Jennifer Esposito is revealing just how much it took to put her directorial debut together. The writer, director, and star of “Fresh Kills” appeared on “Live with Kelly and Mark” on July 3, where she shared the lengths she went to bring her vision to life. The 51-year-old actress, known for her roles in “The Boys” and “Blue Bloods,” disclosed that she not only produced the film but also financed most of it herself. “I mortgaged my home,” she admitted.
Kelly Ripa, 53, was visibly impressed, exclaiming, “Oh, my God, you’ve been busy.” She urged the audience, “Guys, you have to see this movie! It is your moral obligation to see this movie!”
“Fresh Kills,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, is a crime drama set in Staten Island. Esposito stars as a family matriarch alongside Emily Bader, Odessa A’zion, Nick Cirillo, and Annabella Sciorra. The film’s synopsis describes Bader’s character as “an inquisitive young girl who discovers her father (Domenick Lombardozzi) is an emerging mafia kingpin. Rose’s growing desire to break free from the path set before her soon threatens her existence and alienates her from her closest allies.”
Esposito explained to Ripa and Mark Consuelos, 53, that “Fresh Kills” is unique in the mafia genre because it presents the story from the women’s perspective. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, Esposito was inspired by the “violently angry” young women she observed in families involved in criminal activities. “I realized, it’s really more about choice,” she said. “I kept going back to [the script] when I would hit roadblocks in either my career or my life and think, ‘That’s where that rage came from.’ It’s about the boxes we’re put in and they didn’t have a choice.”
Esposito admitted that taking on multiple roles in the film drove her “a little insane.” She faced significant challenges in getting the film made. “No one wanted to make it. I couldn’t even get people to read it. And then when [they] did read it, it was like, ‘We’ll give you $5 million if you cast it with a big-name man. Because females don’t sell movies.’”
Determined to see her project through, Esposito proposed mortgaging their house to her husband, Jesper Vesterstrøm. “I went to my nice husband and was like, ‘Hey, I got an idea. What do you think about mortgaging the house?’ I do believe, if you don’t bet on yourself, who is going to bet on you?”
“Fresh Kills” is now in theaters, and Esposito’s journey to bring it to the big screen is a testament to her dedication and belief in her vision.
Jennifer Esposito had a story burning to get out. That’s the reason she wrote and directed “Fresh Kills,” a mob story about the characters usually written to elicit vulnerable reactions out of the male protagonists. She follows the mother and the daughters as they confront their own moral ambiguity in a world and family of crime. Esposito tells their story on Staten Island.
In short, “Fresh Kills” is just damn good drama that audiences, including Esposito, want to see more of in theaters. “The audience is there,” Esposito told Immersive. “They just want better work. They want to see themselves on the screen. Men and women are going [to Fresh Kills] and seeing their family, seeing their younger selves, seeing their older self, seeing parts of themselves, and that’s what this medium is supposed to be.”
Esposito misses stories like that, which is why she did more than write, direct, and co-star in “Fresh Kills.” The “Crash” and “Summer of Sam” star mortgaged her own home to finance the film. She bet on a vision, which continues to find fans among critics and audiences.
Recently, Esposito spoke with Immersive Media about making her directorial debut, protecting performances on set and in post, and the kind of filmmaker she wants to be.
Sometimes when actors make their directorial debuts, they’re very small in scope. You told a story that spans years. There’s a genre element. Did you ever think, if I’m going to make a movie, I’m not going to play it safe?
Jennifer Esposito and Christine Crokos
Well, it was just the story. It was just the story I had to tell, so I don’t think I thought in terms of that. And for me, the containment was the trapped lead character of Rose. So, to me, that felt very contained. But I did know a female taking on the mafia genre is not something we’ve seen before, and we never see the female perspective from the women in this world. So, I knew that I was going to get a lot of comparisons. I knew that I was going to have a lot of struggle, that it was going to be a journey, and I knew that it needed to be something that was a burning desire to tell.
To me, this movie has nothing to do with the mafia. It has to do with family and the boxes we’re born into or put into by society, from gender or race or whatever. So, that’s what it’s really talking about to me. So again, it was just something I needed to tell. This wasn’t something like, “Hey, I want to direct something.” This was like, “I’ve been writing this for years, so it was just something that I needed to do.”
Women are often unfortunately the worst roles in most mobster movies. What questions did you have that you wanted to see answered or at least explored in this genre?
Well, exactly. We’ve seen these movies so many times. We see the woman’s hand come in on the table when the guys are all there and she leaves pastry or you see her on the pole and she’s naked. We’ve never really seen those women, except Carmela Soprano.
I grew up around a lot of this, not in my own family, but around me. I was really moved, scared and also questioned why the young women around me were so violently angry. I’m a very big “why?” person and I need to understand. I never could understand until I left many years later out on my own. I realized that anger felt familiar to me and I didn’t understand why.
And then, I realized it had nothing to do with their families. It had to do with them having no choice. They had no choice in it. To me, that’s what the movie is about. It’s about choosing what box, the boxes that you’re placed in and choosing whether or not you have a say in how you live your life.
When you watch the movie, you can tell how personal it is, even just very specific shots felt like memories. For example, staring at Christ in Church or the phone cord stretching during a serious phone call. Were there any specific images burned in your mind you just really wanted to film for “Fresh Kills”?
100%. Yes, that phone cord. I remember being with my DP and setting up shots prior and it just came out of my mouth because I remember seeing that phone cord and knowing that the tension in that phone cord and me being the one pulling it, and you’re always hush hush. And I said to my actresses, “You’re always afraid. You’re always afraid.” So anything that I could push to allow the audience to feel the way Rose is feeling, which is constantly afraid and seeing that thing just unturned and just unfold in this way, it just felt like, oh, something’s wrong. Something’s happening.
And then the thing you’re saying about the image of the Christ, grew up Catholic, and that was another box, if you’ve noticed. Those images, they’re drummed into your head, like fear. The movie is constant boxes of the religion, family, and being a good girl. He’s constantly hitting her on her head, patting her head, you’re a good girl. Someone made a comment to me early on about why you constantly have your character Francine or someone saying, “My girls,” because it’s ownership. It was all done deliberately. It was done deliberately because
Source: People, Immersive Media
