By Devon Armor
Giancarlo Esposito spoke about his famous work acting in “Breaking Bad” as part of Student Entertainment Event’s annual back to school lecture. The event, titled “An Evening with Giancarlo Esposito,” provided a question-and-answer format discussion on the life and career of the famous multimedia personality.
Throughout the hour-long discussion, Esposito touched on a wide range of topics, from growing up in an underprivileged family to how he deals with rejection in the world of media.
Esposito spoke about his acting and the character development of his famous roles, such as Gus Fring in “Breaking Bad” and Moff Gideon in “The Mandalorian.”
The Emmy Award nominee stated that “you can be a collaborator in your own life,” as he described his process in helping develop his characters in the shows.
“My favorite part of the night was probably when he talked about his character in ‘Breaking Bad,’” sophomore astronomy major Nolan Rascher said. Rascher also noted that Esposito’s role in “Breaking Bad” was what initially provoked him to attend the SEE event.
Although initially reluctant to play a younger version of Gus Fring in the “Breaking Bad” prequel “Better Call Saul,” Esposito explained that after discussions with the production team, he decided to give it a shot.
Esposito told the audience that he played this role by wearing a different hairstyle and doing research to further understand Fring’s personality.
When freshman hearing and speech sciences major Olivia Balskus was asked about her thoughts on the lecture, she said: “It was cool to hear about his philosophies… He said some things that I think were applicable to life in college.”
To be successful, Esposito said that the biggest challenge in life is overcoming fear and further emphasized that fear can often overtake one’s life.
Esposito followed this with advice to “push through fear, because fear stops you from being the best version of yourself.”
As a whole, the lecture garnered a positive and uplifting environment both from the audience and Esposito himself. Attendees followed up with questions, which quickly became comical.
“Who is your tailor, and can I get their contact information?” one audience member asked.
Esposito focused on balancing both inspiration, with lines such as “don’t wait to be great, you’re great right now,” as well as keeping the audience engaged. He gave anecdotes about crazy auditions and being contacted to work on “The Mandalorian.”
“The event was really great,” sophomore chemical engineering major Emily Daniels said. “The questions were really interesting and insightful.”
Rascher and Daniels jointly expressed how they thought the event was successful and that they enjoyed hearing and learning about Esposito’s life and career.
This event was hosted in the grand ballroom at Adele H. Stamp Student Union. According to the SEE website, the show was sold out.
SEE helps to provide various entertainment events for students and staff in the UMD community. They have previously hosted lectures with other media personalities such as Chris Olson and actress Elizabeth Gillies.
Featured Image: Giancarlo Esposito spoke to the University of Maryland community about his life and career during the SEE back to school lecture. Photo by Devon Armor.