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Better Call Saul has elaborated the history of Breaking Bad character Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). But, Esposito says there is a biography of Gus that only he knows. You’ve never seen it on either show, but he shared a little bit of it in a recent interview. 

'Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul' star Giancarlo Esposito sits on a bed and thinks about Gus Fring's history
Giancarlo Esposito | Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Esposito was a guest on the Back to One podcast on May 24. Speaking about his process as an actor, Esposito revealed some of the biography he wrote for Gus on Breaking Bad. Better Call Saul Season 6 returns July 11. 

Giancarlo Esposito wrote Gus Fring’s biography before ‘Better Call Saul’

Vince Gilligan cast Esposito as Gus in Breaking Bad. Gus used the chicken restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos as a front for his meth business. That’s when Walter White (Bryan Cranston) got involved with him. But, there was more. 

“There’s no one stopping me from saying to Vince Gilligan, ‘I want to collaborate on this and these are the reasons. I want to play a guy that’s complete, he’s full, he makes his own choices. Yes, he chooses darkness because of these reasons. This is what happened in his life. You wrote this. I’m just going to expound on it.’” Esposito said on Back to One.

Gus Fring already lived this life before ‘Better Call Saul’

Both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul revealed some of Gus’s history, including his Chilean background which was Esposito’s idea. Esposito revealed a bit more. 

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“[Gus] came from a family of privilege, he turned his back, he was raised in Chile,” Esposito said. “I created this whole backstory for Gus that you will never see. Maybe you’ll see it at some point if we ever get a chance to do The Rise of Gus. It’s just stuck in my head somewhere in time. There’s going to be The Rise of Gus and that could happen because I’ve created this whole world. So acting is world-building and it’s self-building.”

‘Better Call Saul’ deepens Gus Fring’s revenge 

Gus was already involved with Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis) and Eladio Vuente (Luis Politti) on Breaking Bad. Going back to Better Call Saul establishes his resentment towards the Salmanacas. 

With Gus Fring I wanted to play a certain kind of guy that reflected a person that you don’t know what he does or how he does it so that the reveal would be great that he really is someone who wants this. Money, power, all these things, yeah, part of it. No, but really revenge. He was done wrong, he wants revenge and it reflects his psychology that he feels like, very important for me, he could do it better than the Salamancas. He could do this business so much better, so much smoother, make so much more money than Don Eladio that he is the smarter. Oh, okay, so now you gave him a quality where he thinks a lot of himself. Yeah, he does. You’ve got to create that. So then there’s a guy who has confidence.

Giancarlo Esposito, Back to One podcast, 5/24/22
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