Giancarlo Esposito is putting the pedal to the metal in the high-octane, New Orleans-set gangster thriller “Parish.”
In a career spanning six decades, Esposito, 65, is best known for playing drug lord Gus Fring in “Breaking Bad” and its prequel, “Better Call Saul.”
As Gray Parish, he’s a man in crisis. His only son’s death a year earlier remains devastating but now his limo business is going under and the family may be forced to move. Things get much worse when he answers a friend’s call to make a dangerous drive.
That one job has huge consequences as Parish finds himself being brought back into the illegal, dangerous business he thought he’d left forever.
With his family exposed to harsh reprisals, Parish becomes enmeshed with Zimbabwean gangsters who, in their murderous ferocity, rival Mexico’s drug cartels for ruthlessness, torture and executions.
“This is the story of an Everyman, not a privileged Silver Spoon aristocratic kind of guy,” Esposito began in a Zoom interview. “A guy who found life to be tough. And through that toughness and that challenge, he was resourceful.
“You don’t see that guy right away — but you meet him very soon. You see an Everyman forced under pressure to become an extraordinary man.
“Then you learn the secret he’s held back — that he already had something that he did well. And now he doesn’t feel that way in his real life.
“This is a man who had lost respect for himself because he was unable to talk about what really bothered him in regard to the loss of his son and communicate that well enough to his wife and daughter.
“He’s really a guy in deep depression. Who didn’t know how to solve that depression, didn’t know where to turn or who to talk to. We layered this idea of this man on his journey with the fact that he had a past life where he did something that he was ashamed of. Something he thought he’d completely put behind him.
“Now, when the chips are down, he has to make a choice on what life he wants to live in.
“Gray Parish’s story is the story of ghosts. The ghost of a man’s past, a ghost of a man who could not really connect with himself today. And the gap widens and deepens the more he tries to bury it.
“I’m excited for people to see ‘Parish’ because,” he added, “I don’t believe anyone’s seen me like this before. I do all my own stunts, all my own driving.
“This guy Gray is tougher than most — he is not as calculated as most. He’s flying by the seat of his pants.”
“Parish” streams the first of six episodes on AMC and AMC+ March 31.
