Giancarlo Esposito previews ‘visceral’ new crime drama “Parish”

Giancarlo Esposito sets the stage for his retired wheelman Gray's messy road on the new AMC series.

Giancarlo Esposito is getting in the driver’s seat.

The actor leads AMC's six-episode crime series Parish, which follows the titular owner of a New Orleans luxury car service whose life is "falling apart" when we meet him, Esposito tells Entertainment Weekly.

Still reeling from his son's violent murder and the recent collapse of his business, Gracián "Gray" Parish gets an offer that brings him into the fold of the city's illicit underbelly — and resurfaces his own criminal past. "As we go through the story, we find out that Gray’s more of a driver than we ever thought, and he has a past that he has been covering up from his own family," Esposito says.

Despite his criminal involvement, Gray is a far cry from Breaking Bad's drug kingpin Gus Fring. “Lately, I’ve played characters who control the chaos,” Esposito tells EW. “[Gray’s] flying by the seat of his pants, and I liked that he’s someone who's not as definitive as other characters I've played. This is a new role for me.” But as out of control as Gray might be, he does have one edge: "He can handle a car," says Esposito, who performed many of his own driving stunts for the series. "To be able to do reverse 360s, to spin a car while controlling it through the narrow streets of New Orleans, and [to hear] that Porsche Macan come to life is an amazing element of our production."

A run-in with his old friend Colin, played by Skeet Ulrich, leads Gray to meet a Zimbabwean gangster known as The Horse (Zackary Momoh), who wants to use Gray's knowledge of New Orleans and its streets to his advantage (check out an exclusive clip of their first meeting below).

Potentially complicating their relationship is The Horse's son Luke (Dax Rey). "He reminds Gray a bit of his own son that he lost," Esposito says. "He’s young, has no control over the world he lives in and no idea that his father’s is a brutal and violent one."

Rounding out the cast are Paula Malcomson as Gray's wife Rose; Arica Himmel as their daughter Makayla; Bonnie Mbuli and Ivan Mbakop as The Horse's siblings Shamiso Tongai and Zenzo; Bradley Whitford as Louisiana businessman/crime leader Anton; and Amanada Brugel as Sister Anne, whom Esposito calls "the goodness of our show."

Esposito warns that you might want to buckle your seatbelt before hitting play on Parish. “This is a visceral crime drama. Every moment of our show contains some element of electricity,” Esposito says. “All the parts of Gray allow him to be seen in many different lights on the show and you’ll be surprised by who he becomes by the end of our [final] episode."

Parish premieres March 31 on AMC and AMC+.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.