‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6: Giancarlo Esposito ‘Humbled’ by Directing Episode
Better Call Saul is teeing up its cast to direct episodes in the final season. Better Call Saul Season 6 already saw episodes directed by Rhea Seehorn and Giancarlo Esposito. Seehorn made her directorial debut while Esposito made his television directing debut after helming two movies. Still, Esposito called directing Better Call Saul a humbling experience.
Esposito was a guest on the Back To One podcast on May 24. He expressed how humbling directing Better Call Saul was. Better Call Saul Season 6 airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
Directing ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 reminded Giancarlo Esposito how he likes to be directed
Back to One host Peter Rinaldi told Esposito the point of his podcast was to learn about actors’ processes so he doesn’t fall into the trap of overdirecting them. This was music to Esposito’s ears, and became relevant again when he directed the Better Call Saul Season 6 episode “Axe and Grind.”
“Actors love to hear this even more from directors who are sometimes so caught up in their own vision,” Esposito said on Back to One. “I directed Better Call Saul episode 606 and it humbled me to be able to be behind the camera again, to be able to observe.”
Acting and directing are different skills
Esposito acknowledged that he had to use different muscles to direct. He’d shared many of his actor processes during the podcast. Regardless of who is directing, Esposito made his own decisions about Gus Fring’s backstory and his wardrobe.
Actors are weird. We’re peculiar, very intense and interior in our thoughts because you have to be when you start to figure out the linchpins that create a character, that moves the dial of the wheel inside of you. I have been acting for a long time. I thankfully still love it as if it was the first day. With each character that I play, I go back to square one. It’s sort of like okay, after each take, it’s difficult but it’s almost a meditation to erase it and start over so that you can hear everything with fresh ears, your scene partner or even the rant that’s going on inside your brain so that you can erase all of it and start over. Eventually, your brain comes clean and you become present in the moment.
Giancarlo Esposito, Back to One podcast, 5/24/22
Directors can get in Giancarlo Esposito’s way
Directing Better Call Saul also put into perspective for Esposito that the direct is not the only influence to which an actor is paying attention. He recalled his own efforts to focus when he’s just the actor taking direction.
“No matter what happens, you forget,” Esposito said. “I’m always forgetting that line, gotta remember it this time or he wants me to say it this way, the director’s asked this. You erase it all and you get everything you need from the words, from the scene, from the situation. You eventually get very, very present.”
