Giancarlo Esposito Recalls Plan to Hire Hitman to Kill Him So His Family Could Collect Insurance: ‘Desperate’
After going bankrupt in the '90s, the 'MaXXXine' actor nearly hired someone to take his life to ensure the financial security of his family.
Giancarlo Esposito almost didn't make it to see the acting acclaim he'd garner in the 2020s. Decades prior, in the late 1990s, the MaXXXine star nearly hired a hitman to take his life so his family could collect insurance benefits.
In a new Guardian article, Esposito, 66, recounted his period of being bankrupt and strapped for acting opportunities.
"It was a really difficult time. I chased breadcrumbs," he told the publication. "I was getting work as a guest star, but I was living over my head – I had too many kids, too fast."
Esposito, who has four daughters with his ex-wife, Joy McManigal, said that he was in a "really desperate position."
"My former wife’s family were all in insurance, so her father had a big life insurance policy on me," he said. "I started asking these very pointed questions, like: can you collect life insurance if you die from misadventure? Can you collect life insurance if you kill yourself?"
"I was going down the list to figure out what options I had. I eventually realised none of those would work – but, if someone killed me, that might be different, and it might be worth the price of the ticket to have my family be OK."
Fortunately, Esposito would decide against assisted suicide, calling it a "horrible thought."
He continued, "But eventually I realised, the sacrifice is you would never experience them being OK. You’d never have the opportunity to experience all the love they have for you and you for them. But I did really consider it."The Denmark-born actor previously talked about his past financial circumstances in April, during a visit to SiriusXM program Jim & Sam.
"That was the first inkling that there was a way out, but I wouldn’t be here to be available to my kids," Esposito said around the 13-minute mark of the video below. "Then I started to think that's not viable, because the pain I would cause them would be lifelong, and there'd be lifelong trauma that would just extend the generational trauma I'm trying to move away from."
Esposito would go on to star in former AMC crime drama Breaking Bad, and during the interview, he would credit the show for saving his life and income.
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