americans were in the shoes of protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston).

America is facing a severe recession due to the financial crisis, which is putting many people in an extremely difficult economic situation.

It is possible that the series attracted its first wave of fans in part because at the time there were not a few Americans who could see themselves in the downtrodden Mr. White.

In 2008, thousands in the US lost control of their lives and struggled to meet the basic needs of food, rent and bills.

One of those Americans then is Giancarlo Esposito.

He is the actor that Breaking Bad fans know as Gustavo “Gus” Fring – owner of the Los Pollos Hermanos chain and head of a drug cartel.

Months before being invited to audition for the role of Gustavo, Esposito goes through overwhelming trials to financially support his family.

Just like Walter White, who finds out he has terminal lung cancer, his savings in the bank are ridiculous, and he has a pregnant wife and a disabled son who is about to go to college.

The similarities between Giancarlo Esposito and the chemistry teacher from Breaking Bad don’t end there.

Like Mr. White, Esposito has come up with a radical, illegal and desperate plan to make ends meet in hard times.

“Yes, I did, yes, I did. I was living in Connecticut, raising 4 daughters, my salary as an actor was not enough for anything. I wasn’t getting roles and I didn’t need to check my mailbox for checks. I was a total failure, I was bankrupt,” the actor tells the Awards Chatter podcast.

Due to the constant drought of roles, Esposito decided that the extreme situation required extreme solutions.

And he seriously began planning his suicide, prompted by the possibility that his children and wife could use the life insurance money after his death.

“In my head, it was the only way out. My wife had no idea what I was up to, but I was mentally weaving the scheme of my death every day. I was thinking, ‘How can I make my suicide look like an accident so my kids can get the insurance money and to survive,” Esposito said in an interview with SiriusXM.

The Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star clearly knew he was about to commit insurance fraud, but he didn’t care.

In that harrowing moment, he believed it would be better to shoot himself with a 12-gauge shotgun, but knowing that he had financially provided for his children.

“It’s terrifying to be in that emotional state. And I was, even then, at my lowest level of poverty – one of the privileged Americans,” commented Esposito.

The actor’s mind began to clear when a friend of his gave him the book “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson.

The reading is a motivational fable that describes how natural human instincts adapt to big changes, using two mice as an allegory. At the beginning of the story, the rodents are bound to a simple daily routine that only requires them to provide sustenance for their offspring.

But as time passes and the world develops, the main characters of the novel become more and more greedy and arrogant, forgetting that their most basic need is simply to find the cheese for the day.

The message in Johnson’s novel shakes Giancarlo Esposito to his core.

“I realized that at our core we are all hunters. We are asked to go out and hunt and bring food for our family. I said to myself, ‘You have to pick yourself up and recover.’ I went to therapy, I got the gun out of my mouth and I took responsibility for my life,” the Breaking Bad star recalled.

Esposito is also grateful to his now ex-wife Joy McManigall for getting out of the painful stage.

Photo: Getty Images

Giancarlo and Joy divorced in 2015.

Although their marriage was on the verge of collapse, the actor’s spouse did not stop giving him courage. She also supported him in his desire not to accept roles in productions he did not like.

“I’ve always been a man with pride. I didn’t want to sell myself. I wanted to be involved in stories that mattered, that were valuable, that made people think and that empowered them. And it was really important to me that the then my wife understood why I didn’t want to compromise with myself,” Esposito shares.

A ray of hope for the star’s family comes when his manager sends him the Breaking Bad script and tells him he’s been invited to audition for the role of Gus Fring.

Esposito did not react well to the news that the series crew expected him to read to earn the job, as the actor at the time had solid screen experience in Michael Mann and Spike Lee films.

But the Breaking Bad crew is adamant, and Esposito is persuaded to audition by reading his lines.

To perfect the image of the unflappable drug lord, the actor binge-watched Animal Planet and began yoga breathing practices as he kept his character in control of his facial expressions and gestures at every second.

The recognition for his hard work, however, only comes as Breaking Bad heads toward its finale. Considered the greatest drama series of all time, it became famous relatively late.

Only after the fourth season of the series is out, people understand what a great actor Giancarlo Esposito is.

Although his career has continued to reach new heights since then, the actor has not forgotten the period when he contemplated suicide in order to drain his life insurance.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am that I came to my senses. I was able to find the positive side of my existence and find inspiration when I was crushed by depression. I found the light at the end of the tunnel and that light was Breaking Bad,” says Esposito.