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Giancarlo Esposito Full Panel | Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian, MCU & More | GalaxyCon OKC 2025
Jun 17, 2025
Giancarlo Esposito sits down for a powerful, wide-ranging panel at GalaxyCon Oklahoma City 2025. The acclaimed actor behind Gus Fring (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), Moff Gideon (The Mandalorian), and Stan Edgar (The Boys) shares personal stories, career insights, and his approach to craft, legacy, and mindfulness.
In this in-depth session, Esposito reflects on:
His experience working with John Favreau and joining Star Wars
The discipline and spiritual depth behind his most intense roles
Fan-favorite performances like Gus Fring, Moff Gideon, and characters from Far Cry 6, Once Upon a Time, and The Resident
How theater shaped his stillness, presence, and performance style
Why "Box Cutter" from Breaking Bad is his favorite scene
Legacy, identity, energy, and how to stay grounded as an artist
Powerful moments with fans and lessons from raising four daughters
đ Event: GalaxyCon Oklahoma City
đ
Date: May 2025
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0:00
ep we love you thunder up yeah yeah baby all right
0:07
welcome to Oklahoma City how are you feeling this weekend i'm feeling great having a good time it's absolutely amazing to have you here i mean the
0:14
energy here is so electric everybody's been really looking forward to this moment as have I uh thank you so much
0:19
for just being here and spending some time with us answering our questions my pleasure absolutely how's your weekend been so far it's been great met a lot of
0:26
great people and the fans are always great to talk to and see sign for and have some laughs with and it's the
0:32
genuine people that come out who've um so many fans here in Oklahoma have seen such a variant of various amounts of my
0:39
work that I'm always surprised you know you know someone came up to me an older gentleman said oh I started watching you
0:46
in Nash Bridges wow and uh yeah so it's it's lovely um it makes it reminds me um
0:53
that uh I' I've done a lot of work and I've been around for a long time and I'm really um in gratitude and appreciate it
1:00
no definitely and then you know we're definitely grateful for you um you put out so much amazing work and you put so
1:06
much into your craft um I have some questions prepared for you and then of course we'll open up to the audience so
1:11
I guess we can start right here uh across your career you've stepped into some intensely layered roles but before
1:16
the lines are spoken and the scenes are blocked there's a set there's a crew there's an energy what kind of creative
1:22
atmosphere do you look for or try to create when you walk onto the set what tells you that this is a space where
1:27
real artistry can happen well any space is a space where real artistry can happen it's a matter of do you relate to
1:33
the space and if you don't um then you have to uh find a way in and so when I I
1:39
come from the theater so the theater uh it it has a set and it has a certain
1:45
feeling um some theaters uh in America are ghosted so there's other entities within them um others have a long and
1:53
long very long history over a hundred years old for some of them so you feel all that vibration and um as as I always
2:01
do it i walk in and I spend time in the room it it's I just did two films in Atlanta and I walked onto a set that was
2:07
built on the sound stage and uh the the film is a film called By Any Means uh
2:12
with Mark Wahberg based on a true story takes place in the 60s so of course the room had a a certain uh antique feeling
2:20
to it and I walked in and I stood there for a minute and everyone said "Come on in." And director's over here and they
2:25
kept looking at me oddly while I'm standing there breathing and looking at
2:31
the room and feeling the room's energy because then I have to put my persona into the room so to answer your question
2:37
by the time I get to the set I've already um figured a lot of things out or had my own visual of what it may be
2:45
like what that room may have in it where I might go saying certain lines um and
2:51
so when I walk in the first time having never seen it I tried to figure out if it matched what I saw and then I put
3:00
myself in that room physically in the moment to be able to use all every element of that room uh to play into my
3:08
performance uh but that's because I'm a theater actor and that's how I prepare uh because it's not only in preparation
3:14
that I learn my lines uh then I have to think about I'll tell you a story i live in Connecticut my I have four daughters
3:20
and um they were very young at the time and I had my office in the living room um in one corner of the living room and
3:27
I was sitting there and um I was playing a lawyer so I would sit at my desk and
3:33
talk and talk and talk and my daughter came in and she said "What are you doing?" I said "I'm learning my line." She said "What are you playing?" She had
3:39
to be 10 years old and I said "I'm playing a lawyer." She said "Oh okay okay well doesn't a lawyer um like talk
3:45
to the jury and talk to the judge and get and I started laughing and I said
3:50
"I'm not there yet but I'll get there soon." So the next day she comes in and I'm standing up and I'm I'm putting the
3:57
judge there and the jury there and the and the the prosecutor there and I'm talking to all the walls and she comes
4:02
in she goes "That's better Mom."
4:09
It's so wonderful to see how kids just have this sense of play and they can really just like let go um how much has
4:15
have your kids inspired your work i mean I know you just gave a small example now but how much of your work really comes
4:21
from the you know driving force of having to provide and and and not only be a good dad but also just like set a
4:27
positive example for them well I can only think of another story you know when I first moved to Connecticut many years ago I don't live there anymore uh
4:33
and since then I'm divorced and I'm very close to my whole family and I have four daughters just to catch you up when I
4:38
moved there uh I was playing I was doing a piece um uh called Wonderland for
4:45
Peterberg it was about a mental hospital uh and my my episode was never aired but
4:51
but I I had my first child and I was playing a guy who had six he had
4:56
multiple personality disorder he was kind of autistic on the spectrum and uh
5:01
and I've had to play six characters within this one piece and um I my first
5:08
daughter used to suck her fingers her two middle fingers and um
5:15
and I I I was very inspired by that cuz I wondered how how different is that
5:21
than sucking your thumb and most kids or at least I sucked my thumb because it fits right into the roof of your mouth
5:27
but she sucked these two middle fingers it's even hard for me to do but I started to do it because I was messing
5:32
around with her when she was young and then I started to play this character and I was figuring out all these different personalities of which there
5:39
were six and in the show I sucked these two fingers in a corner because it was
5:44
calming me as the character after a very traumatic moment um so my children I
5:50
think inspire me a lot but the world inspires me as an actor i'm an observer right i observe people right right i
5:57
love coming to Comic- Con because when you come to a Comic-Con you meet people from all walks of life all different
6:02
ages who are in wonder enchantment and joy when do you get a chance to experience that on a daily basis my
6:09
reminder is take this experience with you during the week so that you understand that it's wonderful to be
6:16
unjaded as that of a child it's wonderful to have an imagination it's
6:21
wonderful to have people recognize that imagination and it's wonderful to be seen living in that space because we we
6:28
sometimes think that to grow up and be responsible and then to show up is to always be a certain way you can be silly
6:35
you can have fun you can be inspired right that's really an important part of life that I remind myself as an adult
6:42
when all the responsibilities of my life you know start to choke me that it
6:48
really should be fun right that's the whole part of it that I think some of us
6:54
including myself leave behind and whenever I find myself leaving behind I
6:59
go back and recapture it so my kids have really inspired me in all of their great moments and all of their traumatic
7:05
moments and all of their turmoil i mean I have four daughters so there you know there's a lot of responsibility to to
7:12
any child but to four daughters I mean I feel like um the females are really
7:18
creative and they're a little bit not to discount male children or any male at
7:24
all but are a little bit ahead of the curve when it comes to um the way they communicate their artistry they're
7:31
they're just a little bit further ahead because they because they're female that's what they have they have that
7:37
kind of chemical creation within them so because I have four I'm very inspired by all of them that's amazing thank you so
7:43
much for sharing yeah you know there is a uh there's a
7:48
controlled intensity to your work uh the sense that every moment is intentional i was curious to know where does that
7:54
discipline come from i I believe it comes from the theater it it comes from because in the theater I'm
8:02
on stage for two hours and you can't stop there's no cutting of the camera and starting again if you're you're
8:07
either as one director said to me Anna Shapiro who I really love from Stephen Theater Company in Chicago you're either
8:13
on the train or off the train so you know when you have the audience in the palm of your hand and when you don't and
8:19
and you have to be aware of that um our awareness uh as human beings has
8:24
diminished not increased it's diminished because we have cell phones and we allow the phone to be aware we allow the phone
8:30
to be aware for us as opposed to being aware of of energy right so we are um
8:39
90% water 80 to 90 70 to 90 for men 90 to 100 for women and we're electrical
8:45
beings which means we feel things and so to understand that is to understand and
8:52
take our own temperature as to where we are in the current of things right we're current
9:00
and you feel that current and you can feel it if
9:05
you stay quiet for a minute you feel what's in between the words so my intensity in my characters comes from me
9:13
acknowledging that current and also I went to military school um I had one of
9:18
those strict upbringings in many ways and I feel like what I have to do in a
9:24
room full of chaos is to control the chaos and I can't control the room i can't
9:31
control anyone but myself i can only control or take responsibility for my
9:37
own attitude but I do that and in doing so in film it's about bringing the
9:44
camera to me bringing all of your attention which will eventually be on the other end of the screen to me which
9:51
means I have to be still thinking something active in my
9:58
thinking active in my heart but still in many moments for your attention to stay
10:04
with me going "What is he doing what might he be thinking what's going on?"
10:09
Especially with some of the intense characters that I play yeah and um you know just to mirror what you just said
10:15
about you know us being so device- driven especially nowadays in society one of the things that I'm always constantly doing with my son is telling
10:22
him you know cuz he's always like "What what am I going to do now what game am I going to watch now what show am I going to watch now?" I'm like "Puppy just sit
10:28
with your thoughts it's it's healthy just sit with your thoughts you'll just be be just fine." And you are a master
10:34
of the pause the glance the breath between lines i was curious how do you approach silence as a performance tool
10:41
and what lives in those quiet moments between dialogue what lives in those quiet moments is spirit my spirit or the
10:47
character spirit i try to allow myself as an actor what I am and what I call myself as a channel i'm a channel for
10:54
the writer's words uh and I'm I am trusted to bring um those words to life
11:00
verbally but acting is not just with words it's also a physical experience
11:06
and so what I do is allow that to live and it lives within that pause within
11:12
that space it is not an easy place to
11:18
trust but when you trust it you leave room for mindfulness that is your higher
11:26
self because I hear voices okay you could say I'm schizophrenic i'm crazy all those things my kids already do but
11:33
my girls tell me "Papa you are extra." Yeah I know i got a lot of extra
11:39
stuff going on but there's the mind and the voice inside when you meet someone you look at them you certain
11:45
determinations come up in your brain right from what they're wearing to what they say and you take that in but how
11:53
often do you honor what that says or discount it for me it's a constant
11:58
effort not to judge anyone you know I mean at all and so you take you know
12:03
your temperature as to what you're feeling and what's happening and so for me in my acting I allow that to live
12:09
because that space is really really the interesting part of what life really is
12:15
do you feel like your theater background helped you master that because in theater it's so big and out and you're
12:20
selling out to the audience whereas in acting you have to be small and live in this small space and again like I said
12:26
you're a master of those moments do you think theater really helped you it helped me be disciplined but it also
12:32
helped me i'm very large in my personality and that becomes from being on Broadway and being in rooms like this
12:38
where you have to get your point across to the back row so everything has to be exaggerated film taught me to take that
12:45
exaggeration and shrink it and to make it more intense and to make it more real and when I remind myself when the
12:51
camera's on I remind myself it's not even as big as my life is because I always ask "What lens are you on?" And
13:00
they tell me "I'm on a 30 i'm on a 20 i'm seeing the whole world okay so that
13:05
I can be big and then they could be right here and then that large s of my
13:10
personality has to come down because it would blow the screen away and you have to allow it to be commensurate with how
13:17
you're being shot um you've played iconic villains rebels leaders but
13:23
beyond the characters there's an artist who brings them to life what do you know now about yourself as a performer that
13:28
you didn't know 10 20 years ago and what's still evolving i I I love to learn and and to me it's
13:36
it's really important to always be in that space of wonder you know I love what I do and I'm blessed to love what I
13:43
do because there's always a curiosity behind my work in terms of my research for characters I play in terms for how I
13:50
play them um because I believe what I do is very specific because our world is moving so fast television moves faster
13:57
than film we shoot six pages a day in television we shoot one page a day in film and because uh our attention spans
14:04
are in a different place crewwise um that I feel like I have to be right
14:10
on it to be able to deliver it because there's less time given to it and so um
14:19
it's changed me quite a bit it what's changed the most is from theater to film
14:25
is the the definition of my performance i've become more refined and I I feel
14:32
like I have so much more to give and I'm still not there uh I'm a lot of things are said about me but if I believe those
14:40
things I fear that I might stop doing what I do the best and what I do the
14:46
best is to refine every performance I have and make it very special and and I
14:52
think um to to realize that it's not the
14:58
end result it's the journey that's what I really love it's going through all the
15:03
ways to get to the character to where the character needs to be not forgetting
15:09
that that character is a part of me as well like I I believe you should take the rest and leave the best but I
15:15
believe that they we want to see you right we want to see a part of what of
15:21
who you are we like you so if you throw all that away and you completely disappear maybe you leave the character
15:29
devoid of some personality that we would want to see awesome thank you so much i have one final question and we're going
15:34
to open up to the audience you know some actors chase visibility uh you've built
15:39
legacy uh do you think about the long game when you choose a role and what do you hope for your body of work says
15:46
about you as an artist you there's so many things packed into
15:52
that when I was a younger actor sure i mean I think um I think even when I was coming up I mean everyone wants to be
15:59
famous what is that about you know that visibility um I I think it's it's a
16:04
human trait we want to be seen we want to be acknowledged and rightfully so as we should be uh will we be acknowledged
16:12
for what we really love is the question will we will we be disappointed if that
16:19
that visibility that stardom doesn't come or will we be happy doing what we
16:25
love to do the gift is in doing and that should be enough but um sometimes it it
16:32
uh for some of us it's not enough uh I I never think about legacy when I'm doing a part i just played a historical
16:39
character Vernon Damer no one knows who he is he um he was a mentor to Megar
16:44
Evers and he was killed by the Klux Clan he was a farmer who had the richest man
16:50
in Hattisburg Tennessee and he owned a farm a sawmill and a store and and they
16:55
they put a pole tax on blacks being able to vote and so so because they didn't
17:01
want them to vote and they knew that black people didn't have the money and so he stood up and he said "Whoever ever
17:06
can't pay their pole tax I'll pay it for them because we have to get black people to vote." 1963 3 days later he was dead
17:14
right so um and I I mention this story because of of course because no one I
17:21
didn't know who Vernon was and probably many people in the room don't but I didn't think about the legacy of me
17:27
connected to him while I was doing the part because I'm honestly want to be in truth what is the truth do you ask
17:34
yourself that from day to day what is your truth it so you know the question is are you happy right that's where you
17:41
start are you fulfilling what you were put here to fulfill not that it's an obligation but it's your destiny and if
17:48
you're not looking for your destiny it's going to look for you it's going to find you and your destiny is what you love to
17:54
do it's that connection with something palpable passionate and strong that connects you to everyone else so then
18:01
there's no visibility cuz it does there's no highest there's no lowest just because I'm seen more than you
18:07
doesn't mean I'm better than you right it just means I found a connection for something in my life that makes a
18:13
difference for me not for you not for my mother not for my father not for my priest but for me and that's what you
18:20
have to find what connects you to the fabric of humanity you as a human being
18:25
what is your gift what are you supposed to be doing that's a question you just ask yourself and the answer may not come
18:32
right now it may come in a few days it may reveal itself to you over a period
18:37
of time but that is what you should be chasing because that is what's going to make you happy not just in this moment
18:45
but in every moment for the rest of your life so my advice is that when you
18:50
connect to that universal feeling that
18:57
current that energy that you will find exactly what propels you to stay
19:06
grounded within this communication and connection not only in the world but
19:12
from human being to human being right that's where the juice
19:18
is and that will allow you then to be seen exactly how you should be seen i
19:26
get the other the other is just superficial the depth of sharing and
19:32
being really seen means that I see your light i see your love i see your
19:39
grace that's what life's about
19:44
[Applause] thank you thank you i know there are many people who need to hear that it's
19:51
such a positive message and an important message that people don't necessarily hear every day or just don't have the
19:57
courage to even think about themselves um I would love to sit here and talk to you all day long i have Thank you this
20:04
is amazing but you know what we have some questions here from our audience please line up and I promise we'll get as many as we can in the time allotted i
20:11
apologize but I will be the bad guy and cut the line off when necessary so hi Stephan up what's your name and what's your question john um first of all um
20:19
John Carter I'd like to say that goatee you had the genie of a ball it was a good look i didn't even recognize you
20:25
thank you so much there's my f one of my favorite roles um I once upon a time
20:30
used a lot of green screen work for you have you ever done anything with that
20:36
amount of green screen and what was that like it was really fun to do um I I've done a few things on green screen now
20:41
since then that was one of my early green screen works and when I was Sydney the Mira it was just a small green
20:47
screen but a lot of what I did with Lana um and as as uh the genie was on a huge
20:54
in a huge green screen room um since then of course I've done Far Cry um I I've done a bunch of other things as
21:00
well mandalorian was a big volume room um I enjoy it but it's it's a lot of
21:05
work in terms of allowing you to see the mirror of what's going on in the world through my eyes i always got to see more
21:12
of Sydney because you know the last we saw was when um the Snow Queen let him out and that was it so unfortunately you
21:18
know we didn't get to see a lot more of him after that but I was hoping we would i was too but the show went the way it
21:24
did and and they didn't need Sydney around anymore but who knows maybe in the supposed reboot hope so thank you so
21:31
much for your question all right hello she's a pro at this already hi hi what's
21:38
your name my name is Hannah and I have a
21:43
a question so what is your favorite kind of food
21:51
wow what's my favorite kind of food well right now I'm eating high protein lowfat
21:56
because I'm training for my action film but I really like this Ayurvedic dish
22:01
called kiteri it's like Indian baby food um it is um mung beans that are cooked
22:08
down into like a soup one of my favorite foods thank you you're welcome thank you
22:13
Hannah all right hi what's your name what's your question landon hi Landon i
22:18
was at your uh area yesterday and I've been thinking about a question to ask
22:23
you here and I have it on my phone so let me pull it up really quickly okay okay so out of all of like the villains
22:30
you have done across like movie shows uh which role has crossed that threshold
22:37
that made you feel like they were the worst
22:43
i've played a lot of nefarious people but I have to um say that Gustavo Fring changed me
22:51
forever you're welcome thanks man all right hi what's your name hi my name is Nicole and uh first I want to say that I
22:59
really resonate with what you were saying earlier on the stage just before the questioning that's amazing that you're talking to people about that kind
23:05
of stuff i think it's really important um but my question is my favorite documentary of all time is Unagnowledged
23:12
and you narrated that and I just wanted to ask you like if you enjoyed doing that and and like what your view is on
23:18
that whole topic well I I really did enjoy it i'm I'm not a conspiracy theorist as much as Steven is uh he's
23:25
gone on to do many documentaries and he's very prolific um um I love that one
23:30
because I feel like uh there's a lot of information we don't have and he's exposing that or allowing um us uh to
23:37
question uh some of some of what we don't know and I think if we if we're
23:43
not interested in knowing things we don't know then we lose our curiosity so I really love doing it and I love him a
23:48
lot thank you so much you're welcome all right hi step on up what's your name my name is Isaac and uh my question is so
23:55
you had a long uh decorated career been a part of many fandoms was there a particular fandom that you joined that
24:01
you were really excited about or a fandom that you haven't joined yet that you would be interested in i have some more fandoms to go thank you so much for
24:07
asking that question um look I I really loved it when John Fabro called me and asked me to be a part of Mandalorian and
24:13
when he called I'm like Mandalorian he said "Yeah I want you to play a moth." I said "A moth
24:20
she said "No a moth." I said "What the hell is a moth?" I was really pretty ignorant
24:26
about it and then I of course educated myself um and he said "Uh look I don't
24:31
have a lot of money to pay you but um I'd love for you to do it." And I said "Okay." He said "Maybe I can pay you in
24:38
the second or third season is there anything you want that I can do for you?" And I said "I have to have a cape." And and he said "Done deal."
24:46
Little did I know that you know who the character was and I figured it all out but I was very excited about that and and equally as excited about joining the
24:53
MCU um that's been a really wonderful thing to be in thank you very much in the future I
25:01
hope so there's space for me in my heart to do it um I'd like to get him to a place where you can see some of his
25:06
powers that would be a fantastic thing but all and it's a great thank you to all of the fans who you know teased the
25:13
fact that I could be Professor X and all that that's how all of that happened um
25:18
and so I'm hoping that can continue and I'll have more work with the MCCU with Sidewinder and maybe beyond
25:25
[Applause] hello adam uh so my question is through
25:31
your career has there been a character that you portrayed so well and for so long that you started getting the calls
25:36
that uh the the writers wanted that portrayal
25:41
continually in their different series different movie and how do you prevent that from happening so you have that wide bread i I think it would be it
25:49
started with Gustavo Fring uh you know people would call and they you know I I would um find out that the script they
25:56
wanted a Gustavo Fring like character and I would say why i would talk to them
26:02
i mean it was what Far Cry called me you know they called me and I said I I I I met with them and I quickly deduced that
26:10
they kind of wanted a kind of a Gustavo Fring and I said "No I don't want to do that." I said you know I know this guy
26:16
is a dictator but he has many other qualities than that are different that differentiate him from Gustavo and they
26:22
heard me and and we figured it out uh you say no you know or you say yes i
26:28
think when you say yes it becomes a trap because you wind up doing that forever and when you say no you leave room for
26:33
something new to come along you're welcome great question thank you so much hi my name is Daniel um one aspect of
26:40
the movie do the right thing that is so impactful is that we see the main conflict from all sides spike Lee even says on the director's commentary that
26:46
your character bugging out and s both have good points on who belongs on his wall of fame my question is uh playing a
26:53
character so central to the conflict of the movie and as a black Italian yourself was there any additional
26:58
perspective you could bring to the movie or did it influence your character at all oh yeah there was there was a great
27:03
amount I could bring to the movie because I'm I am that exact mixture my father's from Naples Italy my mother's
27:09
from Alabama i'm a black Italian uh and so for me it was ironic to to be put in
27:14
that role to learn something at that time Spike was so anti-white it was unbelievable and you know I'm standing
27:21
right in the middle of that fire he would say to me "John Carlo John Carlo if there's a there's a race war what
27:27
side you going to be on?" He would start laughing like I'm controlling my life you know and and like "Answer me answer
27:34
me answer me." And I would say I'd be on the side of humanity ah you know so I I brought a lot to that
27:42
character because I I love my Italian side and honor that i go to Italy every year but I also love um where I stand as
27:49
a black man in America which is you know an interesting space to be in that if unless you're in that skin you don't
27:56
know just like I don't know what it's like to be in one of my daughter's skins you don't know until you live it but
28:01
then you have to either choose to represent it or choose to help people
28:06
help yourself and other people to go grow through that right because many people who are um prejudiced against uh
28:14
become angry you're angry you're treated a certain way and when you can greet anger with love and you can you can
28:22
transmute that energy within yourself so when I finally dropped being an angry black man my life changed my characters
28:29
changed my humanity changed i wasn't buying into the label that people would put on me and but that's personal work
28:36
that you have to do to change your life thank you you're welcome
28:42
hello uh my name is Henson i was wondering if you'd like to return as Moff Gideon to do like a prequel to the
28:49
story during the prime of the Empire when the Emperor was still reigning uh
28:55
thank you so much Hans for your question i love Moff Gideon i think he has um such depth and has some place to go
29:01
within that universe uh and I'm hoping that maybe I know the film is coming out
29:06
i'm not in it don't get excited um but I know I'm so sorry but um I'm hoping that
29:12
there'll be more room for Moff Gideon to return and come back to life uh after all I love the characters that I play
29:19
who die you don't see them die um um but I I love that world and I certainly
29:24
loved working with John Fabro and Dave Fona so I would be back you're welcome
29:30
hi what's your name i have a small question for you did you
29:35
prefer filming a Breaking Bad or Better Call wow dakota you put me on the
29:41
line you know and and not to not answer your question but I love filming of any kind uh there's always something that
29:48
you feel about the first time and so and I always acknowledge that Breaking Bad was a first and it was really developing
29:55
that character and finding that space in between the words was my way of
30:01
acknowledging the great writing actors come in and they go I want to change this line and that line and that's their
30:07
way of contributing i didn't have um the ego that said I could write it better than Vince when it fit in my mouth I
30:14
would say it and most often it fit in my mouth if I could get my mannerisms to um
30:19
join and to meet those words it was the space that allowed me to honor the words
30:28
even more so a first is a first and I love it very much better Call Salt was
30:33
different because it's a more personal story that has equally the amount of edge but it's it really is a different
30:40
story and it's an introduction to Gus and it takes place before Breaking Bad so I would have to say you know Breaking
30:47
Bad would have a point above Saul for me because it was a first uh but as a continuation of the character and to see
30:54
some vulnerability in this character in Saul was a favorite of mine thank you
31:00
Dakota nice and high up what's your name hi my
31:05
name is Megan um can you hear me okay sorry i sure can okay um I'm a really
31:11
big fan of murder we want the audience to hear you so take one step up to the mic and speak right to it you can pull
31:16
it down a little bit pull it down okay uh well my name's Megan i'm a really big fan of uh murder mysteries and so the
31:22
resonance was amazing um how did you feel about your character AB Winter and
31:28
when you first found out that that was the course it was going to take like how it was going to unfold i I really love
31:35
The Residence it's on Netflix for those of you who don't know it's a really great murder mystery knives out in the
31:40
White House um Usuzo Adubo plays the detective and I play AB Winter the chief
31:45
White House usher i knew nothing about a White House usher and so um one thing
31:50
for me as an actor I get to learn about many people at many different VOCs that I would not know about or learn about
31:57
and uh I loved I stepped into the show late took over for the late Andre Brower who was a friend of mine it was a big
32:03
decision to make to go and do it because I loved Andre so much he was in the middle of shooting and he passed away
32:08
and so it was a great honor for me to continue his legacy and mine by doing this but I learned so much about the
32:13
protocol of the White House so it was interesting to me um I loved how it turned out because um I don't want to
32:21
give it away for people who haven't seen it but given the circumstance that AB is in when we meet him in the very
32:27
beginning uh you still get a chance to see how he got there and uh and so it
32:33
was a great great gig for me and I hope that many people in the audience would be drawn to go and see it netflix from
32:39
your own living room hey what's up what's your name hia my name is Tim and my question for you
32:46
would be well you've of course mentioned that you don't like the idea of limiting yourself to one specific kind of role or
32:53
character that you always want to broaden your horizons and so whether that means uh just stepping out of your
33:00
comfort zone to try something new and challenge yourself to something you've never done before or experimenting with
33:05
some a different way of performing or environment you're performing in or even just having a character in mind that you
33:11
would love to portray what is the kind of performance you would love to give if you had the opportunity to do so well
33:18
I'd like to play a philosopher i'd like to play a poet um I played Miguelagarin
33:24
in um in a in a movie um that he was a East Village poet um who uh hung out
33:32
with playwrights uh uh Miguel Pinto was a playwright and also a heroin addict
33:38
but he wrote plays most of his life and um Miguel Agarin um was a guy who tried
33:43
to keep him straight and keep him on the straight and narrow but I'd love to play a guy named Pushkin who is a a mixed
33:49
race Russian poet musician um playwright uh intellectual uh yeah I I I feel like
33:56
yeah we can as actors we can play the same thing over and over again and sometimes that allows us look you know
34:02
you want to be comfortable you want to feel like you're safe you want to feel secure for those of us who have children
34:07
and a family you want to do something that allows that security to feel like it's long and everlasting but we're
34:13
living in um in a world where everything changes nothing we're living in in
34:19
impermanence so we get attached to wanting to feel comfortable isn't it weird we're human so we want to feel safe and safe is good but also secure is
34:26
good but there is no security there is nothing comfortable um we we are living in a space and time where things are we
34:34
have to live and evolve in an awkward and uncomfortable situation and that's
34:39
okay if we allow it to be okay so for me as an actor to play different kinds of characters means I'm more creative i'm
34:46
doing things that are out of my comfort zone and that's the only way to move ahead is when you're out of your do am I
34:52
doing it right can I do it right can I fulfill this is this a challenge it allows you to be on your P's and Q's and
34:58
to grow and expand awesome thank you question oh we
35:04
have time for a few more questions here hi Jake jake my name is Jake hey Jake uh first of all I love you in Far Cry thank
35:10
you for doing that uh it's a lot of fun to play that and then my question goes back to Taps uh what did that experience
35:18
do for your career as a pivot point was it one or how how did you what'd you come out from Taps well I call it Taps
35:24
East East West we had me and Evan Handler two New York actors um met all
35:29
the LA actors you know uh uh Tom Cruz uh uh Sean Penn Timothy Hutton all LA bound
35:38
uh who had grown up in in that world of Hollywood uh I love that film harold Becker directed it it was my first major
35:45
feature film for a major studio and it gave me a bird's eye view into how it's done but it also allowed me to meet um
35:51
for the third well that was the first time two times afterwards I met George C scott a master of what he does who was
35:57
really just completely consumed by doing his four-page monologue and did it perfectly every time every time he said
36:03
a certain word within that monologue he touched his hat he touched his his his heart whatever he had it down it taught
36:10
me that acting is more than just speaking words it's embodying motion right it's embodying physicality and and
36:17
he was a master at it so there's so many things I learned from that movie but one was how to be a quick study with my
36:24
words and to repeat what I was doing either the same or the same but
36:30
different every time thank you very much you're welcome all right hi Stefan what's your name
36:36
my name is Aiden Kelly aiden
36:41
uh but I love how you're so positive you're
36:47
so uh inspiring but I wanted to know who is
36:53
your favorite person to act with you know I've love that you've come
36:58
to me three times during this con and you're so um you're so poised and you're
37:04
so um polite and you're so present and I really have enjoyed my interactions with
37:11
you so I want to say thank you for that uh I I love watching actors who command
37:17
the screen um much like I've always wanted to sydney Poier was one who had a
37:22
very big presence yeah um who I eventually got a chance to meet uh one of my favorite actors to work with um
37:28
today is Brian Cranston um he really is a master actor who gives me his attention uh when I play opposite him um
37:36
I've really enjoyed working with him as well and uh and there are many many many more i I always like actors who lose
37:43
themselves in a character but who are willing to do what you've done all weekend you look me right in the eye you
37:49
speak your mind you take your time and you connect and I love that about you thank you
37:56
[Applause] hey what's your name what's your question hello I'm Nicholas and so I
38:03
have a question of course uh so out of all the characters you play
38:11
what was your favorite scene that you had to act i have to say um right away it comes to me right away it's it's Box
38:17
Cutter from Breaking Bad uh and it exemplifies much of what I've been saying here uh and you asked me what
38:24
have I learned in a question um three questions before we started the Q&A um
38:30
you know actors love to act i've learned that if you leave me to my own devices I'm going to act and I'm going to keep
38:35
going and I'm going to keep talking forever we love to hear ourselves speak and all that it's just the truth i think
38:41
it's the truth about anyone because it allows us um to feel our own essence as
38:46
a vibratory mirror for ourselves i've learned as I've become more mature to feel your essence as a vibratory um
38:54
relevant uh essence for me right to listen more and so um Box Cutter is
39:00
special to me because for the first 10 minutes of that episode uh I said nothing at all there were no words and
39:08
to me that's how we really communicate we use our eyes we use we feel our we
39:14
use our ears we feel we use our hearts and and so for the first 10 minutes of that episode I said nothing uh until I
39:23
go back up those stairs have changed back from my big fish outfit have done the dirty deed and I say "Get back to
39:31
work." And that's it and it was very very powerful to to know that your
39:36
physical action your physical body speaks volumes your eyes speak volumes
39:41
it can it can allow someone to feel comfortable relaxed afraid um love all
39:48
of those things um you can share um without any words whatsoever and so we
39:54
know that about each other and so just know that that's a viable and very powerful way to communicate so that had
39:59
to be my favorite um episode of any television show ever [Applause]
40:05
though and I do apologize to everybody in line but this will be our last question if you didn't get a chance to
40:10
ask please go visit him down at his table hey what's up what's your name and what's your question my name is Micah
40:16
and on the topic of connection when you embody a character for so long and you
40:21
get like their mannerisms and like their speech and down do those characters ever leave you as an actor that's so funny
40:28
before I came here it was the Four Seasons in Los Angeles and I got a massage and I went to an energy healer and she touched me and she said "Oh what
40:36
was the name of the character you just played that you just finished playing?" And I said "Huh the character that you
40:42
just played and you finished last week?" I said "Vernon Damer." and she was touching my feet and she said Vern and
40:48
Damer are still here we have to get him down to the bus
40:53
stop um I I I it's the truth um all of
40:58
my characters stay with me whether you know it or not as human beings every emot every interaction you have is
41:04
imprinted somewhere inside you especially and specifically traumatic ones right and so those that trauma has
41:11
to go someplace there's a great book out called The Body Keeps the
41:16
Score and it talks about how any traumatic words you've heard things
41:22
you've seen interactions that you've had i grew up in the age of corporal punishment i was hit i was hit by my
41:29
parents all of that is imprinted within me same thing with my acting roles right i can drop it and especially the ones
41:35
that are very my favorite or that I've had to go to a very deep place for they live within me and so I have to wash
41:42
that out of me so I'm not living that dayto-day especially with characters lately like Moth Gideon and Gustavo
41:48
Fring where people actually every day call me
41:54
Gus and I'm immediately like I I'm I'm I'm there i'm like "Okay leave me alone
41:59
get away from me i'll kill you i'll kill you no I don't have any math." Or maybe I do pay
42:06
me a lot of money you know what I mean it's it's like an idiot you know i mean I've been
42:12
in an airport and and someone goes "This is the way." And I and I go "You have something I
42:18
want." Someone goes "Oh oh my god Stan Edgar." Like you have any compound B i'm
42:23
going "You are not a god you are simply a bad product." I mean you know it's
42:29
it's like so yes um the I mean I first of all I've been blessed to get all of
42:35
the best lines of any actor in history like the lines that I have for every
42:41
character I've played in the last 5 years are they resound they're really strong and they're really powerful so I
42:47
look it as a blessing um I'm happy to develop more of me because somewhere inside of me me is fighting with all
42:54
these different characters i So look we all want to be seen right i want to be
43:00
seen you've seen me as all of these different characters but now I want to
43:05
be able to I'm brave enough courageous enough mature enough to want you to see
43:10
who I am because there's something inside of me that understands that
43:15
besides the work I do I have a contribution and it's to show you my
43:21
heart and my soul i'm not perfect no one is i'm perfect in my imperfection right
43:26
that's perfect imperfection is perfect so when you feel like you're not enough
43:32
tell yourself that you are because I love each and everyone for who you are and I want you to love me for who I am
43:40
as well thank you so much thank you all for watching you've been
43:45
amazing and John thank you so much for sharing your time with us sharing your wisdom being such a positive light and
43:51
sharing some of your energy with us we can't wait to wait to see some more of you in the future one more time big round of applause
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