Primetweets Movies
So, let’s start with your origin story.
Well, I was actually… it’s a long story, and I always have a hard time trying to make it short, but I was a closet-case actress. I would always go in Backstage, it’s an actor’s sort of paper for open calls, and mostly non-union. And I would always be doing that. Nobody knew that I was trying to be an actress. So, then what happened was, when A Bronx Tale had an open call, and there was an ad in The Daily News or The Post, I forgot what paper, and somebody at my job where I was working — I was not an actress, I was working in a billing department at the Hunts Point Terminal Market — somebody said, “Oh my God, you should go on this open call. De Niro’s looking for nine-year-olds to play his son.” I think my son was seven at the time. And so, I took my son on the audition and I realized that there was an open call for the mom, too. That’s how I found out about it, and got that role through an open call, taking my son.
And then you’re working with Robert De Niro as a director in your first feature film.
Yeah. And then the next thing, I’m on a set with Robert De Niro, directing me playing his wife. Yeah.
So, looking back at your filmography, obviously, I think with that movie, with The Irishman, with Capone now, you end up in a lot of movies that have this crime or gangster element to it. What’s your perspective on playing in that type of milieu without descending into caricature?
Well, the only time it’s really good is when there’s a good… I know authentic, and when it’s easier to do on anything as far as any movie is concerned, not just that genre, is when something is, when it’s a whole, the collaboration, when everybody is excellent at their job. So, from the writing, it makes it a lot easier when you have a smart writer, who’s not just making a caricature, and sort of like this idea of what they think people are. And instead of just writing for a human being who happens to be from that community, or that world, and making them more real and grounded. When you make a real character, it doesn’t matter if they’re a bigger-than-life character, like a Tony Montana or a Tony Soprano, when it’s written well, because both those movies could have been written really bad, and the actors could have taken it to another place if it was any other actors. And the director could have directed it in another place if it was any other director.
But when you have the whole thing, all the ingredients are right, and you have it on a quality scale of like a 10 out of, one to 10, and it’s a 10, meaning everybody from the director to the production to wardrobe, everybody’s all a collaboration. And that’s what makes it much easier, when it’s well done, when it’s done on a human level, not some kind of an idea or some clowns, some cartoon character — as we see a lot of, I think. Everybody thinks they could just write a mob film if they just get somebody to talk like this, and act like that, and talk about this, and talk about that. But that’s not what it’s about. These are people who are real people, trying to survive in the real world, make money, whether it’s legal or not, but they’re real people. That’s the point.
They’re not cartoon characters. That’s the world they come from. That’s what they know. That’s what they were dealt. That’s how they grew up. That’s what they grew up around. And that’s their life. If they had the opportunities, like any other legit person, in that world they grew up in, they would be just as good. It’s your life circumstances. What I’m saying is, the moral of the story is that they’re real people. And if you get a script that’s written for real people, it’s a pleasure to do.
Other than going where the work is, what draws you, personally, to roles in these kinds of movies, artistically speaking?
You know, it’s not that I’m even drawn to it. I’m not really drawn to it. That’s, ever since I did A Bronx Tale, I was very young. I played a mother, I was so young. I played a mother in that movie, when I was in my 20s, and I got stereotyped. I got put in a box. And now, ever since that movie, that’s what people think of me. You know?
So I do it, it’s a job. And sometimes, it’s written well, like I said, and it’s great, and you love being in it, and you’re proud of it. And sometimes, they’re not so great. But that seems to be what I get cast as. It’s not that I’m drawn to it, and I’m saying, “Wow, I really want to do this.” I mean the Scorseses and the De Niros, yes, always. And David Chase. But it’s not that I’m so drawn to it. I’m drawn to any writing that’s good. That’s what I’m drawn to, no matter what it is. And that’s really it. It’s not so much I’m drawn to gangster films, because I’m really not.
Written by: Looper
