CHAZZ PALMINTERI LAUGHS heartily when talking about an interview conducted when he became an “overnight sensation” with “A Bronx Tale.” A reporter asked the actor, “How does it feel to be a success?” Without missing a beat, Palminteri said, “I’ve always been a success. Now I’m just famous.”
Coming from some, that might sound like an overabundance of ego. Coming from Palminteri, it’s simply a statement of fact. “I still feel that way. I think it’s the love my mother and father gave me.”
If it weren’t for his parents’ devotion, Palminteri’s life could have easily taken a much different turn. As a young boy growing up in a rough neighborhood in the Bronx in the 1960s, he was surrounded by hoodlums and wise guys. One day, while sitting on his front stoop, Palminteri witnessed a shooting. He didn’t rat on the gunman, and the tough took the boy under his wing. The lure of the thugs was strong, but in the end, the lure of the working man was stronger. Unwilling to watch his son turn to the criminal element, Palminteri’s father explained to him that the real tough guy was the man who got up every morning to go to work to care for his family. The lesson stuck, as did his father’s words: “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.”
Obviously, Palminteri hasn’t let his talent go to waste. The actor has built a career on stage, television and in more than 50 films.
“I never thought of anything else, being anything else,” he says. “I wanted to be an actor since I was 10 or 11 years old. I flirted with the idea of being a baseball player, but I wasn’t that good. I just knew that [acting] was what I was called to do.”
Palminteri heeded the call, but when he didn’t land quality roles, he decided to turn back to the Bronx. Or at least his memories of the Bronx.
“If they won’t give me a great part, then I’m going to do it myself,” he thought. So in 1988, Palminteri put pen to paper, bringing his old neighborhood to life in the one-man show “A Bronx Tale.”
“Eighty percent of it is all true,” says Palminteri of the coming-of-age story in which he portrays 18 different characters including Sonny, Calogero Anello and Eddie Mush, who Palminteri will bring to life this weekend at the Scranton Cultural Center.
“A Bronx Tale” was first produced off-Broadway in 1989. The production later moved to Los Angeles. Palminteri caught the attention of directors and producers on both coasts, and suddenly his show was “the hottest property since ‘Rocky.’” Everyone wanted to bring “A Bronx Tale” to the big screen, but there was a catch: They wanted to replace its creator and star with a bigger name.
“I understood their point,” he says. “It was a great starring role. Business-wise, it made sense. Ethically, it didn’t.”
CAREER CONFIDENCE
THOUGH THE STRUGGLING actor had just $200 in his bank account, he turned down offers of more than $1 million for the rights to his story. Then Palminteri’s fortunes changed when Robert DeNiro caught a performance. DeNiro wanted to sign on to make his directorial debut with a movie version of “A Bronx Tale” with Palminteri not only starring but also penning the screenplay.
“I just knew I was going to make it,” Palminteri recalls. “In my heart, I knew. I just didn’t know when. You get 1,000 ‘nos’ for every one ‘yes.’ You gotta get that one big ‘yes.’ I never looked back after that.”
Though he admits it was a bit odd at first seeing other actors in the roles he originated, Palminteri enjoyed the collaborative process behind the 1993 film. “I had a director who took that screenplay and made it fly. I saw what other people brought to it and it was wonderful. With the movie, it was a perfect cast, and Bob just took it and made it fly.”
The film changed Palminteri’s career and earned him a legion of fans who would go on to admire his work in other films including “Bullets Over Broadway,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Mulholland Falls” and “Analyze This.”
A few years ago, it dawned on Palminteri that there was a whole generation of people who never got to appreciate the visceral experience of “A Bronx Tale” on stage, so he joined forces with Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks to revive the one-man show at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre.
“He’s one of the legends of Broadway,” he says of Zaks. “It was a very collaborative thing. We trust each other. He slowed it down, he made it funnier. He just made it better.”
All the talk of collaboration may seem uncharacteristic of an actor so often cast as a tough guy, and even moreso of an actor whose career took off thanks to a one-man show. But Palminteri speaks as one with a true respect for his craft and for the others that practice it. He cautions about not substituting rigidity for confidence when it comes to performing. And he credits DeNiro with some of his favorite words to live by: “Always remember it takes just as much talent to recognize a great idea as to come up with it yourself.”
No matter who came up with the idea to take the Bronx on the road, it’s a good one for Northeastern Pennsylvania theatre fans. After creating one of the bona fide hits of the 2007-08 Broadway season with the revival and hitting the road with stops in 16 different cities, Palminteri is bringing “A Bronx Tale” to Scranton. There’s a real sense that, even 20 years later, near the end of the tour, Palminteri is just as excited to tell his story each time he steps on stage as he was in the early days.
“It’s just been incredible,” he says of being on the road. “I never brag about my work, but don’t miss this. It’s really good. It’s really an experience you won’t forget if you come and see it. I promise you.”
Tell them Sonny sent you. And Lorenzo. And Calogero. And Jimmy. And Tony. And Chazz.
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