The appearance of Giancarlo Esposito is usually a pretty good indicator that you’re watching quality entertainment. It also tends to mean, as The Onion bluntly pointed out, that your protagonist is totally fucked. And it’s true, he has a knack for rendering villains with a bone-chilling calm. There he is in The Boys, placidly explaining to Jack Quaid why a Nazi superhero is good for business. Or methodically feeding Tilda Swinton the PR spin her dystopian conglomerate needs over espresso in Okja. One of his most infamous scenes had him precisely slitting open someone’s throat with a box cutter with the blank stare of a poker champion. He's even brought the villain chops to different galaxies in his current turn as Moff Gideon, The Mandalorian's Darksaber-wielding antagonist.
A lot of that eeriness, of course, drops out when Esposito is speaking as himself, but it’s rooted in a sort of all-encompassing life mantra he has about slowing down and finding his own rhythm. That disarming stare Gus Fring gives people before answering a panicked question? That’s Esposito doing yogic breathing. His villains are patient and methodical and disciplined because he’s patient and methodical and disciplined—qualities he’s honed over a five-decade-long acting career in theater, TV, and film. “Many actors feel like they don’t have control over the rhythms of our own inner being, because we’re given words and we’re being directed,” he says. “Bbut we all have very different rhythms about us, and we should be able to tap into that when we’re doing our creative work. I believe I can create my own timing.”
If it all sounds a little too Zen to be believed, try his eating habits: Esposito eats according to season, loading up on the freshest vegetables he can find and recalibrating his entire diet according to the time of year. I’m half expecting him to tell me about his cheat days when he says, “Some days I just need bitter greens.” He eats so little sugar that he swears plain yogurt tastes sweet to him now. So that studied, focused quality that makes his characters so deeply unsettling comes pretty naturally to him.
Ultimately, though, it might not hurt us to live a little more like Gustavo Fring. GQ rang up Esposito to talk about how his characters have influenced his workouts and why he just wants to play in the pool.
For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in between about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
GQ: You’ve been acting for over five decades now, on both stage and screen. Has any part of your daily routine stayed constant?
Giancarlo Esposito: It’s an interesting life to be on the road. Sometimes these last few years, I’ve been juggling four or five different shows. But I always have to be in striking distance of a good body, so I’m always happy to seek out places to swim, parks to run by, Pelotons to ship around the country if need be. I take on a wide range of characters, and some are more physical than others.
How do your roles affect the way you’re working out?
I believe acting is a physical adventure as well as a written one, and different roles guide me to different kinds of exercise. For Breaking Bad, I wanted to create a character who could be villainous but also care about the people who work for him. My ashtanga yoga practice and my meditation really played into creating Gustavo Fring’s personality. That created this methodical feeling about Gus, and it allowed me to be slower about my reactions. When you are present and need to listen, you have to hear with your whole spirit. In a conversation, when we’re not answering right away, it makes people uncomfortable. It made my acting partners feel very put off and very uncomfortable [laughs].
How long have you been practicing yoga?
I started about 30 years ago through the pursuit of meditation. I went to Baba Muktananda’s ashram in India to get some peace from the acting world, and I really enjoyed learning how to still my mind. I discovered I had a lot of pent-up energy—at that time I was a runner—and I thought, I’d like to figure out how to integrate this into a physical practice. So I started going to vinyasa classes, which means breath with movement. Then I learned an ashtanga sequence that I could take anywhere, because I wanted to carry my practice with me. The ashtanga was really created for 10-year-old boys who had so much energy and needed to still their bodies so they could sit and meditate. So yoga came in a natural way that I had to take responsibility for. We hold a lot of memory, a lot of trauma, sometimes a lot of joy in our bodies. It’s good to stretch that out.
Are you running frequently right now?
I’ve been a big runner. Early in my career, I was running about five to 10 miles a day, and I got a small part in Running, with Michael Douglas. I was really excited, because I understood how runners thought, how athletes thought. As I get older, I realize I need to combine more lengthening. Pounding and pounding in Central Park may not be good every day.
A few years ago, one of my daughters was listening to me trying to walk around and groaning, and I can’t even stand straight, and she said, “Papa, why don’t we figure out how to help you get back in the pool?” So I swim every day now. I’d gotten attached to running, and I’ve let it go for now because I also broke my ankle skiing, but now I find swimming invaluable. It’s buoyant and non-weight-bearing, so it’s been great for my ankle and my lower back. I’m one of those warrior people who never stops, and it’s had me listen to my body more. And it gives me enough endorphins.
Do you just do laps?
A friend of mine recently said, "What are you doing for exercise?" I said, "I'm swimming an hour and 10 minutes a day, doing laps and different strokes." He said, "Well, don't forget to play." Remember when you were a kid and you used to do handstands in the pool and play around? He said, "Swim 45 minutes, and then for 15, splash around like a kid." I was so grateful for this advice. We've become so scheduled. I feel like I always have to be within striking distance, on call, or ready. How do you take care of your body and really embrace yourself? Give yourself a break when you need it, and be more disciplined when you need that. But allow room for some play in there as well.
How might your routine differ if you’re in a live show?
Most Popular
It changes the rhythm of the day, because you’re always working at night. Filming every day, I want to have my lines on my lap and laying in bed by 9 o’clock, because that often starts at six in the morning and I’m expected to go for 16, 17 hours. But not all of that time is spent entertaining, being on.
With theater, I’m starting to get amped up and ready around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We start at 8, and the play doesn’t end until 10, so you’re either on the train or you’re off the train. You don’t break any of your moments. I’m also singing and dancing, so that’s strenuous. How I time my energy is different, because you’re going nonstop for two and a half hours. You could be sweating, singing, dancing, doing scenes. There’s no time to say, “Hey, I need to go to the bathroom now.” It’s a different discipline. Theater gives you a training like no other. You’re not lazy, and you’re able to keep the through line of energy for those two hours.
Since your characters exert so much influence over the way you’re exercising, is that the same with food?
I pay attention to lifestyle. There’s a scene with Gustavo Fring where he cooks a seafood dish that’s indicative of Chile, where he comes from. I’m always fascinated by what characters may have held on to from their culture.
If I’m playing a character who lived and breathed, I feel a greater responsibility to render that character real. I’m doing a show now where I’m playing Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and his habits I’ve studied. He drank a lot, smoked a lot, ate rich foods; he loved the high life. He loved the Red Rooster up in Harlem because he loved ribs. So part of my preparation has been to think about that.
What are your personal eating habits right now?
I like simple food, so that means unprocessed. I eat in line with an Ayurvedic diet, which is eating seasonally: rice, simple vegetables, sometimes cooked in clarified butter, clean ingredients. I stay away from sweets and ice creams and sugared stuff, because it just zooms my brain and my energy level for a short period of time. During the last eight months before I came to New York, I was hunkered down in Albuquerque, and I had a garden. I planted tomato and zucchini and artichokes and sage and lavender and carrots and beets and beans...and I realized, growing my own vegetables in the backyard, I control what’s in the soil. So the vegetables were cleaner. I had broccoli, kale, and cabbage, which came out beautifully.
Early in my career I was on a macrobiotic diet, which is basically a vegetarian diet of grains and seaweed and pickled vegetables. I’ve also done Alejandro Junger’s Clean diet, which includes a lot of fish and grains. No white flour, no white sugar, all those things the body has a hard time processing or that are stimulating. It’s a healing diet, so it’s meant to let the body recover itself and digest in a natural way. Your digestive internal body starts to get stronger, because processed foods break all that down.
Most PopularI've done the bodybuilder diet, too, because I've played roles I've gotta get buff for. So I'll eat egg whites and chicken breast, no bread, no white sugar. Protein bar before I go to the gym, lift weights afterwards, eat within a half hour. It's all science, really. But you can personalize that science and eat things that you like that are good for you.
Can you break down what eating seasonally means—what does that look like right now, at the beginning of winter?
As we’re getting into the winter, I need warming foods, which come from root vegetables: sweet potato, carrot, daikon radish, things that grow into the ground and that you can make soups out of. You want to be preparing your body for cold.
My father’s from Naples, so I also believe in the Mediterranean diet, which contains a lot of oil and olives and pickled things, and lettuces and root vegetables. I love that I come from a country where people still can stuff. So I’ve bottled some tomatoes for the winter. In Italy people don’t keep much in their refrigerators because you can get these incredible vegetables and fish from the ocean that morning. So you’re eating closer to nature, and it gives you a different energetic and spiritual psychic feeling. I don’t normally eat wheat in America because the wheat strain changed in the 50s, when they started using pesticides. Eating according to season really strengthens the body and the mind.
Some days I go, "I just want bitter greens. I just need more greens." And I'll have broccolini or a plate of broccoli. And I go, "Wow, I need to reconnect with greens." And it makes a difference. But that's really intense listening. Paying attention is hard.
How did you end up learning about all these kinds of eating styles?
One of the first books my mother gave me was Sugar Blues by Gloria Swanson, where she talks about the history of sugar and the value of it and what it did to your body in the long term. I think that changed my life. I started to think, Oh, I can eat well, or I can eat quick. I don’t go anywhere near the crafty truck on sets because all that’s gonna boost my energy for about ten minutes and I’m gonna crash. I’ll get some hot water or tea and some pretzels. Now, to me, plain yogurt tastes sweet. Your taste buds change and adapt.
I was first told in books by Michio Kushi, who was a macrobiotic guy, and George Ohsawa, to chew my food. I encourage people to take their time and chew their food well. You’ll enjoy it more, and your body will like you more because you’ll be getting all the nutrients you need.
Do you drink coffee?
Not when I wake up or throughout the day. I only drink an espresso at 2 or 3 in the morning when I need to get through that last scene. It just makes me too jittery, and it’s acidic for the belly. I used to be able to have five cups a day, but no longer. I never thought I could wake up without coffee, but now I just drink a cup of hot water and I don’t need that boost. That’s from abstaining—realizing my body has its own energy and I can work off that.
Most PopularThis interview has been edited and condensed.
