“I didn't have traditional stage fright. If there was 500 people in the audience or three people in the audience, it didn't really make a difference. What made a difference was the conductor. Everything that I was scared about as a drummer was him.”

French-American filmmaker

Damien Chazelle is a French-American filmmaker known for directing films that move between music, ambition, and pressure. His work includes Whiplash (2014), La La Land (2016), First Man (2018), and Babylon (2022). He is best known for Whiplash and La La Land, which brought him wide attention, and for later films that extend his interest in drive, performance, and the costs of success. Across these projects, his storytelling often centers on ambition and the intensity of artistic life.