THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
WHEN YOU aren't laughing, you may be close to tears.
``The Perez Family'' takes the world of Little Havana - Cuban immigrants in Miami - and turns it into a broad comedy with romantic, and even tragic, overtones.
It's a relatively low-budget, independent, film but with a cast of three stars who are all using it for a change of pace - and, perhaps, even a change of image.
Marisa Tomei, Oscar winner for ``My Cousin Vinny,'' embraces a frankly sexual, ``life-affirming'' role as Dottie Perez, a sugar cane worker who has come to America in search of John Wayne and Hollywood. Alfred Molina, after memorable critical successes in ``Prick Up Your Ears'' and ``Enchanted April,'' is Juan Raul Perez, a Cuban aristocrat who has been held as a political prisoner for 20 years. Chazz Palminteri, an Oscar nominee for ``Bullets Over Broadway,'' plays a good guy, after numerous roles as lowlifes and gangsters.
To the three stars, the main attraction was a change of pace.
MARISA TOMEI
``This role is a woman with gusto, a woman of sexuality. I wanted to go for that - especially after `Only You,' which was more of a gamin, ladylike role,'' Marisa Tomei said.
Dottie Perez is a girl of the fields - a strumpet in a tight dress who creates a ``family'' of her own when she learns she won't be admitted to the United States without one.
Mira Nair, the Indian director who achieved international critical success with her film ``Salaam Bombay!'' said she chose Tomei for the role after much thought.
``I had scoured Latin America for a Spanish-speaking actress to play the role of Dottie,'' she said. ``I liked Marisa in `My Cousin Vinny,' but I hadn't much liked her work since then. But when I met her, I found she had an energy that was unbounded. I demanded that she put on 20 pounds and that she develop the muscles in her thighs and arms to suggest that she had been a field worker. She went along with every demand. I think her performance here is one of the bravest on screen in years. In some ways, it has a wild recklessness.''
Tomei went all out to get the part. ``I didn't want to play the part unless I had the Cuban figure,'' she said with a laugh. ``I mean, Cuban women are famous for their figures. I have a nice a--, but I wanted more of it. For a month, I ate a complete meal every two hours. I ate burgers. I ate pizzas. Everything.''
On her, it looks good. There has never been so much of Marisa Tomei on screen.
Then there was the tan. ``I got in the sun a lot, but it was hopeless. You couldn't control the look, so I was painted from head to toe everyday before filming. I have a really dark-tanned, Cuban look in the film.''
She is ready for expected criticism that a Latin actress should have been cast in the role. ``I'm sympathetic to that thought,'' she said, ``but the spirit of the person is more important than the culture. I don't think it matters where you're coming from, as long as you capture the character. I grew up in New York City. I have Spanish sounds in my ear. I see no problem with me playing the part.''
Tomei says she has toughened and changed since she won the Oscar. Much of her new outlook came from the unprecedented reaction to her surprise win. Some even claimed that Jack Palance, who presented the award, mistakenly called her name.
``I have learned how mean-spirited and vindictive people can be,'' Tomei said. ``I've been cursed on the street, I presume because people think I became successful too soon. It's very strange to me.''
ALFRED MOLINA
Alfred Molina, cast as the passive and introspective Juan Raul Perez, had just the opposite problem with ``The Perez Family.'' He took off 30 pounds for the part. After all, the role required both Tomei and Anjelica Huston to be his potential love interests.
For him, it was a total change of pace.
``I've most often been cast as villains,'' he said. (Among his bad-guy roles were parts in ``Raiders of the Lost Ark'' and the recent ``Hide-away.'') ``Actually, I love those parts. You can go over the top if you want, and if the movie flops, no one blames the bad guy.''
He doesn't mind that the role of Juan was first offered to Al Pacino and Andy Garcia. Director Nair explained that ``Al has a wonderful, weathered face, but if he had played it, we would have had to have had an older Dottie. I think Pacino hesitated because the part is a passive, non-showy one.
``Andy, on the other hand, is actually Cuban and would have been perfect for the part, but he's saving himself for his own movie about Cuba. Alfred Molina is a fine actor and, here, gets a chance to be the romantic lead.''
Molina offers no apology to Cuban actors who might have sought the part. ``My father was Spanish and my mother was Italian,'' he said. ``I don't go along with the theory that ethnic actors should play certain roles. I believe that Latino actors should have equal opportunities, but if you applied definite rules, only Danes could play Hamlet.''
Molina plays an aristocrat who, after 20 years of waiting in Cuba, hopes to be reconciled with his wife, played by Anjelica Huston, who preceded him to Miami. On the journey to America, though, he meets the wild Dottie, and things become complicated. ``He is a man who has stayed alive only by living in the past,'' Molina said. ``Then, after meeting Dottie, he learns to look toward the future.''
Molina describes the romance as ``bittersweet - like lemon juice mixed with a bit of honey.''
CHAZZ PALMINTERI
Chazz Palminteri is a writer-turned-actor who is emerging as a surprise star. His first movie script, ``A Bronx Tale,'' about his own life growing up in the Bronx, was the directorial debut of Robert DeNiro. Palminteri was offered $1.5 million for the script, but he wouldn't sell it unless he was allowed to act in it. The gamble paid off.
Palminteri netted an Oscar nomination this year in Woody Allen's ``Bullets Over Broadway.'' He'll appear later this year with Cher in ``Faithful'' and with David Caruso in ``Jade.''
He wanted the role of Lt. Pirelli in ``The Perez Family'' for special reasons.
``For one thing,'' he said, ``I got to play a good guy. That's a change. For another, I got to kiss a girl for the first time in any movie. And, more importantly, the girl is Anjelica Huston. I'm, you might say, one of the romantic leads. For me, that's a real change.''
Palminteri claims that he intends to continue writing.
``Writing is very important because it makes you observe,'' he said. ``That's what an actor needs most to do. I hope to keep both careers going.'' ILLUSTRATION: SAMUEL GOLDWYN CO.
Juan Raul (Alfred Molina) and Dottie (Marisa Tomei, center) seek
advice from a faith healer (Celia Cruz) in ``The Perez Family,'' a
story of Cubans arriving in Miami in the Mariel boatlift in 1980.
by CNB