Stunt Casting, Emotional Availability, and Top 5 Pho Restaurants
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. Last week I was texting May Antaki, who edits this column, while my daughter Ella was beside me. She asked what I was doing and I told her. I asked if she wanted to read them.
Ella- Am I in it?
Me- No. You didn’t make it this week.
Ella- Dick.
And so now she is in it this week.
2. Sean Morley Dixon may be a genius and brilliant playwright but I have finally discovered his weak spot.
3. I’m not a big fan of stunt casting, in general, but P.K. Subban AND James Comey co-starring in Showboat!!!!??? This time Drabinsky has gone too far.
4. True Story:
Ted Whittall sends me a note one night saying his friend Camryn Manheim is coming to town because her son, Milo, is doing a film and that she’d like to see some theatre and meet some people and would I help her out. Sure, I say. I’m a big fan and send the names of some shows I’d recommend, and tell her I am out of town but look forward to meeting her when I get back. The next day I have a callback for a film and she is sitting in the waiting room. I say, “Holy shit, Hi. I’m Tony Nappo and I just sent you some shows last night.” Then I go in the room and read with her son to play his dad. And I get it.
So now I have a kid with Camryn Manheim.
5. David Mamet threatens to sue any theatre company for $25,000 if they do a talkback after one of his shows. Actors working on his shows everywhere respond by just doing their fucking job and then going home without having to answer a bunch of stupid questions.
6.
7. My Little Cheat:
Crying doesn’t make you a good actor. But an honest emotional availability does. In life, we generally don’t want to reveal our vulnerabilities in order to protect ourselves, so we have trained ourselves to keep our guards up and our emotions hidden. Sometimes a show calls for us to go to extremely vulnerable places and even, ideally, cry, but some days it’s hard to walk into that “cold.” I have learned a trick to “open the valves,” a phrase taught to me by Michelle Monteith. I take a few moments and go to that place just before the show so that I’m not pushing for results or worrying about it during the show. Then I can just play the scene honestly and if it happens it happens. Sometimes I listen to a piece of music or watch a film clip. Other times I think about something that happened recently that I haven’t had a chance to work through yet—whatever makes my body respond emotionally and actually experience something true. Then it’s that much easier for me to elicit that same response physically within the context of my actions during the scene I am working on because those feeling are bubbling just below the surface rather than buried deep down.
8.
9. Top 5 Pho Restaurants (inspired by Richard Lee)
5- Pho Latio
4- Pho Toes of Yo Mama
3- Pho Get About It!
2- Pho Fuk Sake
1- The Strat Pho Festi Pho
10. This is what is made okay when you propose a Cultural Appropriation Prize.
11. Things Only Canadian Actors Think:
“I think I could have been a really successful bank teller. I think people would have really looked forward to coming in and seeing me at the bank.” – Shoshana Sperling
12. They made me shave for the new movie I’m working on.
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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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Every single fucking time there is a mass shooting, we all give the speeches, and we all share the memes (to each other, who are all mostly already in agreement), but nothing changes.
Gottfried, Strays, and Easter Eggs
Dogs rarely have a hidden agenda when they meet people or other dogs: they're either wagging that shit or they aren’t.
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At one point, I was sleeping with so many actresses that they used to just hold ACTRA meetings in my bedroom.
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If the Freedom Convoy has answered one question for every Canadian, I think it's this: whatever happened to that dumb kid in my class?
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In these newly woke times in the entertainment industry, it’s slightly amazing to me that nobody has protested the fact that Denzel Washington isn’t actually Scottish yet.
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