Working: How Alessandro Nivola Became Dickie Moltisanti in The Many Saints of Newark

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to actor Alessandro Nivola, who recently starred in the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark. In the interview, Alessandro discusses his early career as a theater actor and shares a piece of wisdom he got from Robert De Niro about memorizing lines. Then he digs into the process of becoming a believable 1970’s tough guy in Many Saints. After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas discuss line memorization and the joys of being part of a “scene.” In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Alessandro shares how he’s able to tap into powerful emotions in scenes that call for it. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to [email protected] or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Big Mood, Little Mood—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I started just obsessively learning my lines so that, you know, when it came time to shoot,
0:11.7	I just knew them so well that I was never reaching for the word or whatever.
0:18.4	I just was totally like that was just gone as part of my consciousness.
0:23.7	I was just, you know, I could just see what came out.
0:30.3	Welcome back to working.
0:31.4	I'm your host, June Thomas.
0:33.2	And I'm your other host, Isaac Butler.
0:35.5	And whose voice did we hear at the top of the show?
0:37.7	June, we just heard the voice of veteran actor, Alessandro Nevola.
0:42.4	What might we know him from?
0:44.1	Well, Alessandro has been in truly a ton of work if you go and visit his IMDB page.
0:49.2	I mean, one of his early films, even his first film was playing Nicholas Cage's brother
0:53.8	in the John Woo film, Face Off, which he immortalized.
0:58.0	Immortally utters the line by, bro, by bro, drop me a line sometime.
1:05.2	He's the rock star boyfriend in Laurel Canyon.
1:08.8	He was in Jurassic Park 3.
1:10.0	He's been an American hustle.
1:11.2	He was in Selma.
1:12.3	I mean, he is in many things.
1:13.6	He's good in all of them, but he is currently starring in the many saints of Newark.
1:20.0	Now, I know that Alessandro plays a character called Dickey Multisanti in that movie,
1:27.3	which I think it's accurate to call a soprano's prequel.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.