The movie that opened Marisa Tomei’s eyes to the power of cinema: “The whole package”
Every actor has that one movie that they hold closest to their heart, citing it as their ultimate inspiration for acting in the first place, and this might range from something incredibly obscure or a blockbuster that showed them the power of captivating an audience, and for Marisa Tomei, it’s a classic from a filmmaker who is consistently singled out as a favourite by Hollywood’s best actors and directors, and it’s not hard to see why.
If you appreciate the artistry of cinema, then you surely laud John Cassavetes for changing Hollywood forever with his indie filmmaking, challenging conventions to pave new ground.
His debut film, Shadows, proved a damn-near monumental moment for the art form, with the experimental and improvisational style of the film, influenced by the jazz that soundtracked it, reflecting a new era where authentic and naturalistic stories could be appreciated by audiences, and that you didn’t need to use a fancy sound studio or have a massive crew, star-studded cast, and expensive equipment to make a good film.
With that, Cassavetes rose to become a key cinematic figure, and over the coming years, he frequently collaborated with his wife, Gena Rowlands, who elevated his works to a completely different goddamn plane of existence just through her sheer brilliance.
Their collaborations have inspired countless movie-lovers ever since, with many considering A Woman Under the Influence, a blistering exploration of domesticity, gender, psychological breakdown, and identity, their magnum opus. While Tomei too loves it, she cites her favourite to be Opening Night, a masterfully crafted story, led by a showstopping performance by Rowlands as a Broadway star struggling to remain mentally stable after witnessing the death of one of her fans.
Tomei, who has appeared in everything from Chaplin and My Cousin Vinny (which won her an Oscar) to The Wrestler and Avengers: Endgame, admitted she finally understood cinema when she saw Opening Night. Of course, how a love of such art manifests in eventually taking on a role in the MCU beats me because they practically exist on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Still, revealing why she loves Opening Night in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Tomei said, “Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes. [I chose this one] because of Gena, because I watched it when my mind was first opened up to what cinema could be when I was a young actress starting out and discovering the scope of film.”
Expanding on her love for the actor, she continued, “Everything that Gena does in this, as well as in A Woman Under the Influence, the way that it explores femininity and masculinity and the devastating edges of masculinity, as well as so many colours that a woman can be: her fierceness, her devastation, her heartbreak, her going mad…”
She also pointed to the surprising behind-the-scenes work that goes into building a film of such calibre and how her choice is based on not just what people can see on screen but the uniqueness of genius on offer, noting, “And then to understand a film could be shot in someone’s house, that you could just do this, you could find a way to carve your own path away from prescribed studio roles. So, I chose this for the whole package.”
