Jennifer Esposito is recalling how “a Harvey Weinstein–esque type person” tried to end her early acting career.
The Blue Bloods actress detailed on a recent episode of the She Pivots podcast the impact this “notorious, brutal” producer, whom she did not name, had on her.
“He fired me for no reason,” she said of a past project. “He wanted someone else and he got her.” However, it didn’t stop there. Esposito claimed the producer attempted to keep her from getting any additional work in Hollywood.
“But then, like, anybody that called was like, ‘Hey, I want to hire her.’ He was like, ‘Don’t hire her,’” The Boys stars explained. “He said I was a drug addict, locked myself in the trailer. Never happened. I don’t do drugs. Never did. If you do, great. It’s just not me.”
“He literally had the power, and he used it to completely end a young girl’s career at 26 years old,” she continued. Esposito added that she was eventually dropped by her agency, claiming they knew about his treatment toward her but said they couldn’t do anything to help. “I casually got moved to the desk of the assistant and then casually [pushed] out the door, and I couldn’t get work. I didn’t have an agent and a manager for two and a half years.”
As she looked back, Esposito described it as a “really, really painful time” because “he literally — that kid who was waiting tables, and a kid who had this dream since she was a baby — he literally, he took it, because he could, and killed it.”
The actress landed her first role in the 1996 TV movie The Sunshine Boys. She ultimately went out to land recurring roles in several TV series including Spin City, Judging Amy, Blue Bloods, Samantha Who?, NCIS, The Boys, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens and more.
Esposito also told host Emily Tisch Sussman that her recent directorial debut Fresh Kills, which she also produced and starred in, was a result of what happened to her earlier in her career.
“I know for a fact that if that didn’t happen with that producer and my road had been easier, I would have never written and directed what I just did,” she said. “Because, as I’ve said to a few people that know me well, Fresh Kills, the film was for the 26-year-old kid who got slaughtered.”
The movie, released on June 14, follows a loyal woman of a Staten Island–based organized crime family in the late 1980s.
