A Bronx Tale is one of those eminently quotable films, one that takes lessons from hardscrabble street authenticity, filters them through the silver screen, and redirects them back at the audience. From, “the saddest thing is wasted talent” to the premise of being allowed only three great women in a lifetime, it’s the perfect encapsulation of coming-of-age, mid-20th-century – usually crime-tinged – Italian-American lore that shone brightest in years prior with Bloodbrothers, Goodfellas, and The Pope of Greenwich Village.
But for actor Chazz Palminteri, it was real life. He penned the autobiographical tale of growing up in the 1960s Bronx and trying to find a balance between being molded by the old-school values of a working-class father and the guidance of Sonny, the patriarchal, enigmatic boss of the neighborhood mafioso. The 1993 movie marked the directorial debut of Robert De Niro, who also starred as the father, while Palminteri took on the role of Sonny.
Much of the acclaim A Bronx Tale received was due to its roots as a one-man show by Palminteri, who was chased by the Hollywood elite looking to snatch up rights to the script. But he wouldn’t sell. High as the offers got, he refused unless he could write the screenplay and star, a la Sylvester Stallone with Rocky. Approached after a performance in Los Angeles by De Niro, a handshake deal was struck.
Since then, A Bronx Tale has been turned into a Broadway play, a musical, and a book. Still, despite a prosperous acting career with appearances in notable films like Bullets Over Broadway and The Usual Suspects, Palminteri continues to perform the one-man show dozens of times a year around the world. This Saturday (November 23), he’ll be closing out 2024 with a final production at The Park Theatre in Cranston, Rhode Island. And he’s already got a return there, as well as stops in Nashua, New Hampshire and Lexington, Massachusetts on the docket for next year.
“People who’ve seen the movie, who’ve seen the play, people say that the one-man show was the best,” Palminteri tells Vanyaland ahead of Saturday’s presentation. “And I want to stress that people who saw the movie, who saw the musical, this will be an event they won’t forget. And I’m not overemphasizing it. It’s not hyperbole. To see it done, put it on your bucket list. I’m not even ashamed to say that because I know the feeling [of] what happens after I’m finished.”
Palminteri’s level of enthusiasm for a project he’s been doing consistently for over three and a half decades is remarkable. As he sat down for a 617 Q&A (Six Questions; One Recommendation; Seven Somethings), he talked about why he trusted De Niro with the movie rights, how the story has evolved for him personally, and marveled over the way A Bronx Tale keeps resonating in all its forms.
So, settle in, because now youse can’t leave.
:: SIX QUESTIONS
Michael Christopher: It’s been 35 years since A Bronx Tale first premiered as a one-man play. It’s carried on in that form, obviously the film, a musical, a film of the one-man show. What do you think the appeal is to the story for it to go this long with new generations discovering it?
Chazz Palminteri: Michael, it is a story that just connects with everyone. The things that I wrote about the characters are like archetypes. Everyone can connect with them. It talks about wasted talent, about changing your life. I cannot tell you how many people over these 30 years have come over to me and said, “Me and my father were estranged till we saw Bronx Tale together.” “My son was a drug addict. He saw Bronx Tale and he turned his life around.” “My daughter was depressed. She was going to commit suicide. She saw Bronx Tale and decided to become a writer.” I am telling you; it just goes on and on over these years and the story just gets bigger and bigger.
I mean, it is bigger than me. It’s bigger than all of us. Did I know this when I wrote it? Of course not. I just wrote this story about my life, and I just hit lightning in a bottle. I mean, that’s really what it comes down to; and I’m talking not just in America. I just came back from Portugal and a premiere there internationally. The first time there were people, there were no more seats. So, people sat on the floor in the aisles, 500 people just standing up [to applaud] a film [of the one-man show]. I get standing ovations for when I do it live. It’s a film. Nobody stands up after a film. I mean, it was crazy – just crazy, man. I don’t know.
How validating is it, all these years later, when so many people are coming up to you and telling you how much it’s affected them, that you held onto it, that you stuck to your guns and didn’t just sell out to the first person that came with a handful of coins or a fistful of dollars and said, “I’ll buy it off you.”
It was destined to happen this way. I believe that things happened for a reason. If you think about the logic of it, I had no money. I had about $200 left in the bank. I got offered $250,000. I turned it down. I got offered $500,000 – weeks later – I turned it down. And they tried to wait me out. A month later, I got offered $1 million. One million dollars, $200 in the bank. I turned it down. Two weeks later, I get off the stage and they tell me Robert De Niro’s in my dressing room waiting for me. He sees the show raves about it, says, “I want to play your father. I want to direct it. You should play Sonny, you’ll be great. You should write it, it’s your life.” And that’s how the movie got made.
Was there any level of intimidation with this guy who, at the time, he’s just coming off of Goodfellas, he did all those great Scorsese films, The Deer Hunter, The Godfather Part II. Were you like, “Oh my God, this guy’s interested in my story?”
No, no. Not at all. You don’t understand. Everyone wanted it, Michael. I mean, look, this was an aberration. It’s only happened twice in entertainment history, Rocky [Sylvester] Stallone. That’s it. That’s it. And even mine was bigger because I did the script on stage, so they saw it. I was getting offers of a million dollars walking into the restroom in a bathroom in Hollywood. Al Ruddy, the great producer of The Godfather, offered me a million dollars while I was taking a leak. It was crazy. It was something no one’s ever seen before, and I just felt confident. Look, I love Robert De Niro. I wasn’t intimidated by it, but I was so happy that he loved my movie and he loved the story and he wanted to play my father. I was over the moon.
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Why did you entrust him with it, of all the people that came up and said that they wanted to make the movie? Is it because he said that you could write it and you could star in it?
Yes. Yes, that’s the first thing. But the second thing, I knew it would be real and honest. I know how he works – just by watching his movies. Bob’s not going to Hollywood the thing up and make it something that it’s not. He kept it real, and that’s what I knew he would do. It just worked out great.
I was always curious as to why it was your prerequisite to play Sonny. Why not somebody else?
Because Sonny was the jewel part. It was the real show-off part. And as an actor, I wanted to play the great part. And I knew I could do it real and good because I lived it with these guys. I knew I could make it something special.
How happy were you with the final result of the film?
Oh, I’m happy every day. I mean, I always tell people that you can write a great script, Michael, but if you get a bad director, he could screw it up. He could destroy a great script. But Bob took a great script and made it even greater and elevated it on the screen, so I was ecstatic by it.
What’s great about stories is the interpretations that people have of them. To some, A Bronx Tale is a coming-of-age story. Many see it as a mob movie. Others view it as a love story between a father and son. A few might say it’s about inherent racism. What do you consider it?
It’s a morality tale. It’s not a mob movie at all. If anything, it’s a family movie. It’s not a mob movie. People who think it’s a mob movie are shortsighted. It’s a family movie. It’s about coming of age. What makes it really a great movie, and I hate talking like this because I wrote it, but it’s not about black and white. Most films, most great films are about good and evil. This is about gray and gray. Sonny wasn’t that bad. The father wasn’t that good. In other words, the father had a little racism in him. He wasn’t racist at all. He taught his son. He got along with everybody on the bus, Black or white. But he knew that his father might be upset if he told him he was involved with a Black girl.
The father said to him, “Well, I think I get along with everybody on the bus. I love everybody, but I think when it comes to relationships, we should stay with our own.” But Sonny was the opposite. Sonny said, “You know what? Whatever you feel in your heart, you go with it.” That’s what made this story so interesting. It’s about gray and gray, and the boy takes the best of the father, the best of Sonny, and becomes a man.
At the time, how did you find the balance between being sort of a street guy and an artist? Being a writer and wanting to do the play?
That’s a very good question. Not many people have asked me that question. I’m glad you did. Because I was a street guy who was an artist. Growing up, I would write poetry. I would write short stories. But I wouldn’t tell anybody. Because back then, “What are you… some kind of…” You know what they were saying. “You’re a $3 bill? What’s going on here?” So, I was stuck in this artist’s mind, and I was like a street guy. I went to Bronx Community College. I didn’t go to Harvard or Yale. I didn’t have great marks in high school – I had okay marks. In college, I did much better because I started to find my voice and feel myself free again. So, I was a talented… I had a gift. I had a gift. That’s it. That’s all I could say is I had a gift.
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How has the play evolved for you over the last 30 years or so?
Well, when I first did the play in the ‘80s, I related the boy to the father. Because I was the boy. But then after I got married and had kids and had a son, I started relating more to the father to the son. That’s how it changed. It just got richer and deeper.
If people are coming and they’ve seen just the film, or maybe they’ve seen the musical, what should they expect from the play?
Nothing like they’ve ever seen before. The thing that makes it unusual is I’m Calogero. I am the kid. But it’s the way I do – I literally do the whole movie on stage by myself. And you say, “How could that be, Chazz?” I can’t explain how I did it. I wrote it and I did it, and God had his hand on my head. What can I say? I didn’t write it. God wrote it. It just came out through me. That’s all.
Alfred Hitchcock used to say there’s only three things you could do to an audience to know you got a hit, and if you do two out of the three, you got a hit. “You can make them laugh, you can make them cry or you could scare them.” That’s it. And A Bronx Tale, I do all three.
The final show of this run is at the Park Theatre in Rhode Island. I know you’ve got dates already planned for 2025, but what is the feeling like when you come to that last show of the year?
I feel good. I feel satisfied. I know it’s not really the final show because I’m going to start up again in January. So I just feel like, “Oh, well, I got a nice little break so I can write more now and be with the family more and work out.” And it’s a feeling of satisfaction.
:: ONE RECOMMENDATION
Well, I decided I am a real entrepreneur and I like to start companies. I have a cigar and a wine that came out, and they’re doing very well. And I don’t smoke cigars a lot. I’m not a cigar aficionado, so I couldn’t find the way to sell them without being honest. So then I realized, because my grandfather was a big cigar smoker and a wine drinker, and I love wine. Wine, I do drink. So, my cigars, it’s called A Bronx Tale cigar, and there’s another one called the Calogero, and now the Sonny is coming out. But I said, “Look, people will buy it once because of my name, but if it isn’t good, they’re not going to keep buying it.” And I don’t need the money because I want to protect my brand. Same with the wine. Same with my restaurants. It’s got to be great, otherwise I won’t do it.
So, I made these cigars; a great company, Epic, Nicaraguan tobacco – really great. It came in eighth in the world in cigars recently. So, I dedicated to my grandfather Calogero, who came to this country searching for a better life. Think about it. If it wasn’t for him, Chazz Palminteri wouldn’t be here. A Bronx Tale would never happen. If it wasn’t for them coming to this country and me growing up in the Bronx, A Bronx Tale never would’ve happened. So, I dedicate this to all the immigrants who came to this country to give their children a better life. And that’s what I have on the cigars and on the wine.
I love how you tied it back to your grandparents. And of course, there’s that great line in the movie “Don’t disrespect your grandparents.” That shows how meaningful that is in the lineage and the genealogy.
Yes. Well, he’s telling me, he goes, “My mother and father came to this country with nothing.” He’s telling his boy. He goes, “And they still have nothing. What do we got? We got no money. We don’t have a car.” But it’s not about that. That’s why people have this dedication to this movie and story. It’s like Homer. It’s like Homer, man. It’s like Waiting for Godot. And I hate saying this because I probably sound like an asshole, but it’s bigger than me. It really is Michael. It’s bigger than me. I don’t know… I speak about humbly when I say this, A Bronx Tale is way bigger than I am. It’s just something that I created. I don’t know.
:: SEVEN OF SOMETHING
A Bronx Tale is one of the great New York films of all time. What would you say are seven of your favorite films that are set in New York?
Well, my favorite film of all time is On the Waterfront. [Directed by] Elia Kazan, with Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint. To me, that’s the perfect movie – not just New York – the perfect movie, as far as I’m concerned. It’s also Marty Scorsese’s favorite movie and a lot of people’s favorite movie.
I would say The Godfather I and II, without a doubt.
I would say, and I am biased because…New York story? Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas.
Well, it’s hard because I’m in it, [but] there’s Bullets Over Broadway. It was nominated, I think, for 10 Academy Awards.
I think Gangs of New York.
A lot of Scorsese in there. He really has dialed into that New York feel.
Well, it’s real. A Bronx Tale is real. Goodfellas is real. We grew up with these people. I could tell when I read a script, it’s a gangster [movie] made by somebody who didn’t live here, somebody from Orange County or something. And I read it, and it just reads fake. It reads like somebody saw all these movies and tried to write it.
CHAZZ PALMINTERI – A BRONX TALE LIVE :: Saturday, November 23 at The Park Theatre, 848 Park Ave. in Cranston, RI :: 8:00 p.m., all ages, $59 to $89 :: Event info :: Advance tickets