Happy Birthday: Tom Sizemore

Tom Sizemore

Born: November 29, 1961 in Detroit, Michigan, USA

(2012, on True Romance) I was cast in the part James Gandolfini ended up playing, initially. I got a call from [casting director] Risa Bramon and I said, “I didn’t want to beat Patricia Arquette’s ass on camera. I don’t want to do that.” Tony [Scott], God rest his soul, called me. It’s a shame what happened to him, but those were the halcyon days for him. He called me and said, [adopts aggressive British accent] “Man, you’re bullshitting me! Come on, man!” And Patricia’s his friend. Previously I had been up for Days Of Thunder. I said, “I just don’t want to do it. I don’t want to beat up Patricia.” He said, “Why not?” And all I could say was, “Because I don’t want to do it.” I was still living in New York and I was sitting on my brownstone’s front steps. I said, “Why don’t I play Nicholson to Chris Penn’s Nicky Dimes?” And he said, “Who will play the other part?” I said, “James Gandolfini?” At that point Jimmy hadn’t even done a movie yet. I knew Jimmy from the theater, and I flew out to L.A. I didn’t have to read. Jimmy flew up there the day after, and he went for that part. He got cast in it. I played Nicholson and it was great, especially [the] two scenes that were completely improvised, when we interrogate Bronson (Pinchot). Tony just told us, “You’ve got to just react. Say what you want. Just don’t talk over each other.” That’s the kind of experience it was. It was kind of a rock ‘n’ roll, just running and gunning kind of thing. It was a different type of movie for Tony. You could tell he was really, really digging it, and everyone was on their game.

Heat 1995 dir. Michael Mann Starring Robert DeNiro Al Pacino

TRUE ROMANCE 1993 dir. Tony Scott Cast: Christian Slater Patricia Arquette

Bringing out the Dead 1999 dir. Martin Scorsese Starring Nicolas Cage Patricia Arquette

Pearl Harbor 2001 dir. Michael Bay starring Ben Affleck Josh Hartnett

HUSTLE 2004 dir. Peter Bogdanovich Stars: Tom Sizemore Dash Mihok

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN 1998 dir. Steven Spielberg Stars: Tom Hanks Tom Sizemore

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