Giancarlo Esposito is commonly renowned for his portrayal of Gus Fring in Breaking Bad from 2009 to 2011. So much so that Esposito admitted that he was apprehensive about playing the businessman/drug kingpin again in the show's prequel Better Call Saul several years later.
Esposito admitted that because of his original portrayal of Fring in Better Call Saul's predecessor, he was reluctant to come back to play the younger version of him. Esposito would later relent, believing that there were more depths to Fring not seen in Breaking Bad because of its predecessor taking place in the past.
Esposito detailed his reluctance to play Fring again during an interview with GQ. "Big decision for me to make. I felt like I was going through the same dance, and I hope I didn't stress anyone out at Buena Vista Productions or Vince. But, I felt like, I didn't want to go back. In my brain, I was like, 'I can't mess with that guy. That guy is done, man. He's history. He's iconic. I don't want to mess with him anymore.,'" he said. "But I went, 'No, don't choose that. Choose to surpass that.' So, what are your obstacles? All of this was in my decision-making process. What can you do differently? How can you create a different Gus? It is before the period of Breaking Bad. Okay, so he's more volatile, he's less controlled. All these things went into the basket and I said, 'Yes.'"
Fring was re-integrated in Better Call Saul around season 3, though the show had given a strong hint that the character would come back when the first letter of the previous season's ten episodes was an anagram that spelled out "FRINGSBACK." Fring had a much different role in Better Call Saul compared to Breaking Bad. Instead of being an ally-turned-antagonist, Fring was more of an anti-hero/protagonist. His story in the show revolved more around the formation of the iconic meth superlab and his tense rivalry with the intimidating albeit charming Lalo Salamanca.
What Esposito said is more or less true. Gus Fring is regarded as one of the best villains ever created because of how brilliantly diabolical he is. From his ability to lead a double life to dishing out his revenge to the cartel as coldly as possible, it felt like Fring was a one-man freight train whose ability to pull every stop made him a genius who could never be thwarted. So to see Esposito play a less experienced, not as calculated Fring in Better Call Saul was a sight for fans of the Breaking Bad universe. Even though Walt would go on to defeat him, Walt never intimidated Gus once during their mental chess game, but Lalo did.
Fans were hoping to know more about Fring's backstory in Better Call Saul because of the subtle hints that Breaking Bad dropped, which they didn't get. However, some stories are better left untold, as they say, so while it would have been cool to see the early days of television's arguably most brilliant criminal mastermind, there's nothing wrong with seeing a previously infallible character show himself to be, well, fallible.
Better Call Saul seasons 1-5 can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: GQ/YouTube