{"id":585731,"date":"2026-08-07T06:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585731\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T06:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:46:08","slug":"these-cooks-ripped-each-other-apart-dominic-sessa-on-playing-anthony-bourdain-kitchen-bullies-and-the-joys-of-being-a-70s-barfly-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585731\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018These cooks ripped each other apart\u2019: Dominic Sessa on playing Anthony Bourdain, kitchen bullies and the joys of being a 70s barfly | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite being just 23, Dominic Sessa is perhaps as intimately acquainted with the 1970s as those who grew up then. Although the New Jersey-born actor has only starred in five films, two of them are marinated in the fashions, sounds and mores of the decade. In his new movie, Tony<\/a>, he plays the 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain, future bad-boy celebrity chef, bestselling author of Kitchen Confidential and host of its hit TV spin-off. Tony restricts itself to one summer in 1975, when Bourdain bummed around the coastal resort of Provincetown, Massachusetts, falling in love, scrubbing pans in a seafood joint and catching the cooking bug. \u201cFor a rootless young man with sensualist inclinations,\u201d he wrote, \u201cit was the perfect getaway.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 70s retro vibe also hung over Sessa\u2019s debut film. In Alexander Payne\u2019s Oscar-winning 2023 comedy-drama The Holdovers<\/a>, he played Angus Tully, a surly student forced to board at school over Christmas with only his classics teacher and the cook for company. That picture wasn\u2019t merely set in 1970; it seemed, with its faded palette and fake crackles on the print, to have been made then.<\/p>\n

The most convincing period touch in each film, however, is Sessa himself. He has been described as having a \u201c1970s face\u201d, a euphemism for \u201cunconventional\u201d. His crown of dark, jumbled curls looks as if it was scribbled in crayon by a hyperactive child, while his wide, narrowed eyes are set high and far apart in his upside down triangular face. He projects inner conflict: when Tony and Angus behave arrogantly and disagreeably, even aggressively, Sessa\u2019s features suggest a wounded quality that hints at future self-disgust for any misdeeds.<\/p>\n

Sessa was barely aware of Bourdain before making Tony. \u201cI knew of him but he didn\u2019t have any significant meaning for me,\u201d he shrugs, speaking over video call from a Manhattan hotel room. A gangly six-footer, Sessa is all elbows, collar-bones and sharp edges as he stares down the webcam in a brown-and-white checked shirt. \u201cI think the only way to do the film honestly and without hesitation was to not have a strong opinion about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that he has been immersed in Bourdain\u2019s history, he has clearer ideas about the pioneering chef\u2019s appeal. \u201cI think he made people feel an overwhelming sense of potential in themselves,\u201d he says. \u201cHe inspired this movement where there\u2019s hundreds, probably thousands, of YouTube channels by people who dedicate their lives to showcasing what\u2019s being eaten in different parts of the world. He was a rebellious person, someone who acted with integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony\u2019s director Matt Johnson, who brought such vitality to the tech origin story Blackberry<\/a> and the recent time-travel comedy Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie<\/a>, pointed Sessa towards two chapters from Kitchen Confidential<\/a>, the memoir written in gunslinger prose and billed as a story of \u201csex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine\u201d. There, the actor found the characters who inspired the film\u2019s triumvirate of Provincetown kitchen mentors, the men Bourdain likens to \u201cgods\u201d and \u201cpirates\u201d: the wise head chef (Antonio Banderas), the coke-snorting Jack-the-lad (Leo Woodall) and the taunting, vulgar mischief-maker (Stavros Halkias).<\/p>\n

Sessa as Anthony Bourdain in Tony. Photograph: Seacia Pavao<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restaurant we were filming in had only closed a couple of days earlier, so we were in a fully operating kitchen,\u201d he explains. \u201cStavros learned how to make lobster rolls, Leo learned to shuck oysters. Matt was, like: \u2018Dom, you go in and wash the dishes, and Stavros and Leo are gonna make fun of you.\u2019 They made it all real for me. I felt genuinely intimidated by them. They\u2019re so nice but I think they enjoyed the chance to bully me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dramatising Bourdain\u2019s youthful exploits put Sessa in mind of his own misspent summers growing up on the Jersey Shore. He was raised in Ocean City, which was tranquil throughout the year then bustling with tourists during the holidays. His mother is a teacher; his father, who he has described as \u201ca payroll guy\u201d, died when Sessa was 14. He tells me he got his \u201copinionated\u201d side from his mum, his sense of humour from his dad. \u201cJackass was one of the first movies he showed me,\u201d he says fondly.<\/p>\n

After his father\u2019s death, Sessa won a sports scholarship to attend Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts. \u201cThe only time I\u2019d be home was in the summer breaks when it would basically be like a party. I worked in a bakery where I had early starts, and I\u2019d be getting drunk on the beach before going to work; I was a mess. At that age, you felt you were invincible, you couldn\u2019t get in trouble. We felt like we owned the place. We\u2019d throw beach parties, then cops would chase us off the beach. You\u2019d go to whoever\u2019s house and their parents were gone so you\u2019d destroy the place. We were menaces. Reading about the way Tony described his time in Provincetown, I was like: \u2018Yeah, I get that. I understand.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Partying wasn\u2019t the only element in the film that chimed with him. \u201cPlaying Tony, I felt as if I was playing an unlikable side of myself,\u201d he says, his tone no longer flippant. \u201cHe\u2019s insecure and defensive at the start of the movie. I think a lot of young men have a very defensive way. You want people to respect you and treat you like an adult. But you feel as if you\u2019re pretending. Deep down, there\u2019s something underdeveloped that is hard for us to admit to. We\u2019re always trying to hide that. I\u2019m constantly going through that in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to escape the modern era\u2019 \u2026 Sessa. Photograph: Benedict Evans\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

He sits back in his seat as if surveying the scene before him. \u201cLike, doing this interview, I\u2019m pretending to be an adult, you know? Sometimes when you\u2019re young, it\u2019s to your detriment that you don\u2019t allow yourself to fail in a productive way because you\u2019re constantly trying to protect your ego.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would his remedy be for young men like him? \u201cWilful hardships,\u201d he says. \u201cDeciding to go through hard things. Comfort is attractive. And we\u2019ve built a culture around the comforts of the world. Where you really develop and learn the most about yourself is in doing something genuinely difficult. That\u2019s what Tony does in this film.\u201d<\/p>\n

The picture opens with a quote from Kitchen Confidential in which Bourdain describes his younger self as being \u201cbadly in need of a good ass-kicking\u201d. Sessa sings from the same hymn sheet. \u201cThese cooks verbally abused each other, ripped each other apart. It\u2019s an initiation process in a way, a rite of passage. There\u2019s love on the other side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the actor\u2019s view of kitchen life is impossibly romantic, very far from the widespread toxic culture that only this year led to the resignation from Noma of Ren\u00e9 Redzepi after accusations of workplace abuse<\/a>, then that is fully in keeping with the tone of Tony. This is a movie so reluctant to spoil the audience\u2019s buzz that it doesn\u2019t even reveal in the end titles that Bourdain is dead, let alone that he took his own life<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n

Any toughness or complexity in the film comes from Sessa, whose performance ratifies his standing as both a 21st-century star-to-be and a 1970s pin-up manqu\u00e9. How does he explain the period fixation? \u201cMaybe it says something about me. Like I want to escape the modern era.\u201d Does he? \u201cYeah, I think so. I love being in the bars, the smell of cigarettes. It\u2019s like stepping into a time machine.\u201d No mobile phones, no social media. \u201cEverybody\u2019s looking up, talking to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eye contact isn\u2019t the only behavioural difference he has noticed. \u201cThe impression I get is that young people back then were more confident in speaking, and perhaps more mature in interactions with adults. Nowadays it takes longer. I have friends in college who still can\u2019t handle a social environment because of the way we\u2019ve grown up. Especially after Covid. My generation got screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sessa was at Deerfield when the pandemic struck. \u201cThey designed a way to keep us on campus and in a bubble. The kids who got sick were sent to the old abandoned health centre.\u201d His low rumble of a voice is interrupted by his sudden, honking laugh, as if acknowledging that this all sounds suspiciously like an episode of Scooby-Doo.<\/p>\n

Cabin fever \u2026 Sessa with Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers. Photograph: Seacia Pavao<\/p>\n

That cabin-fever scenario was almost a rehearsal for playing Angus. \u201cThis was right before The Holdovers, so I guess I got used to feeling trapped,\u201d he says. In 2022, the film-makers were visiting local schools to scout potential locations, no more expecting to find their Angus than Sessa was anticipating being cast as one of the leads in a Hollywood movie.<\/p>\n

As a financial aid student, he had felt out of place initially at Deerfield, where he had gone to pursue his dream of becoming a hockey player. When a broken femur in his freshman year put him out of action before the season had even started, theatre became his backup option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t being myself when I first got to school,\u201d he says. \u201cI was acting in a way that wasn\u2019t genuine to who I was. I saw these kids, the way they dressed and carried themselves, and I didn\u2019t feel I belonged in that environment so I had to role-play how these people were. I didn\u2019t think they would accept me otherwise. But once I started doing theatre, I made so many more friends. People wanted to get to know me because I was putting myself out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hockey lost its appeal. \u201cI saw it ending and it not being a part of my life much longer. I was never gonna be the best player in school. I would probably be one of the worst.\u201d There is no need to remark on his chances of being one of the best actors instead. The acclaim he received for The Holdovers \u2013 21 nominations from awards bodies and critics\u2019 circles in the US and UK, including eight wins and a Bafta nod \u2013 tells its own story.<\/p>\n

In between The Holdovers and Tony, he turned down lead roles and studied drama for a year and a half at Carnegie Mellon University, taking supporting parts to keep his hand in. He played Michelle Pfeiffer\u2019s sullen son, recently dumped and strumming an emo version of The 12 Days of Christmas, in the comedy Oh. What. Fun. In Tow, he was a non-profit lawyer whose client (Rose Byrne) tells him: \u201cMy car is older than you.\u201d Multiplex-goers saw him as an upstart magician with Robin Hood ethics, stealing from crypto bros and diamond magnates, in the threequel Now You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

It is Tony, though, that he credits for the second turning point in his brief career. If The Holdovers set him on his current path, Tony has helped him decide on the kind of actor \u2013 and person \u2013 he wants to be. Since making the film, he has been heeding the advice of Bourdain, who wrote: \u201cGood food and good eating are all about risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been open to eating in a lot more B- and C-health-rated places,\u201d Sessa says. But it\u2019s not only about what\u2019s on his plate. \u201cIn life generally, I feel more motivated now to follow my gut and take risks and live in the moment.\u201d He mentions Shades of Paradise, a \u201ccrazy Euro-crime film\u201d that he recently made in Barcelona, as an example: it gives him his first bona fide baddie to play after a string of messed-up but essentially decent guys. \u201cI thought: \u2018This is something really fun that I want to do.\u2019\u201d That\u2019s his motto for today. \u201cI\u2019m doing what feels right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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