Jennifer Esposito's Switch From Acting To Filmmaking Was Not Easy

During an interview with Thinking Crypto to promote "Fresh Kills," Jennifer Esposito explained that she had always wanted to be a filmmaker — as a teenager, she dreamt of going to NYU Film School to pave the way for her to tell stories. However, because she couldn't afford film school, she opted for acting classes, thinking acting might fulfill the creativity she was looking for. But drama didn't end up being able to give her what she truly desired — leading her to start taking steps toward her own projects.

Esposito revealed that she had the story for "Fresh Kills" in mind since she was 17 and had even pitched it a few times throughout her career. But, each time she did, she was told to write it first, leaving her wondering why she wasn't given any help. Eventually, her thought process changed. Esposito said, "[I realized] if you keep waiting for someone to either give you a great job or help you, you're going to be waiting a very long time. So I finally ... thought, you know what you have to do: just do it. Sit down and do it."

Thus, she started drafting the script. Esposito continued, "I finally got to a point, after starting and stopping and starting and stopping with the script, where I said, 'There's no alternative, Jennifer. You're gonna do this, or you're gonna go back and wait tables because I'm not allowing you to take [another role] that you don't like.'"