{"id":2091843,"date":"2026-08-13T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2091843"},"modified":"2026-08-13T07:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:00:16","slug":"dominic-sessa-on-why-anthony-bourdains-life-was-not-a-tragedy-but-a-symbol-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2091843","title":{"rendered":"Dominic Sessa on why Anthony Bourdain\u2019s life \u201cwas not a tragedy\u201d but \u201ca symbol of hope\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Tony_Bourdain.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"template-id-2588651\" class=\"post-2588651 tdb_templates type-tdb_templates status-publish post\">\n<div id=\"tdi_65\" class=\"tdc-zone\">\n<div class=\"tdc_zone tdi_66  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div id=\"tdi_67\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_content td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_68  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_70  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_71 tdb-content-horiz-center td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_71\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Tony_Bourdain.jpg\" alt=\"Dominic Sessa\" title=\"Dominic_Sessa_Tony_Bourdain\"><figcaption class=\"tdb-caption-text\">Dominic Sessa in Anthony Bourdain biopic &#8216;Tony&#8217;. CREDIT: A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_72\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_73  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_75  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_breadcrumbs tdi_76 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-breadcrumbs \" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_76\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span>Home<\/span><span>Features<\/span><span>Film Interviews<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_title tdi_77 tdb-single-title td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_77\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Dominic Sessa on why Anthony Bourdain\u2019s life \u201cwas not a tragedy\u201d but \u201ca symbol of hope\u201d<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_78 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_78\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>The young star of new biopic \u2018Tony\u2019 blends his own story with that of the cult writer and chef to serve up a thoughtful, belly-warming cinematic dish<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_80 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_80\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span> Alex Flood<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_81 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_81\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2026-08-13T08:00:16+01:00\">13th August 2026<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_post_share tdi_82 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_82\">\n<div id=\"tdi_82\" class=\"td-post-sharing tdb-block td-ps-border td-ps-border-grey td-ps-rounded td-ps-padding td-ps-icon-color td-post-sharing-style18 \">\n<div class=\"td-post-sharing-visible\">\n<div class=\"td-social-but-text\">Facebook<\/div>\n<div class=\"td-social-but-text\">Twitter<\/div>\n<div class=\"td-social-but-text\">Pinterest<\/div>\n<div class=\"td-social-but-text\">WhatsApp<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_83\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_1200 td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_84  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_86  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_87 td-pb-border-top big-read-content td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_87\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap big-read-dropcap\">U<\/strong>nless you live inside an underground cave, you\u2019ve likely heard the term \u2018method-acting\u2019 before. It\u2019s when an actor commits. <em>Really<\/em>\u00a0commits. See Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrayed beardy US president Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg\u2019s Oscar-winner \u2013 and didn\u2019t break character for the entire eight-week shoot. Or when Austin Butler, having honed Elvis\u2019 soupy Southern drawl to the point of uh huh huh-induced insanity, forgot how to speak in his own accent. The goal, method actors say, is not to <em>play<\/em> the part but to <em>become<\/em>\u00a0the part. For new biopic <em>Tony<\/em>, about late, bad boy TV chef Anthony Bourdain, Dominic Sessa went one better \u2013 he made the part become <em>him<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Read more:<\/strong> \u2018Tony\u2019 review: a mostly delicious taste of pre-fame Anthony Bourdain<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cI looked at his story through the scope of my personal experiences,\u201d the 23-year-old rising star says, zooming into NME\u2019s London office from his Los Angeles hotel room 5,000 miles away. He\u2019s wearing a blue-and-white striped tee, paired with a faded blue baseball cap perched on top of his unruly dark brown curls; all of which exudes a very 1970s, Bourdain-like vibe. If you\u2019ve ever glimpsed the iconic cover photo adorning most copies of <em>Kitchen Confidential<\/em>, the best-selling sex-drugs-and-haute-cuisine memoir upon which <em>Tony<\/em> is based, you\u2019ll know what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought about my views and feelings about the world,\u201d Sessa continues, \u201cthe people around me and my mentors \u2013 and I asked: where does [my life] align with his?\u201d Later, director Matt Johnson will tell us on the phone that \u201cevery line in the script\u201d draws from something that actually happened to Sessa. \u201cIf he didn\u2019t think [a scene] was true to him, we just didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3962222\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3962222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3962222\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Emilia_Jones_Tony.jpg\" alt=\"Tony\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3962222\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominic Sessa and Emilia Jones in \u2018Tony\u2019. CREDIT: A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>See, <em>Tony<\/em> isn\u2019t a text-accurate profile \u2013 painstakingly checking off rote reimaginings of Bourdain\u2019s escapades. It takes a looser, appropriately rock and roll, approach to the details. And since the script was \u201cwritten about Dom\u201d, Johnson adds, \u201cthe collaboration was total\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>They decided to focus on two early chapters, embellishing the 19 pages of gonzo journalism with fictional additions to fashion one compelling summer spent by the sea in 1975. At the start of the film, 19-year-old Tony (never Anthony) washes up in Provincetown, a coastal resort at the tip of Cape Cod where his fellow college kids come to let loose in the sunny months. Imagine bustling wooden jetties, bottles of beer on the beach and long, packed streets lined with dive bars and tiny seafood joints.<\/p>\n<p>Self-described by Bourdain as \u201ca spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout\u201d, Tony isn\u2019t here with mates. He has none. What he does have is the hots for high school crush Nancy (Emilia Jones), who unwittingly mentioned she\u2019d be vacationing in P-Town. Creepily, it must be argued, Tony has followed alone. But what starts out as a romantic misadventure soon becomes the defining juncture in this cook\u2019s tale when he gets a job scrubbing pots at rickety bistro The Flagship and discovers the flour-and-cocaine-dusted countertops of the sordid kitchen industry.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t the best-behaved kid. I was constantly breaking rules\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people [that he met] who still live there,\u201d says Sessa, \u201csuch as the pizza shop [where Nancy works in the film], called Spiritus Pizza.\u201d Bourdain used to kip in the apartment above Spiritus \u2013 and Sessa confirms the same family still owns the place. \u201cThey all remember meeting him. And then this one restaurant, Ciro &amp; Sal\u2019s\u2026 They had some crazy stories\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A great deal of these stories make their way into <em>Tony<\/em>. Our scrawny, sideburned protagonist smokes weed, snorts drugs, crashes parties and gets into fights with locals \u2013 all aided by several sculleries\u2019 worth of near-piratical outlaw colleagues whom Bourdain painted as \u201clooting, pillaging and rock-and-rolling through life with a carefree disregard for all conventional morality.\u201d In one entertaining sequence, self-destructive oyster-shucker Sal (played with a roguish wink by <em>The White Lotus<\/em>\u2019 Leo Woodall) serves wedding breakfast to a beaming happy couple. Then, in the next, he plates up an altogether more intimate course for the blushing bride as family, friends and freshly-anointed hubby carry on none-the-wiser across the road.<\/p>\n<p>Other memorable comrades include Baltimore comedian Stavros Halkias\u2019 loud-mouthed lobster expert and The Flagship\u2019s fatherly proprietor \u2013 played by a cuddly Antonio Banderas. Nearly all are reworked versions of culinary reprobates we\u2019ve previously met in <em>Kitchen Confidential<\/em>. Surprisingly, given Sessa and Johnson\u2019s self-referential approach, the most similar to his book persona is probably Tony. And after speaking with Sessa, slowly learning his history, we\u2019ve realised it\u2019s because they have a remarkable amount in common.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3962221\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3962221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3962221\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Banderas_Woodall.jpg\" alt=\"Tony\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3962221\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Antonio Banderas, Dominic Sessa and Leo Woodall \u2013 the cast of \u2018Tony\u2019. CREDIT: A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap big-read-dropcap\">F<\/strong>or starters, they both grew up in <em>Noo Joi-zee<\/em>, the home of disco fries, Bruce Springsteen and shouting at your neighbour. Bourdain even summered in Sessa\u2019s idyllic coastal hometown of Ocean City. And just like the punky food-lover, Sessa was a smart lad who knew how to have fun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t the best-behaved kid. I was constantly breaking rules, sneaking out and stuff like that,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up on the shore, which was heaven to me and my friends. It was that time in our lives, being 16 or 17 years old and figuring out how to get alcohol to drink on the beach.\u201d In the holidays, Sessa worked early morning shifts at a local bakery for booze money \u2013 arriving at 4AM after a blurry night on the slopes and slogging through until 10AM when he would \u201cgo home, sleep, wake up and have the best time of my life again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Bourdain also did, Sessa went to \u201ca preppy, high-intensity school\u201d where everyone was encouraged to study their \u201cass off\u201d to get into a good college. Initially accepted on a scholarship with plans to play ice hockey, he pivoted to theatre after a nasty leg-break during freshman pre-season. This proved fortuitous when movie scouts turned up at Deerfield Academy to conduct open auditions in 2021. Suddenly, Sessa was cast in his first film role. His first <em>ever<\/em> role, really.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s easy, sometimes, to let the tragic aspects of Anthony Bourdain\u2019s life overshadow everything\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>You\u2019ve probably heard of <em>The Holdovers<\/em>. It\u2019s the kind of heartwarming drama about wayward youths and their older, shrewder minders that usually does well with Oscars voters. And boy, did it do well. Nominated for five Academy awards, including for Best Picture, the sympathetic account of a curmudgeonly teacher who forms an unlikely bond with Sessa\u2019s smart alec troublemaker marked him out as a major new talent before he\u2019d considered whether he wanted to be one. \u201cIt was a dream come true to have that opportunity,\u201d he says, careful not to sound ungrateful. \u201cBut at the same time, there was this moment where I was like: \u2018Oh shit, this is gonna be fucking terrifying\u2026 is this the right thing to do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the first month of shooting, Sessa says he barely spoke when not on camera. Gradually, he learned to ask questions, solicit advice from veteran actor Paul Giamatti and build confidence from small successes. \u201cIt was scary to be in that many scenes,\u201d he says, \u201cbut [I treated it like] a voluntary hardship, you know, making the choice to do something that you know is going to be hard but \u2013 if you just get through it \u2013 will change your life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are clear comparisons to be drawn here. At an identical age, 19, Sessa was dropped into a fast-paced environment he\u2019d never known where one mistake can cost thousands of dollars; while Bourdain\u2019s slightest fuck-up amid red-hot pans and razor-sharp knives provided his gastronomic comrades yet more opportunity to rain down curses upon him at the drop of a <em>toque blanche<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3962224\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3962224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3962224\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Tony.jpg\" alt=\"Dominic Sessa\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3962224\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominic Sessa in Anthony Bourdain biopic \u2018Tony\u2019. CREDIT: A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But it\u2019s not just a shared baptism of fire that makes Sessa so believable as Bourdain. During our conversation, he talks in the familiar blunt New Yorker tone that Bourdain used when stating a fact so obvious even a wet-behind-the-ears junior line cook could understand. Occasionally, his face will split into a clumsy grin and a honking laugh erupts. Sessa doesn\u2019t ooze Bourdain\u2019s affable charm yet, but he has the same subtle goofiness beneath the surface that endeared millions to the globe-trotting gourmet.<\/p>\n<p>One topic <em>Tony<\/em> doesn\u2019t touch on \u2013 and which Sessa has understandably skirted around in interviews \u2013 is the heartbreaking end Bourdain came to. At 61, during a long production stint abroad, he died by suicide in his Kaysersberg hotel room. For many fans, this knowledge may colour their enjoyment of the film. What message would Sessa send to them?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that we were thinking about when making the movie,\u201d he explains. \u201cHe was a symbol of hope \u2013 and I think that\u2019s why people loved him and connected with him. It\u2019s easy, sometimes, to let the tragic aspects of his life overshadow everything. I think, if anything, this film should be a reminder that his story is <em>not<\/em>\u00a0a tragedy. There were tragic aspects to it and a tragic ending, but in total I think it was a life of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Tony\u2019 is in UK cinemas from August 14<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_88\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_89  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_91  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"vc_row_inner tdi_93  vc_row vc_inner wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column_inner tdi_95  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-inner-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"vc_column-inner\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_raw_html tdi_97 \">\n<div class=\"td-fix-index\">\n<h3>More Stories<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap td_flex_block_1 tdi_98 td-pb-border-top td_module_flex_1--card td_module_flex_1--card--highlight td_block_template_2 tdc-no-posts td_flex_block\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_98\">\n<div id=\"tdi_98\" class=\"td_block_inner td-mc1-wrap\">\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    Music News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Watch Bj\u00f6rk play DJ set at solar eclipse rave in Iceland<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">\u2018The US Office\u2019 star Jenna Fischer sends support to Lucy Davis following cancer diagnosis<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Every song on the \u2018My Brilliant Career\u2019 soundtrack<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    Music News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Michael Jackson child sex trafficking lawsuit thrown out of court<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    Music News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Elastica announce expanded deluxe reissue of classic self-titled debut album<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    Music News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Host city and location for Eurovision 2027 revealed<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><\/article>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_87 td-pb-border-top big-read-content td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_87\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap big-read-dropcap\">U<\/strong>nless you live inside an underground cave, you\u2019ve likely heard the term \u2018method-acting\u2019 before. It\u2019s when an actor commits. <em>Really<\/em>\u00a0commits. See Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrayed beardy US president Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg\u2019s Oscar-winner \u2013 and didn\u2019t break character for the entire eight-week shoot. Or when Austin Butler, having honed Elvis\u2019 soupy Southern drawl to the point of uh huh huh-induced insanity, forgot how to speak in his own accent. The goal, method actors say, is not to <em>play<\/em> the part but to <em>become<\/em>\u00a0the part. For new biopic <em>Tony<\/em>, about late, bad boy TV chef Anthony Bourdain, Dominic Sessa went one better \u2013 he made the part become <em>him<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Read more:<\/strong> \u2018Tony\u2019 review: a mostly delicious taste of pre-fame Anthony Bourdain<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cI looked at his story through the scope of my personal experiences,\u201d the 23-year-old rising star says, zooming into NME\u2019s London office from his Los Angeles hotel room 5,000 miles away. He\u2019s wearing a blue-and-white striped tee, paired with a faded blue baseball cap perched on top of his unruly dark brown curls; all of which exudes a very 1970s, Bourdain-like vibe. If you\u2019ve ever glimpsed the iconic cover photo adorning most copies of <em>Kitchen Confidential<\/em>, the best-selling sex-drugs-and-haute-cuisine memoir upon which <em>Tony<\/em> is based, you\u2019ll know what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought about my views and feelings about the world,\u201d Sessa continues, \u201cthe people around me and my mentors \u2013 and I asked: where does [my life] align with his?\u201d Later, director Matt Johnson will tell us on the phone that \u201cevery line in the script\u201d draws from something that actually happened to Sessa. \u201cIf he didn\u2019t think [a scene] was true to him, we just didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3962222\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3962222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3962222\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Emilia_Jones_Tony.jpg\" alt=\"Tony\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3962222\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominic Sessa and Emilia Jones in \u2018Tony\u2019. CREDIT: A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>See, <em>Tony<\/em> isn\u2019t a text-accurate profile \u2013 painstakingly checking off rote reimaginings of Bourdain\u2019s escapades. It takes a looser, appropriately rock and roll, approach to the details. And since the script was \u201cwritten about Dom\u201d, Johnson adds, \u201cthe collaboration was total\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>They decided to focus on two early chapters, embellishing the 19 pages of gonzo journalism with fictional additions to fashion one compelling summer spent by the sea in 1975. At the start of the film, 19-year-old Tony (never Anthony) washes up in Provincetown, a coastal resort at the tip of Cape Cod where his fellow college kids come to let loose in the sunny months. Imagine bustling wooden jetties, bottles of beer on the beach and long, packed streets lined with dive bars and tiny seafood joints.<\/p>\n<p>Self-described by Bourdain as \u201ca spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout\u201d, Tony isn\u2019t here with mates. He has none. What he does have is the hots for high school crush Nancy (Emilia Jones), who unwittingly mentioned she\u2019d be vacationing in P-Town. Creepily, it must be argued, Tony has followed alone. But what starts out as a romantic misadventure soon becomes the defining juncture in this cook\u2019s tale when he gets a job scrubbing pots at rickety bistro The Flagship and discovers the flour-and-cocaine-dusted countertops of the sordid kitchen industry.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t the best-behaved kid. I was constantly breaking rules\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people [that he met] who still live there,\u201d says Sessa, \u201csuch as the pizza shop [where Nancy works in the film], called Spiritus Pizza.\u201d Bourdain used to kip in the apartment above Spiritus \u2013 and Sessa confirms the same family still owns the place. \u201cThey all remember meeting him. And then this one restaurant, Ciro &amp; Sal\u2019s\u2026 They had some crazy stories\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A great deal of these stories make their way into <em>Tony<\/em>. Our scrawny, sideburned protagonist smokes weed, snorts drugs, crashes parties and gets into fights with locals \u2013 all aided by several sculleries\u2019 worth of near-piratical outlaw colleagues whom Bourdain painted as \u201clooting, pillaging and rock-and-rolling through life with a carefree disregard for all conventional morality.\u201d In one entertaining sequence, self-destructive oyster-shucker Sal (played with a roguish wink by <em>The White Lotus<\/em>\u2019 Leo Woodall) serves wedding breakfast to a beaming happy couple. Then, in the next, he plates up an altogether more intimate course for the blushing bride as family, friends and freshly-anointed hubby carry on none-the-wiser across the road.<\/p>\n<p>Other memorable comrades include Baltimore comedian Stavros Halkias\u2019 loud-mouthed lobster expert and The Flagship\u2019s fatherly proprietor \u2013 played by a cuddly Antonio Banderas. Nearly all are reworked versions of culinary reprobates we\u2019ve previously met in <em>Kitchen Confidential<\/em>. Surprisingly, given Sessa and Johnson\u2019s self-referential approach, the most similar to his book persona is probably Tony. And after speaking with Sessa, slowly learning his history, we\u2019ve realised it\u2019s because they have a remarkable amount in common.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3962221\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3962221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3962221\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Banderas_Woodall.jpg\" alt=\"Tony\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3962221\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Antonio Banderas, Dominic Sessa and Leo Woodall \u2013 the cast of \u2018Tony\u2019. CREDIT: A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap big-read-dropcap\">F<\/strong>or starters, they both grew up in <em>Noo Joi-zee<\/em>, the home of disco fries, Bruce Springsteen and shouting at your neighbour. Bourdain even summered in Sessa\u2019s idyllic coastal hometown of Ocean City. And just like the punky food-lover, Sessa was a smart lad who knew how to have fun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t the best-behaved kid. I was constantly breaking rules, sneaking out and stuff like that,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up on the shore, which was heaven to me and my friends. It was that time in our lives, being 16 or 17 years old and figuring out how to get alcohol to drink on the beach.\u201d In the holidays, Sessa worked early morning shifts at a local bakery for booze money \u2013 arriving at 4AM after a blurry night on the slopes and slogging through until 10AM when he would \u201cgo home, sleep, wake up and have the best time of my life again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Bourdain also did, Sessa went to \u201ca preppy, high-intensity school\u201d where everyone was encouraged to study their \u201cass off\u201d to get into a good college. Initially accepted on a scholarship with plans to play ice hockey, he pivoted to theatre after a nasty leg-break during freshman pre-season. This proved fortuitous when movie scouts turned up at Deerfield Academy to conduct open auditions in 2021. Suddenly, Sessa was cast in his first film role. His first <em>ever<\/em> role, really.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s easy, sometimes, to let the tragic aspects of Anthony Bourdain\u2019s life overshadow everything\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>You\u2019ve probably heard of <em>The Holdovers<\/em>. It\u2019s the kind of heartwarming drama about wayward youths and their older, shrewder minders that usually does well with Oscars voters. And boy, did it do well. Nominated for five Academy awards, including for Best Picture, the sympathetic account of a curmudgeonly teacher who forms an unlikely bond with Sessa\u2019s smart alec troublemaker marked him out as a major new talent before he\u2019d considered whether he wanted to be one. \u201cIt was a dream come true to have that opportunity,\u201d he says, careful not to sound ungrateful. \u201cBut at the same time, there was this moment where I was like: \u2018Oh shit, this is gonna be fucking terrifying\u2026 is this the right thing to do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the first month of shooting, Sessa says he barely spoke when not on camera. Gradually, he learned to ask questions, solicit advice from veteran actor Paul Giamatti and build confidence from small successes. \u201cIt was scary to be in that many scenes,\u201d he says, \u201cbut [I treated it like] a voluntary hardship, you know, making the choice to do something that you know is going to be hard but \u2013 if you just get through it \u2013 will change your life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are clear comparisons to be drawn here. At an identical age, 19, Sessa was dropped into a fast-paced environment he\u2019d never known where one mistake can cost thousands of dollars; while Bourdain\u2019s slightest fuck-up amid red-hot pans and razor-sharp knives provided his gastronomic comrades yet more opportunity to rain down curses upon him at the drop of a <em>toque blanche<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3962224\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3962224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3962224\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Tony.jpg\" alt=\"Dominic Sessa\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3962224\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dominic Sessa in Anthony Bourdain biopic \u2018Tony\u2019. CREDIT: A24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But it\u2019s not just a shared baptism of fire that makes Sessa so believable as Bourdain. During our conversation, he talks in the familiar blunt New Yorker tone that Bourdain used when stating a fact so obvious even a wet-behind-the-ears junior line cook could understand. Occasionally, his face will split into a clumsy grin and a honking laugh erupts. Sessa doesn\u2019t ooze Bourdain\u2019s affable charm yet, but he has the same subtle goofiness beneath the surface that endeared millions to the globe-trotting gourmet.<\/p>\n<p>One topic <em>Tony<\/em> doesn\u2019t touch on \u2013 and which Sessa has understandably skirted around in interviews \u2013 is the heartbreaking end Bourdain came to. At 61, during a long production stint abroad, he died by suicide in his Kaysersberg hotel room. For many fans, this knowledge may colour their enjoyment of the film. What message would Sessa send to them?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that we were thinking about when making the movie,\u201d he explains. \u201cHe was a symbol of hope \u2013 and I think that\u2019s why people loved him and connected with him. It\u2019s easy, sometimes, to let the tragic aspects of his life overshadow everything. I think, if anything, this film should be a reminder that his story is <em>not<\/em>\u00a0a tragedy. There were tragic aspects to it and a tragic ending, but in total I think it was a life of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Tony\u2019 is in UK cinemas from August 14<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/features\/film-interviews\/dominic-sessa-tony-anthony-bourdain-matt-johnson-kitchen-confidential-3962118&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dominic_Sessa_Tony_Bourdain.jpg&#8221;] Dominic Sessa in Anthony Bourdain biopic &#8216;Tony&#8217;. CREDIT: A24 HomeFeaturesFilm Interviews Dominic Sessa on why Anthony Bourdain\u2019s life \u201cwas not a tragedy\u201d but \u201ca symbol of hope\u201d The young star of new biopic \u2018Tony\u2019 blends his own story with that of the cult writer and chef to serve up a thoughtful, belly-warming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,78],"class_list":["post-2091843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nme-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2091843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2091843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2091843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2091843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}