Giancarlo Esposito Considered Planning Death To Secure Insurance Benefits For Family

Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide and murder.

Giancarlo Esposito revealed he considered ending his own life while he was out of work and struggling financially. Speaking on SiriusXM’s Jim & Sam Show, the actor detailed how he contemplated planning his own murder so that his family would have the insurance money before landing the role of Gus Fring on Breaking Bad.

“My way out in my brain was: ‘Hey, do you get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get the bread?’ My wife had no idea why I was asking this stuff. I started scheming. If I got somebody to knock me off, death by misadventure, [my kids] would get the insurance. I had four kids. I wanted them to have a life,” the 65-year-old per Variety.

“It was a hard moment in time. I literally thought of self-annihilation so they could survive. That’s how low I was.”

Giancarlo Esposito speaks on a panel for “Parish” at Deadline Contenders Television 2024 held at the Directors Guild of America on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California

Rich Polk/Deadline via Getty Images

He continued, “That was the first inkling that there was a way out, but I wouldn’t be here to be available to my kids.”

The Do The Right Thing actor added, “Then, I started to think that’s not viable because the pain I would cause them would be lifelong, and there’d be lifelong trauma that would just extend the generational trauma I’m trying to move away from. The light at the end of the tunnel was Breaking Bad.”

Watch Esposito’s full interview on the Jim & Sam in the video below.