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« Heavenly awards potential for Lumet’s ‘Devil’ | Main | Various comments about Marisa in ‘Before the Devil’ reviews »
Marisa Tomei: One ‘Devil’ of a New Yorker
By Lisa | November 1, 2007
From usatoday.com:
NEW YORK — It’s a convergence of celebrity at Bar Pitti in the West Village.
At one table sits Julianne Moore with husband Bart Freundlich and their two kids (Caleb, 9, and Liv, 5), dining on pasta. And in rushes Marisa Tomei, who heads straight for Moore and gives the redheaded actress a hug. The two chat, and Moore promises to see Tomei’s new off-Broadway play, Oh The Humanity and Other Good Intentions, which starts previews Saturday.Tomei, in fact, has just wrapped up rehearsals for the day. She pledged to herself to do one play a year. “Some years, I keep my promise,” says Tomei, 42.
One reason for her scheduling difficulties? The New York-born-and-bred actress, who won an Oscar for her bitingly funny supporting role as Mona Lisa Vito in 1992’s My Cousin Vinny, has been living in Los Angeles.
“People are devastated when they realize it. I’m supposed to be the patron saint of New York,” Tomei says with a sigh. “I’ve grown up here, and I’m sure I’ll come back, no doubt in my mind, but I wanted to go there for a little bit. I’m loving it. I hang out with friends, go to people’s houses for dinner, the same stuff I did here, at a more relaxed pace.”
Now that she’s staying in her downtown flat, she’s dealing with urban living.
“I had a big leak in my apartment this morning, so that took up most of the morning. The guy upstairs, the kitchen, something,” she says. “Apparently, the plumber broke a pipe while trying to fix it, and that’s when the flood really happened. It was my living room. I don’t think anything really bad happened.”
The same can’t be said for Sidney Lumet’s crime drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, which has bad deeds aplenty; it’s showing in select cities this weekend and goes national before Thanksgiving.
The film, which has earned largely glowing reviews, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as two down-and-out brothers who plan to rob a jewelry store — and Tomei as Hoffman’s pretty wife, Gina, who is having an affair with his brother.
Gina and the outspoken Tomei have zilch in common. “I think she’s quite happy to not be taken seriously. She likes it better when people think for her,” Tomei says.
Tomei shot Devil while also working on the biker comedy Wild Hogs, with John Travolta. “I wasn’t doing Hamlet,” she says, shrugging as she talks about Wild Hogs. “Sometimes when things overlap like that, I don’t feel comfortable in the shoes of the character (Gina). I was jumping around while we were trying to rehearse. My favorite thing is going deep and forgetting about everything else and not answering phone calls.”
Tomei’s career has been somewhat unpredictable and inconsistent since her Oscar win. The turning point? In the Bedroom in 2001, which earned her a second nomination for playing a single mom who deals with a volatile ex. The role, Tomei says, “rounded out people’s idea of me” by proving she could master stark drama.
One comedy she did turn down: 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral.
“My grandfather was sick at the time, and I didn’t want to leave. I’m sure it would have been fine with him. But I felt like I didn’t want to go anywhere,” says Tomei, who just vacationed in Italy with her whole family. “I guess I erred more on the side of being there for that. What I know now is that opportunities, they knock when they knock.”
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Topics: 'Before the Devil', Articles & Reviews |