You say tomato…
PublishedSeptember 5, 2025 5:51 PM EDT•UpdatedSeptember 5, 2025 5:51 PM EDT
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How would you say the last name of the guy who played Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs, Carl Showalter in Fargo (my personal favorite movie role of his), and voiced Randall, the purple lizard-looking thing in Monsters Inc.?
Because, for as long as I can remember, I have said “Boo-shemi,” but it turns out that I have been saying it incorrectly. Fortunately, no one is really sure how to say it, not even Steve Buscemi himself.
There’s a long and storied history of the public mispronouncing of a celebrity’s surname. You, of course, have the late-Rush drummer Neil Peart, who people erroneously pronounced as “Pert” from pretty much the second he joined the band.Â
Then who could… well, Neil Peart is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are plenty of others.
Plus, I think you get the point.
Buscemi was a guest on The Tonight Show this week, when host Jimmy Fallon asked him about the fact that nobody seems to know the proper way to pronounce his name.
Fallon said that some people say “Brusch-kemi.”Â
I’ve never heard anyone say that. It might be the only possible wrong answer to this conundrum. I mean, where the hell did that “R” come from? You can’t just add letters that aren’t there!
Well, Buscemi himself wasn’t a fan of that pronunciation (because, again, only an insane person would think that was right) but admitted that “Boo-shemi” — used by smart people who are good at book-readin’ — is a version he likes.
However, while it’s the correct Italian version, it’s not the one he and his family used when he was a kid or the one he uses now.
Because — no, your eyes did not deceive you — it has changed in his lifetime.
“Growing up, we said Bue-semi, which I can’t even do that anymore,” Buscemi said, before saying that he now says “Boo-Semi.”
So as far as which is correct, I think we should defer to the guy whose name is… but I still think my way is right.
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