Community - Season 3 - Giancarlo Esposito Talks about his Guest Shot

Giancarlo Esposito's explosive exit as Gus Fring from Breaking Bad last season was one of the most memorable and intense in TV history. But Gus lives on, sort of — Esposito will guest-star in an upcoming episode of Community as Gilbert, Pierce's abusive father's longtime assistant. He's nearly as manipulative and misanthropic as Gus, at least initially.

On the Community set Wednesday evening, Esposito explained the similarities in the parts exclusively to TV Guide Magazine: "This role calls for someone who has quite a bit of calm and is keeping a secret," he explained. "From the moment they called me, my sense was the writers admired Breaking Bad and wanted me to come on and do some semblance of a Gus-like character."

Esposito's appearance was thrown together quickly. "I got a call at the very last minute, the night before last, midnight on the east coast, and they didn't even have a script, they had a thumbnail sketch," recalls the actor, who described his impression of the show as "quirky and interesting." "They said that normally when they try to get someone of note to come on the show it falls through, so I decided to make their dreams come true." Community approached him just a couple of weeks after Esposito told his manager he'd be interested in dipping his toe in comedy again — early in his career, he had seriocomic roles in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing and the Fox series Bakersfield P.D.

Source: Full article @ TV Guide