Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994 TAG: 9404290110
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SHEP MORGAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Newark, N.J., native is now an Academy Award-winning movie star and, while he's not exactly flaunting it, he isn't immune to the rush of success that has made him a celebrity.
Holding a big cigar and flashing an even bigger grin, the 5-foot-4-inch Pesci settles into an overstuffed chair in a West Los Angeles hotel suite to talk about his back-to-back leading roles in two new films: ``Jimmy Hollywood,'' which opened last month, and ``With Honors,'' which arrives in theaters today.
In person, Pesci seems surprisingly calm, cool and collected. There's not a trace of the fast-talking maniacal energy that made him a hit in ``Lethal Weapon 2'' (1989), earned him an Oscar for ``GoodFellas'' (1990) and won him millions of young fans in the ``Home Alone'' movies.
``I'm a lot more boring than the characters I play,'' he says with a chuckle.
In fact, the only reminder of Leo Getz, Tommy DeVito or Harry the bumbling burglar is the wickedly sardonic twist to Pesci's smile as he talks about the timing of the release of his latest films.
``I didn't have anything to do with them putting `Jimmy Hollywood' and `With Honors' into theaters a few weeks apart,'' he says.
``I'm not happy about it. I mean, how much of me can an audience take?''
In ``Honors,'' Pesci takes a sympathetic turn as a homeless man, Simon Wilder, who unexpectedly enters the lives of four Harvard University students.
Though the film starts out as a comedy, it develops into a moving drama as Wilder becomes a permanent guest in the students' rented house and reveals himself to be much more than an unwashed derelict.
Most of Pesci's co-stars in the film are twentysomething actors, including Brendan Fraser, Moira Kelly and Patrick Dempsey. The director, Alek Keshishian, best known for his work on Madonna's documentary ``Truth or Dare,'' is also a member of Generation X.
``I guess I was the oldest guy on the set,'' the 51-year-old Pesci says.
``In the beginning, I felt a little tension. They put a lot of pressure on me, staring at me like, `OK, show us some of your Oscar-winning stuff.'
``But they got over that and we really got along great together.''
Fraser, who plays the Harvard student whose life is most deeply affected by Pesci's character, remembers the cast's reaction to the veteran actor somewhat differently.
``I think we were all a little bit in awe of him at first,'' Fraser says, laughing. ``That's why we were staring at him.
``We'd all been inspired and impressed by his past performances and, watching him work, we learned how completely real and effortless he makes his acting. There was nothing phony about it at all.''
Perhaps one of the reasons Pesci was able to give such a convincing performance is that he felt a certain affinity for his character.
``I could identify with this homeless guy,'' he says, puffing absently on his cigar, seeming not to notice that it is no longer lit.
``Actually, to me, Simon Wilder was more of a bum than just a homeless person. He had a choice. He chose to drop out.
``We've all had those moments when we've wanted to do the same thing.''
Pesci is silent for a moment, chewing on his stogie.
``I dropped out,'' he says finally. ``I didn't become a bum, but I gave up acting. I was fed up with the business.''
He is talking about a dark period in his career that began when he came to Hollywood in the mid-'70s after completing the gritty, low-budget drama ``Death Collector.'' Pesci was sure he was on the road to success as an actor, but he was wrong.
``I couldn't even get an agent to hang up on me because they wouldn't take my calls,'' he says.
``I was really depressed, and I just walked away. I went to Las Vegas and literally dug ditches.
``Then I headed for the Bronx and started running an Italian restaurant and singing at tables on the side to pick up extra money.''
Ironically, the very movie that led Pesci to leave the film world was the one that eventually got him back on track as an actor.
``A couple of years later I got a call from Robert De Niro,'' Pesci explains.
``He'd been looking at `The Death Collector' to check out another actor and he saw me. He was impressed enough to track me down in the Bronx.''
The actor takes a dramatic pause before continuing.
``The movie he wanted me for was `Raging Bull.'''
``Raging Bull'' became the turning point in Pesci's life, earning him an Oscar nomination for his role as Robert De Niro's manager/brother.
The film brought him out of his self-imposed exile from show business and back to Hollywood, where he began to work steadily.
Pesci attributes his sudden change in circumstances to luck.
``Luck is the most important thing in life,'' he says. ``I don't know why some people are luckier than others. It's like some people hit the lottery and some don't.''
Of course you have to play to win, he says.
``If you're out there trying and your lucky chance comes along and you're not ready, you've got nobody to kick but yourself.
``Nobody is gonna knock on your door and offer to make you a movie star. Sooner or later you'll get lucky.
``Almost everybody gets a shot, I believe. When you get yours, be ready to show your stuff.''
Pesci is well aware that his character in ``Jimmy Hollywood,'' written and directed by Barry Levinson, has moments that could well have been taken from his own on-again off-again career. He plays Jimmy Alto, an out-of-work Hollywood actor whose future seems as bleak as the seedy streets of Tinseltown.
While Pesci can relate to the down side of Alto's career, he also understands the price an actor pays for the sudden rush of celebrity.
``In a sense, you give up your personal life,'' he says. ``Even if I'm eating in a restaurant I'm expected to stop and talk and sign autographs.
``And if I ask for a little privacy, people get angry and really nasty. They'll say terrible things to you.
``But, hey,'' he adds with a sudden burst of laughter, ``I'd say that being successful sure beats being unsuccessful.''
And with success Pesci has found a kind of inner peace.
``I think as you get older you get more tolerant of everything,'' he says, dropping his cold cigar into an ashtray. ``You learn to cope with life better.
``When I was younger I couldn't handle anything. I had a short fuse. Things would make me angry and bitter.''
In spite of himself, Pesci can't keep the edges of his mouth from curling into that familiar sardonic smile.
``But I remember a lot of things that I'm still bitter about. Things that happened before I became successful.
``I have a mental list of people who've turned me down for jobs and they'll never work on my movies. I go out of my way to make sure of it.
``What goes around, comes around. Now it's my turn.''
Shep Morgan is a Los Angeles-based free-lance writer.
by CNB