Giancarlo Esposito To Open Up About Black-Italian Upbringing And ‘The Call That Changed His Life’ In New Memoir

Giancarlo Esposito's memoir is on the way following a bidding war won by The Crown Publishing Group in partnership with Sugar23 Books.

Giancarlo Esposito has a story to tell and will take fans on a candid life journey in his new memoir.

The Breaking Bad star has sold his untitled life story following a bidding war won by The Crown Publishing Group in partnership with Sugar23 Books. The book will follow Esposito’s life from his birth in Europe to a Black American mother and Italian father to a drastic transition to the United States where he and his family lived out of a one-bedroom apartment in Upstate New York.

“The memoir will explore Giancarlo’s upbringing as the second child of a black American opera singer and an Italian theatrical set builder,” the book’s official description reads.

“Born in Europe in the late 1950s and identifying as Italian, he experienced no racism that he understood until his parents moved to the States — where his complex relationship with them continued out of a one-bedroom apartment in Elmsford, New York. In a bizarre and tragic turn of events, Giancarlo became his family’s sole breadwinner at the age of eight when he was cast in a Broadway musical.”

It continues. “After decades of awards and hundreds of roles on the large and small screen, he found himself bankrupt, living in a goat barn, divorced and unable to support his ex and four daughters. Despite all the work, Hollywood never really knew what to do with Giancarlo. Then came the call that changed his life…’Breaking Bad.’”

The memoir announcement comes two months after Esposito opened up about some of the challenges he faced in life, including the time he contemplated organizing his own murder as a means to provide for his family. It was during an appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim & Sam show in April when the Do the Right Thing star discussed the time in his life when he was so financially desperate that he came up with the idea to orchestrate his murder and secure life insurance for his then-wife and their four daughters.

“If I got somebody to knock me off, death through misadventure, they would get the insurance,” Esposito said. “I had four kids. I wanted them to have a life. It was a hard moment in time. I literally thought of self-annihilation so that they could survive. That’s how low I was.”

Esposito will likely retell this traumatic life event among others in his new memoir. He’s currently starring and executive producing AMC’s Parish and has a role in Netflix’s The Gentlemen. Recent reports revealed the villain role he’s set to take on in Marvel’s next Captain America movie.