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Jennifer Esposito says a producer nearly ended her career 25 years ago. Now she’s channeling her anger into her directorial debut.
The Blue Bloods star, who “catapulted into Hollywood” after starring in Spike Lee’s 1999 thriller Summer of Sam, was in the news last week. She Pivots PodcastThen, a week into filming the new movie, the producer — whom Esposito did not name — fired her for “no reason.”
“This is a notorious, brutal producer, a Harvey Weinstein-type figure. He did have power and used that power to completely end the career of a 26-year-old girl,” she said.
The producer allegedly lied about her being a drug addict and had locked himself in a trailer on set to prevent everyone he knew from hiring her. “That never happened,” Esposito said.
She also believes he killed her chances of starring in Charlie’s Angels when she already had offers.
Esposito said her agency was aware of the producer’s actions but did not intervene due to his profile and connections in the industry. Eventually, the young actor’s team dropped her and she was without an agent for two and a half years.
“It was a very, very painful time,” Esposito said, for a kid who had “had this dream since he was a baby.”
“But it was also a great time because if I hadn’t been that kid, I would never have been this woman. I would never have written and directed what I just did because, as I’ve said to some people who know me well, my movie, Fresh Kills, was made for that 26-year-old kid who was slaughtered.”
Fresh Off the Boat, which opens on Friday, is Esposito’s feature directorial debut. It’s a feminist take on the classic gangster film, telling the story of the wives, daughters and sisters of the man who runs an organized crime family. Esposito stars alongside Emily Budd, Odessa Azion, Domenick Lombardozzi and Annabella Sciarra — also a Blue Bloods alum.
The film holds personal meaning for Esposito because it is set in 1980s Staten Island, where she grew up, she said.
“I saw a lot of violence as a kid — it was a tough neighborhood with a lot of mafia gangs,” she said. “I always wondered, ‘Why are they so angry?’ ”
“But as my life and career progressed,” she continued, “the anger and fury that I saw started to feel very familiar.”
Esposito told Kuala Lumpur International Airportand several people offered her money to give up directing. “If someone directs instead of me, someone will give me $5 million. Someone will give me a lot of money to invite stars to act in it.”
But she stood her ground, mortgaging her home to finance the project — and it appears to have paid off.
Fresh Kills premiered a year ago at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and has since won multiple awards on the festival circuit. Review Calling it “comparable to the best gangster movies since The Godfather.”
“These characters move people, men and women, and that moves people so beautifully, to me,” Esposito said on “She Pivots.” “To me, that’s what art should be.”
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