HARLEM HEAT
GIANCARLO ESPOSITO GOES FROM PLAYING A MONSTER ON BREAKING BAD TO PREACHING THE GOOD BOOK IN GODFATHER OF HARLEM
IANCARLO ESPOSITO has spent the past decade being so utterly convincing in his portrayal of a cold, detached monster you’d expect him to be like that in real life – just not quite as, er, murderous. But the man who plays Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is such an effervescent and bubbly delight, I can hardly believe they’re the same person. Actors, eh?
The real Esposito has far more in common with his latest character, Adam Clayton Powell Jr, a congressman and preacher (and very real person) who appears in Starzplay’s heavyweight 1960s mob drama, Godfather Of Harlem. Based on a true story – though it’s certainly not shy of taking the odd liberty with the facts – it tells the story of famous gangster Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker, brilliant as ever) who is released from Alcatraz after an 11-year stint and sets about reclaiming his old
turf from the pesky Italians who have swooped in while he was away. What does that mean? It means, for once, that Esposito isn’t the bad guy. But who is Powell?
‘Adam Clayton Powell Jr is a congressman, preacher and liver of life,’ says Esposito. ‘He’s comfortable in his own skin, likes to have fun but was
‘It’s been a relief to play a guy with so many different parts to his personality’
also a brilliant lawyer and statesman. He was a preacher at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and was really the first civil rights leader at that time, way before Martin Luther King – who he did know and was one of his rivals.
Powell was stumping for equality.’
Esposito plays him with a vim and vigour that is positively infectious. Powell steals every scene he’s in – a combination of wit, smarts and smarm making the character a fascinating foil to the pent-up anger of Bumpy Johnson and the enlightened righteousness of Malcolm X (Nigel Thatch, reprising his role from Ava DuVernay’s 2014 film Selma). Esposito clearly has an affection for the character, a man he witnessed preach himself when he was a child.
‘I spent some time in Harlem as a young boy – I was on Broadway at seven years old – and somewhere around the time I was ten I was taken to Abyssinian Baptist Church by my mum and was able to hear Powell preach,’ recalls Esposito. ‘It was unbelievable – what a showman he was and how connected he was to his people.’
Not that he was without his foibles. ‘This is a guy who went to Paris and took his secretary [a former Miss Ohio, no less] and another woman and got in trouble for it,’ he says. ‘They tried to accuse him of going there on taxpayers’ dollars and he fought it. He was so colourful. He would go to Washington when he was banned from Congress in disguise!
‘It’s been a relief to play a guy with so many different parts to his personality. He was fierce, he was dedicated, he loved women, he smoked, he drank, he lived life fully and I’m having a blast playing him.’ Another blast is seeing Oscar winner Forest Whitaker lead his first television series since 2011’s Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour (during which Esposito made a guest appearance as a former prosecutor) and it’s clear the two clicked on set. ‘I really enjoy working with Forest because he works from a very organic and internal place,’ reveals Esposito. ‘He’s an actor who has great depth and, in many instances, doesn’t say much. I really enjoy an actor who can really convey all of their feelings internally and then look me in the eye and play ball.
‘He’s a perfectionist, though, I can tell! When he’s not quite there or he’s disappointed with how the scene’s gone, he can look at me and I can look at him and say let’s go again.’
No interview with Esposito can pass without a mention of his latest role as the evil Moff Gideon in Disney’s The Mandalorian, where he’s skulking across the galaxy trying to hunt down Baby Yoda. Naturally, the chance of getting a straight answer on a Star Wars project is essentially zero so what’s more terrifying: a knock on the door from Bumpy Johnson or a call from Disney’s lawyers?
‘My phone is already ringing – it’s Disney’s lawyers!’ laughs Esposito. ‘It would be very terrifying to get a visit from Bumpy Johnson because he carried that straight razor everywhere he went and he would slice you up, and that’s kind of terrifying.
‘I know that feeling because another one of the characters I play, Gustavo Fring, uses a box cutter to exact his vengeance, so I would say a visit from Bumpy would be the rough one.’
Stream new episodes of Godfather Of Harlem every Sunday on Starzplay