Prince, Pinterventions, and Saag Paneer
Nappoholics Anonymous is a weekly column featuring twelve random thoughts by actor Tony Nappo. Some are funny, some are poignant, some bother him, and some make him weep from sadness while others make him weep for joy. Here are his thoughts: unfiltered, uncensored, and only occasionally unsafe for work.
1. You know you’re in shitty shape when you have to stop and catch your breath walking DOWN a flight of stairs.
2. Just ending a week of previews for The Summoned. I’m doing more of a character role, not as close-to-the-bone as I usually play, and I imagine not everyone is going to like what I’m doing. I knew this would be hard when I began it and knew I could fail miserably. Sometimes you just have to make those choices to grow. I could make easy choices and be cast the same way over and over or just turn down the shit that scares me, but then what would I be? Nothing, that’s what. A hack. Finished. To me, anyway. I’m always blabbing on about how an actor has only to answer this one question: “Did I accomplish what I set out to do?” I am pretty sure I’m getting closer but it’s a harder thing to gauge than usual. Character work is hard.
3. To the drunk who kept screaming, “We love you, Prince!!!” over and over and over at the Sony Centre concert a couple months ago, I am so deeply and sincerely sorry for calling you an asshole in my mind. You were so, so right.
4. One of the best pieces of film advice I was ever given came from Jeff Fahey. “Never die on anything cold.” He was so fucking right. I have played dead a lot in twenty-some odd years. In the film Saw II alone, I spent four entire days out of my six shooting days just lying on the floor in a pool of my own blood.
5. A Pintervention is when a group of actor friends gather to stop you from doing something, but it takes them forever to just come right out and actually tell you what the fuck it is they want you to stop doing.
6. “How come HE gets his own fucking day???” – Wind & Fire
7. If you feel bad for fans of, say, Springsteen, because of his decision to not play North Carolina, it’s probably because you’re a dick. You can’t weigh people being denied basic human rights with people missing a concert. I mean, have you ever even listened to a Springsteen song? I’m pretty sure Springsteen himself would smack you in the fucking head. If I had a front row seat to that show, sure, I’d be disappointed in the short-term, but in the long-term I’d be all the more a fan because of his decision.
8. Fact: My digestive system has very little effect on saag paneer.
9. I was joking with an actor friend about how big he looked in a particular film. He said, “Come on, you know the camera adds ten pounds.” I said, “How many fucking cameras did they use?”
10. “Tony, don’t throw the chair during the curtain call.” My new most favourite note of all time.
11. Director Richard Rose (pictured here with Fab Filippo) says that one of the most important things he has learned, over the course of his extremely accomplished career, is that he must be extra gentle and supportive when giving directions to Italians.
12. In my twenties, all my best stories contained the phrase, “I was so drunk…” In my thirties, they all contained the phrase, “I was so high…” Now, in my late forties, it’s either “I was so tired…” or “I was so sore…” Sometimes both.
Tony Nappo
Tony is Italian, he’s from Scarborough, he’s an actor, he’s a father, he’s a really good house painter, and he doesn’t believe that most things matter, ultimately, at all.
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