Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Esmée Lavalette. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Esmée, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Working in film/TV has its ups and downs. When there’s a steady flow of work and you get to spend time working with people who are just as passionate about making art as you are, there really is no better feeling in the world. I absolutely love spending my days on set, all working together to make something you’re all proud of. However, when there isn’t a steady flow of work and you’re struggling to make ends meet, I do often wonder what it would be like to just work a regular job. The last year has been quite tough for me and I’ve tried figuring out if there was anything else I’d like to be doing. However, I always come back to the fact that I would truly hate to be doing something else and I’d rather follow my passion than to be working a job that makes me unhappy.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a film director from The Netherlands who moved to LA in 2018. I got into filmmaking because it was truly the only thing I wanted to do. I’ve always loved watching movies, but it never occurred to me that it was something I could also be doing professionally. Growing up in a small town in The Netherlands, something like that seemed impossible. When I saw Inception at the movie theater back in 2010, a small fire ignited inside of me. I realized that I wanted to make movies like that and that I should figure out how I could be doing that. When I moved to Amsterdam to pursue my studies in film and television, a world opened for me. It was here that I first met other people that had the same interests as me who wanted to collaborate and make cool projects together. I loved all of this, but I knew I wanted more.
After finishing my bachelor’s and master’s in Amsterdam I made the move to LA to study Directing at UCLA Extension. It was here that I truly realized what making films really meant. Compared to LA, Amsterdam and the Dutch film industry suddenly seemed extremely small. In LA, I truly learned the most about myself and what I want my art to say for me. As a lesbian, it’s always really important for me to make sure queer people are always represented in my projects. Even though it’s 2024, we still have to fight for (good) representation more than I would like to.
I’m most proud of my short film Found Family that was released in 2021. This project really felt like my little baby and seeing it come to fruition felt so gratifying. On top of that, seeing the positive reactions from people all over the world was a whole new feeling. Getting selected for film festivals and winning awards for something that I made was something I could only dream of a few years ago.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As I just mentioned, I’m a lesbian and fighting for good queer representation is really one of the things that drives me the most as a filmmaker. When I was younger there were many times I was heartbroken over queer female characters getting killed or written off shows in other horrible ways. There was a period of time where I thought queer people just didn’t deserve happiness because of the many films and shows that only showed us going through horrible events. It has definitely gotten better in recent years, which I’m very happy about, but we’re still not there yet. The number of queer characters in TV shows has actually decreased in the last year, which I think in concerning. Everyone deserves to be able to see themselves represented in the media. I’d love to add to the growing list of movies and TV shows that do show good queer representation and make sure that future generations of queer people never have to feel the way that I did when I was younger.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think many stages of the filmmaking process can be rewarding, such as finally going into production and seeing your project come to life. However the most rewarding aspect of being a director, for me, is seeing my finished project and finally being able to show that to an audience. Seeing the audience’s reaction to what you made, seeing their emotions, is what making films so worthwhile. For example, my short film Found Family, which deals with very heavy subjects such as abuse and homophobia, had most of my audiences crying at the end of the film. Even though it may sound weird, that truly made me happy in a way. That I could be the one to unleash such emotions in people with my art.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: esmeelavalette
• Twitter: esmeelavalette

Image Credits
Maartje Hensen