Marisa Tomei; she is the study of a career in reverse: early on, she won an Academy Award and widespread recognition. Now she's showing everyone what she can do

Interview, May, 2003 by Patrick Giles

MT: You do get to do more style in a comedy. And I immersed myself in her world: I stayed in that part of Brooklyn for a while. I'm from Brooklyn, but not from that part...

PG: ... So am I.

MT: Oh! So you understand how completely distinct from one another all the neighborhoods are. There is no one "Brooklyn accent"--every neighborhood has its own sound and character. I'm from Midwood, a very Jewish area, and I grew up thinking that I must be Jewish and that for some reason, unlike our neighbors, we ate a lot of pasta! [both laugh]

PG: After you won that Oscar, it must have been tempting to play the same movie role over and over. But, instead, you did a great deal of stage acting in addition to films.

MT: It certainly wasn't a conscious "career path" move on my part--in fact, I regret it a little. I think it was more a visceral reaction to go where my soul felt safe, which was in the theater. All of us have read the stories about young people in Hollywood and all the challenges they have to confront there, and I think that artistically, I really didn't understand the commercial side of the film business, so I went back to a purely artistic setting. I was able to act and lose myself in the characters. Not to get overly psychological about this, but it's probably why I became an actress in the first place: for that kind of freedom and refuge, as well as for the fact that I just love acting so much.

PG: The background of Salome--its politics--clearly excites you. Why do you think when people put the words art and politics together, it almost always starts an argument?

MT: Well, politics itself is so unsexy, isn't it? But when the politics in creative works are really explored--not used as a vehicle--the results can be really interesting.

PG: Let's get onto something happier--Anger Management [Tomei laughs], which is now playing in theaters. Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler, your costars, are both high-voltage performers...

MT: It was a gift to watch them work and interact. Adam is so funny and so kind. He made me laugh all the time and put me at ease. And Jack is completely passionate and consumed with being the best actor he can be. This fascinated me: He revealed that he's always nervous on the first day of a shoot!

PG: That's actually very heartening to hear.

MT: Of course, he has a lot of panache, too. Jack is so involved in the work--how can we make this better, how can we make this bit funnier? That put meat ease: "Oh, he's an actor, like me!"

PG: Speaking of comedy, I understand you'll be taking on the title role in the musical comedy Sweet Charity this year--more dancing and singing.

MT: I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because we're hoping to do it in the fall, although who will direct it is up in the air right now. I grew up on musicals, and I know they are quite the thing now, but I'm actually a little indignant, because I started taking singing lessons years ago--I put the time in! [both laugh] My brother and I went to tap-dance school and we were just crazy for movies like On the Town [1949] and Silk Stockings [1957]--before there were VCRs, we would stay up late watching musicals on TV.