The Bulwark
Bulwark Goes to Hollywood
Jennifer Esposito on 'Fresh Kills'
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Jennifer Esposito on 'Fresh Kills'

The writer-director-star on finding an audience for a different sort of mob movie.
Jennifer Esposito (r) and Emily Bader in ‘Fresh Kills’ (Quiver Distribution)

On this week’s episode I’m joined by Jennifer Esposito, the director, writer, and star of Fresh Kills, a mob movie told from the perspective of mob wives and mob daughters. We discussed her career in the movies and how that helped prep her to stand behind the camera, why it’s hard to find audiences for original movies telling stories aimed at adults, how social media is helping build a base of support, and the powerfully feral performance of Odessa A’zion. You can watch Fresh Kills right now from the comfort of your own home on your preferred VOD provider. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!


If you’d like to yell at me about movies (or anything else I’ve written/said on a podcast), you can do so in Dallas on September 5 at the Wyly Theatre. Or maybe you just want to say hi to Sarah and Tim (they’re great!) or listen to Adam Kinzinger talk about the state of [gestures wildly] all this. And if you’re coming into town and just want a recommendation of where to eat or grab a drink, I can probably help with that too.

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Discussion about this episode

A good and interesting interview -- I'll look to check out the film. And though I know the focus is supposed to be on the movie and her filmmaking experiences, and that she has done a lot of other things too, it would have been nice to hear a question or two on her personal experiences with the long-running TV show Blue Bloods and how that helped to form and shape her perspectives. So many of us are fans of that program, first came to know about her through that, and would love to hear what she has to say about it, even in brief.

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FYI, this has not dropped on Apple Podcasts yet.

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Thanks, should be up momentarily; I had it scheduled for 11 PM, instead of 11 AM.

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Thanks, Sonny! I have several reasons to see this, not least Annabella Sciorra. Mobsters have been cinematically interesting since Scarface. Now I want to see the deconstruction of the mythology.

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