Chazz Palminteri

If you remember anything from A Bronx Tale—the 1993 Chazz Palminteri-penned, Robert De Niro-directed film starring both actors—chances are it's one of two things: "The saddest thing is wasted talent," a line spoken by papa Lorenzo De Niro to nine-year-old Calogero; and the door test. For the uninitiated, the door test is to be administered by young Italian-American men to their prospective ragazze. When you arrive to pick up your date, "You get out of the car, you lock both doors," explains mobster/mentor Sonny Palminteri to surrogate son Calogero Lillo Brancato, now 17. Then you walk up the steps "real cool" and offer her your arm. "Women like that." Returning to the car, "You open the door for her, you let her get in, you close the door for her, then you walk around the car and you look through the rear window. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button for you so you can get in, you dump her… She's a selfish broad and you're just seeing the tip of the iceberg." True story—as are many in A Bronx Tale, which Palminteri is now performing on Broadway as a one-man show, its original format. Nearly 20 years ago, the play ran for 84 performances at off Broadway's Playhouse 91 before De Niro—who first saw Bronx in L.A.—decided to make it his Hollywood directorial debut, and agreed to give Palminteri a starring role. After all, he was nine-year-old Calogero his given name; roughly translated, it means "beautiful elder", sitting on a stoop around 187th and Belmont Avenue in the Bronx. And at age 55, with an Oscar nomination for Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway to his credit, Palminteri is only too happy to retell his Tale on stage.

What made you decide to revisit this show now?
When I did it 20 years ago and it was like the hottest property in California and everyone wanted to make it [into a movie], it was crazy. It was insane. Once I made the movie deal when I was doing it in New York, after four months of sold-out audiences, I closed it. I had done it in L.A. for, geez, seven, eight months. So I just stopped. And I shouldn't have. Well, hindsight—look, I wanted to make money. I was a struggling actor and I was getting offered movies. But I always said that not enough people saw it live. It's such a great message about not wasting your life and not wasting your talent, and in person, it's even more powerful. Over the past 19 years, I made 51 movies, something like that, but everyone comes over to talk about A Bronx Tale. I said, I'm young enough. I'd better do it now while I can.

Have you made any changes in the script?
It's pretty much exactly the way it was. It's staged a little differently; Jerry [Zaks, the director] did some incredible stuff with it. Great lighting by Paul Gallo. It's actually better than the original. It really is. I know a lot of people who saw both who said it's better.

Surely your performance has changed or evolved.
I think I'm doing it better. Obviously I have the experience of 19 years. Also, a lot of it has to do with father and son. I wasn't married then. I didn't have a family. I have a son now.

The story of how A Bronx Tale was born is pretty well-known by now. You were in L.A., working at a nightclub, but you were very much a struggling actor.
I was frustrated with the parts I was getting. Guest-star parts. I wanted to do film. I wanted to break out big. Then, one night—I was working as a doorman—I got fired.

Why'd you get fired?
[Chuckles] This short little man with these big glasses was giving me a hard time, and I wouldn't let him in. It turned out to be Swifty Lazar.

As in the-most-famous-Hollywood-agent-ever Swifty Lazar?
And it was his party. He went in and the owner got upset and I got fired. So I got in my car and drove home. I was so upset.

Not about getting fired, though.
I said, "If they won't give me a part, I'll write my own." I'm going to write a one-man show. So I wrote this 5- or 10-minute piece about a killing I saw when I saw a kid. Each week I would write more and more and perform it for my workshop at Theatre West, and after about 10 months I had about an hour and a half of a one-man show.

How much of it is real?
The killing. My dad being a bus driver, telling me the saddest thing is a wasted talent. Dating a black girl. My friends who got killed. But there's quite a bit of embellishment too. I wanted to tell the story [of the contrast] between the mafia and the working man. The mafia always gets all the credit in the Italian-American community. But the working man is the essence of that community. He never gets his share of glory. My father used to say, "The working man is the tough guy. It doesn't take much strength to pull a trigger." I thought it was a great message. That's the essence of what I wanted to show, through the eyes of a young boy. But it's not a documentary of my life.

The piece is really a valentine to your father. How did he react when he saw it?
He was blown away. He recognized a lot of things he said to me.

And now it's something you can pass on to your 12-year-old son, Dante.
My son just saw it last week. All he does is talk to me and ask questions about it.

What about folks from the neighborhood?
They're just stunned. They stand up at the end. The thing I hear a lot is that no one's ever seen anything like it. I don't want it to sound like bragging, but it's not a standard one-man show. I literally do A Bronx Tale, the movie, on stage by myself. And I do it without stopping; it's a linear performance.

When you got your movie deal, much was made of the fact that you held out for creative control.
I could have made any deal I wanted. When I got to New York, that's when De Niro saw it again and we made a deal.

A pretty good one—$1.5 million. For a play. By a first-time writer.
They offered me $250,000, then $500,000, then $1 million, but still without me in it. And I said no. And I finally got what I wanted.

Who did the studios want to cast?
They mentioned names, but I would never mention them.

Did you worry about being labeled difficult?
No. I was good enough to do it. The only reason they didn't want me was because I wasn't a star. But when De Niro saw it, that didn't bother him.

What do you think drew him to the piece, and to the part of the father?
He knew the milieu really well. He knew the street. He knew the Italian community.

And incidentally, why is A Bronx Tale out of print on DVD?
We just found out about that.

Next year would be the perfect time for a 15th-anniversary edition. You could do a commentary, give a tour of your old neighborhood...
That's what they're all talking about.

After the movie, did doors open up for you in Hollywood?
Oh my god, when I did the play they opened up. Then when I did the movie—oh, forget it.

Do you feel like you get typecast in gangster roles? A Bronx Tale, Bullets Over Broadway, Analyze This…
You know what? People have said that. But I've played a lot of different characters. Some of the most famous ones are the gangsters. In The Usual Suspects I was the FBI agent; in Jade [the lawyer]. Sometimes I play the cop or the bad guy. But Bronx Tale has such an impression on people—the dialogue, the culture. I became this guy from A Bronx Tale. And that's okay. That doesn't bother me at all. Look, if it's a great part I'll do it.

You've worked steadily since A Bronx Tale, but there's a noticeable lack of Hollywood blockbusters on your résumé.
I like doing independent movies 'cause they're great stories. I just want to do good work.

Do you ever look at De Niro or Al Pacino and think, "I could have done that role," or "I wish I had his career"?
No, not at all. I really don't. My life and my career's been great. I'm also a writer and director, so I'm always working. When I finish acting, I go home and write. Right now I'm writing a movie and I'm writing a play. If you start comparing yourself with people you'll always be unhappy. There'll always be people with more than you and there'll always be people with less than you. If you focus on what you have, you'll always have enough. If you focus on what you don't have, you'll never have enough. God has blessed me. I've been very fortunate.

God was certainly involved when you met your wife, Gianna Ranaudo. You met her in church.
We didn't say anything. We kind of made eye contact. Then a few days later I went into a nightclub and I walked right into her.

Did you give her the door test?
Absolutely.

So she passed.
She passed every test.

Can she make sauce?
Oh, it's great.

Better than your mama's?
[Silence] You want to put that in print? You crazy?

See Chazz Palminteri in A Bronx Tale at the Walter Kerr Theatre.