It's been a whole five years since the finale of Breaking Bad, commonly regarded by critics as one of the best television shows of all time, and even though Better Call Saul is pretty damn good as well, it doesn't quite scratch the same itch. The year 2018 marks the 10-year anniversary of the show's first season, which is as good a time as any for fans to look back nostalgically on the humble beginnings of the program, when things were oh-so-different.
Who would have thought back in 2008 that Bryan Cranston, the bumbling dad from Malcolm in the Middle, would end up in one of the most inspiring performances ever? Remember the days when Walt still had that dorky moustache? When Skylar didn't know about Walt's meth business? The days before Saul and Gus were even added to the cast?
To celebrate the tenth anniversary, Entertainment Weekly invited the cast back together for a super-cute celebratory photoshoot, and it's safe to say that everyone looks pretty different these days. In particular, Giancarlo Esposito, who played the chillingly sinister drug king Gus Fring, looks almost unrecognisable. For one thing, he's a lot friendlier and more charming than his TV counterpart, and he also looks far less stuffy.
In a candid interview with the magazine, Esposito admitted that his ability to become terrifyingly cold and creepy would often unnerve the rest of the cast on set, because he was able to change so suddenly. "Bryan Cranston has been quoted as saying to me, ‘I don’t know how the guy does it, but he scares me because all of a sudden he turns around and he turns back and his eyes are dead,'" he stated.
"I just used to look right through Bryan and he would just go, ‘Where, where does that come from, that cold and cruel look?’ But it’s something that gets developed and I know how to drop to get there, but it’s always in that place where we leave ourselves behind as actors and we take on the trappings and the physicality of the character that we’ve created that’s become a part of us."
Since the show ended, Esposito has ended up returning to the role in the third season of the spin-off prequel Better Call Saul. In a recent interview, series creator Vince Gilligan revealed that Esposito had been hesitant to reprise the character for a time, stating: "[Esposito's] big concern, god bless him for it, was not about money or any of those things. His concern was, ‘I love this character Gus Fring, he was one of the highlights of my career, and I don’t want to come back to this if it’s not up to the level of quality of Breaking Bad.'" Frankly, I'm just glad to have him back on our screens, and equally thankful that his terrifying blank stare is just part of a persona!
