From Moff Gideon (The Mandalorian) to Gus Fring (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) to Stan Edgar (The Boys), actor Giancarlo Esposito has spent the past decade on television mastering the character of the calculating, menacing villain-administrator.
Typically a character of few words on screen, the real-life Giancarlo Esposito is kind, effusive, friendly, and inviting. From where does the actor channel inspiration for his cold and calculating characters?
Esposito credits his character work to one thing in particular: his experiences waiting tables as a young actor. The experiences influenced him and fueled his drive in the industry, inspiring him and keeping him grounded in his work.
After waiting on Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, the young waiter was blown away by his encounter with celebrity. It made him wonder: “How do we get over what people expect us to be and how to be? It’s what our choices are and what we want in life that reflects how deeply we want to go into this acting thing.”
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What’s Your Type, Giancarlo Esposito?
In Hollywood there are many types of villains. The Anti-villain, the Authority Figure, the Beast, the Bully, the Equal, the Femme Fatale, the Henchman, the Personification of Evil, the Mastermind, the list goes on.
And Giancarlo Esposito definitely has a “type,” and he plays it perfectly: The Machine.
Calculating, emotionless, an unstoppable mechanism, “The Machine” always has a plan, and it is typically in direct opposition to the protagonist’s values and objectives.
Giancarlo Esposito’s Machine Characters
Many viewers were first introduced to Giancarlo Esposito’s Machine in Breaking Bad where he plays the ever-cold and uncaring Gus Fring, a man driven in part by profit but also by a hatred for the cartels that killed his partner for no particular reason.
Rather than show emotion or attempt to rationalize the actions of his enemies, Fring resolves to one day achieve absolute power as a means of exacting revenge for the meaningless murder of his “brother.”
He gets his chance when he’s invited back to the scene of the original crime by those who committed it, an invitation extended to make amends and set the stage for a partnership. But Fring has no intention of shaking hands with the men who robbed him of his brother. Instead, he uses poison to exact his revenge in the most brutal way.
In The Boys, Esposito plays a similar character, Stan Edgar, the quiet and calculating hand behind Vought that big baddie Homelander initially fears.
But the super villain’s fear of Edgar dissipates after Homelander embraces his true nature and the public appears to accept him for who he is. Emboldened by public adulation, the maniacal supe ceases to see Esposito’s Machine as a threat and makes a move against him with the help of Victoria.
Homelander’s attempts to wipe out Edgar are nearly successful until Edgar tells Homelander that he does not fear him, does not respect him, implying his lack of respect is with good reason.
What does Edgar have on Homelander that prompts the big baddie to spare his life even when Homelander seems to have the upper hand in every way?
Edgar’s gameplan here is typical Machine behavior. Even in the face of death, he is unafraid, emotionless, and still working through his plan with meticulous calculation.
This moment exemplifies how Edgar the character and Esposito the actor both know that the Machine’s power lies in their ability to serve revenge cold, to keep their enemy on their toes.
Edgar does this by acting as though he is privy to a secret his enemy isn’t, even though it’s just as likely he’s flying by the seat of his pants. But Homelander doesn’t know that. And everything his enemy doesn’t know works to the Machine’s advantage.
Building Character
The tenacity and determination Giancarlo Esposito cultivated as a working class actor, waiting tables to supplement his burgeoning film career (King of New York, Changeling, Carlito’s Way: Rise to Power) certainly shines through in his body of work. In his television roles, his Machine displays the same determination the actor himself utilized to drive him to succeed in Hollywood.
His characters are hammers, unstoppable and nearly unbeatable in all situations, only defeated by another Machine or Mastermind.
Whether that calculated subterfuge and gritty determination will serve Edgar in defeating the ridiculous yet all-powerful Homelander on The Boys remains to be seen.
The finale of Season 3 of The Boys hits Prime Video on Friday, July 8th.