Giancarlo Esposito has a different energy about him these days. The shift may be subtle enough to evade someone sitting down to “Parish,” the new AMC drama in which he plays the title role and serves as executive producer. But chatting with him in person reveals a lightness that hasn’t always been there, especially over the decade when all anyone wanted to rave about was his portrayal of Gustavo Fring.
I pointed that out to him in February, with no expectation that he'd remember the last time we spoke, a few weeks before the pandemic lockdowns began in 2020. Esposito talks to a lot of journalists and interacts with exponentially more fans. To him, I am merely a drop in humanity’s ocean. Nevertheless, he confirmed what I was sensing.
