Giancarlo Esposito insisted that Tony Dalton kick him during a pivotal moment from Better Call Saul season 6. Though the Breaking Bad prequel mostly focused on Bob Odenkirk’s character as he devolved into the unscrupulous criminal lawyer known as Saul Goodman, it also dived deeper into the cartel underbelly of Albuquerque through the return of the Los Pollos Hermanos owner and drug kingpin Gus Fring in season 3. From Better Call Saul season 4 and onward, the dominant cartel storyline is the conflict between Gus and Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), a character only briefly mentioned by Saul in Breaking Bad.
The conflict between the two comes to a head during Better Call Saul season 6 episode 8 when Lalo corners Gus in his laundry and forces him to reveal his planned meth lab underground. As they walk down the steps to the construction site, Lalo kicks Gus in the back. During a recent appearance on AwardsWatch, Esposito revealed that the kick was actually his idea, which he thought would improve the scene, and despite Dalton’s initial hesitation, he insisted that he kick him. Read what Esposito shared below:
Coming down those steps, we were shooting that and Tony wants to be careful, no actor should ever get hurt. He’s really kind and doesn’t lose it at all. I turned around to him as we’re shooting that on the steps and I said, “Kick me.” “Oh, what? Why? Really? Why?” “I said, “Kick me and kick me hard.” Vince kind of heard that and went, “Wait what?” and then the stunt guy… should we bring him in? Roll the camera, right? Because there’s dirt at the bottom and that was the whole point that Gus goes down, his face is in the dirt that he’s digging up to make something in the dirt where his dream lies.
We did a take and it was off the fifth step and I said, “Put your boot in my back,” and he did. I came down those steps, face in the dirt, my glasses in the dirt. I really felt it. I was just so pissed and not hurt because I know how to fall. We did that two or three times and Vince was like, “Oh my God I can’t believe you’re doing this. Are you okay?” I said, “I’m great, you just wait. Watch what it does to me in the rest of the scene.”
The Kick Added A Nice Touch To Gus & Lalo’s Final Showdown In Better Call Saul
Lalo kicking Gus down the steps to the planned meth lab, which was Esposito’s own idea in the moment, added a nice touch to the final showdown between the two in Better Call Saul. The kick causes Gus to land face down in the dirt of the meth lab construction site which, as Esposito explains, is where all his hopes and dreams lie. The eventual superlab is, of course, where Walt and Jesse would eventually cook meth in Breaking Bad, making Gus one of the most successful drug kingpins in history.
As Esposito goes on to explain, the kick also exacerbated Gus’ anger towards Lalo in the scene. This improves the intensity of his eventual speech in which he insults Don Eladio and the Salamancas relentlessly, which is really just a distraction for Gus to trigger a power outage and retrieve the handgun he hid episodes prior. The scene was a masterful culmination of the conflict between Gus and Lalo that had been mounting for several seasons of Better Call Saul, all of which was improved but a spontaneous idea that Esposito had in the moment.
Source: AwardsWatch
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
