InsideOut: Interview with Giancarlo Esposito

by Owen Lipstein November/December 2008

Since his Broadway debut at age 10, Giancarlo Esposito has been acting in films from Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X,” to Michael Mann’s “Ali” and Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects,” as well as television’s “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Law & Order.” His directorial debut, recently screened at our very own Woodstock Film Festival, is the film “Gospel Hill,” about the residents of a small Southern town who are being forced out of their homes to make way for a multimillion-dollar golf course development. The cast includes Danny Glover, Angela Basset, Julia Stiles and Samuel L. Jackson. We’re grateful just knowing that Giancarlo is in the world, and even more so that he has ties to the Hudson Valley.

Owen Lipstein: This is an issue about the future. Talk to me about how this film can show us where we’re going.

Giancarlo Esposito: I made it because I was very concerned not only about the country, but about how we deal with past and present. [I was interested in] the gentrification issue, the idea that sacred, ancient land of ancestry is sold to companies who want to profit—the idea that we don’t really know how to heal from past wounds in an intelligent way. We carry the weight of anger and of fear into the future. I wanted to make a film that was hopeful.

OL: You grew up in Europe and then came to the United States. What was that transition like for you?

GE: I’ve had a very interesting upbringing. My father is from Naples, Italy. My mother is from Alabama. My father was a carpenter’s son, became a carpenter, worked at the San Carlo Opera Co. at the seaport of Naples. [He] met my mother there, and fell in love and got married. I lived in Italy from the time I was born, moved to Germany for a little bit when my mother performed at the Hamburg Staatsoper [State Opera], and had a very European upbringing. My mother spoke Italian and French. My father spoke a number of languages.
The first time I—or my mother—ever realized that there was the problem of race was when the African delivery man came to the door, and we ran into the closet screaming, “Schwarzer! Schwarzer!”
And she said, “Oh. OK, I’ve got to talk to my children.”
I eventually learned, when I came to this country, [what it meant to be] brown-skinned. What I noticed was [the] anger [of] other young black boys. I didn’t understand that anger until I started to be treated differently. Like I was different. Like I was mixed. Like something was wrong. My hair was very curly, and in the Baptist church, the women loved it. They used to tell my mother, “Boy, your kid’s got that good hair.”
And it started there, and went on and on and on.
And so the early part of my life, I was asked to choose. Even if I said, “Look, I’m half-Italian, half-black. My name is Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito. I’m Italian.” It didn’t matter. I was asked to choose. And out of having to make that choice in so many different situations, I became an actor. Because I was constantly flipping between black and white, and the one thing that I missed then was being human.

OL: Was that one of the factors that led you to make this film?

GE: I didn’t want this to be any kind of civil rights movie. I wanted this to be a movie about human beings. Some may look at [the characters] as villainous. Some may look at [them] as humans with flaws.
I had this argument with Spike Lee many years ago. I said, “Spike, you’re a racist.”
He said, “I can’t be. It’s not economically possible.”
I said, “Well, you know what? I don’t care what economics says. If you don’t like white people, and you’re always talking about white people in a bad way, to me, that’s racist.” [Laughter] You know?
But it’s more interesting to me to see characters who can recognize their own flaws, and their own ill will [and] feelings, and be able to pull themselves out of that and say, “You know what? I may have acted this way, or been this way, for a long time. But I don’t really want this anymore, because I don’t need it.”

OL: You brought your film to this year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC). What was that like?

GE: It was really fascinating. I go with The Creative Coalition, which is an organization that supports the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. It allows us to understand the political process as it is in America today, and be a part of it. We had Ellen Burstyn and Susan Sarandon and Tim Daly, and Spike Lee came down this year.
I wanted the film shown [at the convention] because it has such a social relevance in our time; and because it was suggested to me [by] someone who saw it, who knew Barack Obama. (I met him, but I don’t know him well.)
[My friend] said, “You must show this movie. The ideas that you bring up in here of social change and healing, past and present, are really in line with his message of change.” I was very proud to have been there and to have shown it there.

OL: We were talking about how ”Gospel Hill” feels totally of its time. By the time this issue comes out, the election will be moments away. How do the nuance and feeling of this movie play out, to you, as we go through the last days of the election process?

GE: Back in August, I was praying and hoping I would find the $2 million to get a feature release so this movie could come out before the election. I think [the film] is so relevant and pertinent to what people need. We hope and pray that [Obama’s] five-point lead [as of the day before this interview], will be preserved.
I do go to Washington—I was down [recently] for The Congressional Black Caucus conference, where I showed a piece of the movie, and [for] the Black Lawyers Association. And I was able to go to a dinner and hear Obama speak.


He sounded more like I had heard him in 2004, [when] I met him at the DNC, and he chased me out of the room afterwards, saying, “Wow, you know, my first date with Michelle was ‘Do the Right Thing,’” and we spoke for a long time in the parking lot. And there was no one next to him except one buddy. And he gave a beautiful speech that evening. And the speech he made in Washington two weeks ago was equivalent to that.


I haven’t heard him speak like that since. And it’s because I think he wants to look presidential, act presidential, and he’s become a little stiff. [But] I think he’s loosening [up] a little bit.


I think he’s the right person not because of the color of his skin, but the color of his ideas—and the color of his presence with people. I understand he would have loved to have been a community organizer forever. And I think he took this role…[of] trying to be the president of the United States for many reasons. I think he was chosen.
But I also think there’s a part of him that detests what happens to you at this point in the race. Because you make promises. You flip, you change, and you realize America’s run by big corporations and big money… I believe and hope he will make the right decisions.


I also know that five points ahead means we’re going to be dead even in a couple of weeks. Because that’s what they’re preparing us for. I cried when he made his speech at the DNC for many reasons. I’m half-white, half-black, too. His upbringing is so close to mine, it’s unbelievable.


And I cried only because I loved what he was saying. And I prayed that people would be color-blind enough to see that ideas matter. That presence matters. That the idea to bring poor people to a better life matters. And the idea of hope-—that you could do anything and everything given the right opportunities—matters.