Giancarlo Esposito joins fans for annual Las Cruces International Film Festival

LAS CRUCES – “Breaking Bad’s” Gustavo Fring returned to New Mexico last week to be honored at the 2023 Las Cruces International Film Festival.

Giancarlo Esposito – well known for his portrayal of Fring in “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” Moff Gideon in “The Mandalorian” and many other roles throughout his career – was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment award Thursday, April 13.

Screening ‘The Show’ at Cineport 10

On April 13 Esposito joined audiences at Allen Theatres’ Cineport 10 for special screenings of the film “The Show” which he directed and starred in. LCIFF Executive Director Ross Marks described the 2017 film “provocative and poignant.”

“This film to me is a labor of love … Something I've always wanted to do is direct a film and be able to tell a complete story. As an actor, you are exemplifying the writer's dream and wish of what the character should be. You bring that character to the screen. As a filmmaker, you're telling the whole story from the beginning to end,” Esposito said. “I was inspired to make this particular movie because I wanted to tell the story of an ‘every man’ who couldn't make ends meet.”

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He added that the film is a comment on the entertainment industry and how people are affected by the content they absorb.

“The Show” stars Esposito as Mason, Josh Duhamel (“Transformers,” “Safe Haven”), Famke Janssen (“X-Men,” “GoldenEye”) and Caitlin FitzGerald (“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Station Eleven”). IMDb describes the films as “an unsettling look at reality T.V. where a disturbing hit game show has its contestants ending their lives for the public's enjoyment.”

“He's a different guy. A very, very different guy and I like that he's not in control. Look, we want to be in control of our lives, we want to be in control of everything. The fact is, you're in control of nothing. So you know, and that's it. And you can only control your own attitude,” Esposito told audiences. “What moved me to make it – it was an experience of giving up that allowed me to make something that the point of it is to live and live fully, every moment and to embrace life for what it is.”

Esposito received the Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment award during a celebration following the screening of his film.

“Film is an international and a universal language because it's visual and because it also expresses and exemplifies a great story. We, as human beings, have a great story inside of us, each and every one of us, that is important,” he said. “The universal language of film can tend to bring us together, and that's why we're here.”

Interested in more Las Cruces International Film Festival coverage? Read the Q&A with Giancarlo Esposito at lcsun-news.com and view photos from the awards ceremony.

Inspiring students, filmmakers at New Mexico State University

Students, filmmakers and community members packed the ASNMSU Center for the Arts to hear Esposito speak about his career earlier in the day. LCIFF Executive Director Ross Marks acted as moderator asking Esposito about his craft and taking questions from the audience.

Here is the conversation, edited for length:

Q: By all accounts, you are successful in your chosen vocation and your chosen vocation – I can speak from experience being a filmmaker myself – is very competitive, it’s very difficult, there’s a lot of rejection. So, how have you achieved that success and how have you sustained it?

A: “Hard work, I have to say. I mean, it's such a far-reaching question. I think for me, my passion has guided me from the beginning, knowing that I couldn't do anything else. I mean, I could do just about everything as an actor, you have to be able to do everything and you have to learn about everything, read everything and you can live many, many, many different lives.

“I knew that what I was meant to do was to be an actor and I have a different way of looking at rejection. That word just stands out for me because so often times we're told that we're not good enough or don't have the chops or you're good at this but not good at this.

“And I have many, many stories in regard to that in my own career, but I think rejection is healthy because it tests your mettle to see if you are willing to go all the way. And if everything was always just easy and you were told you were great from beginning to end, would you really believe it?

“In today's world, we probably would. But I think to have failure is to then be primed for success.”

Q: What point in time did you say, ‘I know I can do this. I know I can be good at it and I know I can be successful’? Was there a specific role, a specific film?

A: “I think it was a moment where I was doing (the Broadway musical) ‘Seesaw,’ which was directed by Michael Bennett, and Tommy Tune was in it, Michele Lee and John Gavin. And it was a moment where I had my own song – I had three or four scenes and then I had my own song in the show – and when I really looked out into the audience and realized everyone was focused on me and everyone enjoyed my number. But I think it was the first standing ovation I got, and I really opened my eyes to look.

“I realized I'm really good at affecting people, entertaining people. Acting is bringing folks, your audience, from one level of consciousness to another. It's sharing with them. And so, I think that may have been the moment where I went, ‘oh, I really love this because people respond.’”

Q: What’s the difference between the mediums – film, television, theater – how do you approach them differently? And what has been your experience working in those three different mediums?

A: “Theater is immediate. You know, if I fall on my face, you're all walking out the door … Television is the cool medium, and film is the hot medium in that television is a smaller box and film is on a big, huge screen.

“The first time I saw myself on a really big screen and really took myself in was a screening of ‘School Days’ in Atlanta and, you know, the screen was huge. And I was, you know, 20 feet tall on the screen and looked completely different and it was just like I was mesmerized, and I really couldn't handle it. I had to walk out of the theater. You know, I think that may have been the beginning of me not watching a lot of my work. Because I feel like for me, it was important to just kill my ego and kill myself so I can become other selves.

“I went to audition for a movie called ‘Taps’ – Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise – and I didn't get it. The casting director called me … and said … ‘you really need to learn how to act.’ And I had tears in my eyes and she saw that. She said ‘OK, wait a minute. I'm going to qualify that. You act for the theater. Right? You have to learn how to act for the camera. Everything is so big, and it's over done.’”

“I went in to read for the same casting director (a year later) and her mouth dropped. I did nothing. I sat there and looked her right in the eye and I just said the lines. I didn't put anything on it. She said what ‘did you do?’ I said, ‘I did what you told me to do.’

“That's a great example of being crushed. I was crushed when she told me this … I was defeated, but it served me well … and that was the beginning of the rest of my life.”

Q: How do you approach each character? What's your process of investing yourself into that role and transforming into somebody utterly different than yourself?

A: “My template is to allow the voice of the playwright or the writer resound from me through a character, and then what I do is try to figure out the behavior … and that behavior is something that’s indicative to you.

“I learned early on you should take the best and leave the rest. People, if they like me as an actor, they enjoy seeing me but I don’t enjoy seeing me. I want to lose myself, to be able to create someone new. So, I allow that spirit to overtake me, but it takes time.

“I'll start to write down the lines before I ever speak them. I’ll whisper them before they get a full voice. I play many characters who are from different countries. Gus Fring is Chilean. What does he sound like? What can I model this after?

“Even New Mexicans have a certain way about them. A cadence to the way they speak, how they look at you, how they interact. We’re very different here in New Mexico than anyplace else in the world and that’s a beautiful thing, but to figure out a local colloquial feeling of language and of physicality is something that I do. I invest myself in that because I feel like it’s important to create a complete and well-rounded character.”

Q: You played a (Gus Fring) for over a decade. One of the most iconic television characters, maybe in the history of the medium. How did you maintain that character and keep it fresh for as long as you played that character?

A: “I didn't watch … When you’re doing a television show that’s every week and you’re watching every week, it’s an excitement that happens for you. I feel a little left out in a way because I think that helped me not to watch.

“It's not like a theater play where you go out and you can't watch yourself. I don't think you could be outside of it and in it at the same time. I just don't believe it, just like I don't believe that you can multitask.

“I stayed true to the template that I created. I stayed true to the voice of the character that I created. It's a long run in television and you as an audience will see and feel inconsistency in a performance if someone's not in it.”

Q: What's your favorite role that you've played so far?

A: “I don't have a favorite and it's really weird and I just don't have a favorite. My favorite is the one I'm doing right now. And I say that because it reminds me not to rest on my laurels or live yesterday. I can tell you I love Gustavo Fring. I can tell you I love Moff Gideon.

“My favorite is always the one that I'm doing now or about to embark on.”

More film festival coverage:

• 'Breaking Bad' actor Giancarlo Esposito talks career, filming in New Mexico
• Special guests travel to southern New Mexico for 2023 Las Cruces International Film Festival
• Opening night of the 2023 Las Cruces International Film Festival

Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.