Talking with Joe

April 21st, 2009 at 10:20am Will Pfeifer

The Onion AV Club has a great “Random Roles” talk with Joe Mantegna where he discusses just about every role he’s ever done, from originating the Ricky Roma character (aka the Al Pacino movie role) on Broadway in GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS to having his scene cut from XANADU (but still getting royalty checks every year).

Naturally, he talks a lot about his breakthrough movie role in David Mamet’s HOUSE OF GAMES (trailer above), and he holds a special place in his heart for what’s probably his most-seen (or at least most-heard) role, Fat Tony on THE SIMPSONS…

 I read the script, thought it was funny, I loved THE SIMPSONS, I think they were in their third season at the time. What I’d seen of it, I thought, “This is real smart, this is clever. I like what they’re doing, so I’d love doing this.” So I went in and did it, but who knew that Fat Tony was gonna resonate in the hearts and minds of the Simpsonites out there? Apparently they’d gotten enough feedback as to how the character was liked that they wrote it in again and again, and I was kind of a recurring guy that they’d tap into at least a couple episodes a season. And I was more than happy to do it, because it’s my longest-running character, and one that I think the quality of it has been maintained. I like it as much today as I did 17 years ago.

One role that, unfortunately, doesn’t get mentioned, is his portrayal of a cop coming to terms with his own Jewish identity in David Mamet’s 1991 drama HOMICIDE (not to be confused with the excellent NBC cop show). It’s not available on DVD — in fact, I don’t think it’s ever been on DVD — but I used to have a videotape of it and watched it several times. If you ever get a chance to check it out, it’s worth a look.

Entry Filed under: actors, videos