Not since James Cagney gave Mae Clarke a grapefruit facial in ”The Public Enemy” has an actor suffered such memorable abuse on screen as Cicero native Joe Mantegna did in ”The Godfather III.” The liveliest moment in the largely soporific film saw Young Gun gangster Andy Garcia biting off the ear of rival mobster Mantegna.
In his new film, ”Homicide,” written and directed by longtime collaborator David Mamet, Mantegna is on the right side of the law, as Jewish homicide detective Bobby Gold who, in the course of investigating the murder of an elderly Jewish woman, rediscovers his own religious roots. ”Homicide,” which is scheduled to open Oct. 18 in Chicago, also explores such issues as the tension between Jews and blacks.
Mantegna has long served as David Mamet`s alter ego both on stage and on screen. After roles in two Mamet`s plays (”A Life in the Theatre” and ”The Disappearance of the Jews”), Mantegna gained stage stardom as the foul-mouthed realtor Ricky Roma in the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning ”Glengarry Glen Ross,” first in Chicago and then on Broadway in 1984. Three years later he played the corrupt Hollywood studio boss in ”Speed-the-Plow.”
In films, Mantegna also has been Mamet`s main man. He was the pathological card shark who tormented Lindsay Crouse in ”House of Games.”
”Things Change” cast him as a hitman with a heart of gold who couldn`t bring himself to kill gentle shoemaker Don Ameche.
Mantegna is an unlikely alter ego for Mamet. Mamet is Jewish and his father was a physician. Mantegna is Catholic and his father couldn`t support his family because of a long bout with tuberculosis. While Mamet attended the posh Frances Parker School, Mantegna slugged his way through Morton East High School. While Mamet attended Goddard college in Vermont, Mantegna went to Morton Junior College.
In a swank Beverly Hills conference room, Mantegna looks more like a movie star than a Cicero emigre. He`s wearing a tailored black shirt, stone-washed denim pants, an expensive haircut. His deeply tanned complexion is so flawless it almost looks as though he`s wearing makeup. The only clue to his Midwestern roots is the strong Chicago accent he never bothered to lose.
Mantegna politely takes issue with all this Mamet alter-ego business.
”David would have to answer that one `cause I don`t even know what his ego is, so it`s hard to know if I`m his alter ego. I`m just grateful to work for him as much as I do,” Mantegna says.
Though he`s a Sicilian Catholic, he`s cast as an Ashekenazi Jew in
”Homicide.” Mantegna says: ”I`m also not a homicide detective, but I play that, too. I think David thinks of me as an actor, period. That`s the bottom line.”
Mantegna also dismisses other potential problems in working with Mamet. The playwright`s stylized, lyrical dialogue has won him a Pulitzer and a Tony. But that kind of heightened dialogue is tough to pull off in the naturalistic medium of film.
Mamet`s words, however, don`t give Mantegna any trouble.
”I think his language is somewhat stylized. But I don`t find it particularly difficult, maybe because I`m so familiar with David`s writing,” he says. ”To me, there is something very natural about the unnaturalness of his dialogue. It`s hard to explain, but it`s like doing Shakespeare on film, I suppose. Once you realize what you have to work with, it`s fairly easy to get into the feel of it. The trick is just not to fight it, but just really jump into it.”
Interestingly, the playwright has never provided the actor with a romantic interest. It took Woody Allen, a professional nebbish, to see the romantic leading man potential in Mantegna. In last winter`s ”Alice,” Allen cast Mantegna as a sensitive jazz musician who warms up a repressed Park Avenue socialite, played by Mia Farrow.
”Alice” led other directors to think of Mantegna as a romantic figure. He gets to woo his leading ladies in a slew of upcoming films.
In ”Wait Until Spring, Bandini,” Mantegna is an Italian immigrant bricklayer who is seduced by wealthy widow Faye Dunaway in 1920s New York. The Belgian-financed production has already been released in Europe, and Mantegna modestly predicts, ”It will probably go straight to video here.”
In ”Family Prayers,” Mantegna is married to ”Fatal Attraction`s” Anne Archer. They enjoy an idyllic family life, except for one little problem:
Mantegna is a compulsive gambler.
Mantegna also has roles in ”Comrades of Summer,” in which he plays a former American baseball player hired to coach the Russian Olympic baseball team, and ”Bugsy,” in which he plays George Raft opposite Warren Beatty.
Scheduled for a November shoot, ”The Whole World is Watching” features Mantegna as a professor at Kent State during the time of the National Guard shootings.
The one film that got away was his career-making ”Glengarry Glen Ross.” Mamet sold the movie rights in 1984, and Al Pacino landed the role that Mantegna made famous on stage. ”I`ve known for seven years I wasn`t going to make that movie,” Mantegna says. ”I knew the producer of the movie wanted Al Pacino from day one, which is fine. Hey! The play did very good by me, and I like Al.”
Despite that heavy workload, Mantegna insists he`s not a workaholic. ”I usually get a month off between projects. In what other profession do you get that much time off?” he asks.
A dedicated family man, with daughters ages 4 and 1, Mantegna packs up the whole family when he goes on location. He has been married for 16 years to another Cicero native, Arlene Vrhel, who runs a gourmet brownie business in North Hollywood.
Mantegna, who is Sicilian and Italian, and Arlene, who is Slavic, attended Morton East together. ”In Cicero,” he has said, ”everybody either looks like me or her.”
Mantegna starred in all the school musicals. His high school drama coach, John Leckel, encouraged him to try a career in the theater.
Cicero was a tough place for a wannabe actor. He saw friends killed by police. Another classmate was featured in the famous Life magazine photo of a civil rights march through Cicero. ”The National Guardsmen had a rifle pointed at his chest, which was bleeding. His sign was protesting the black marchers. I went to high school with that guy. I`m glad I made it out of there.”
On the outside a tough guy, inwardly Mantegna says, ”I was probably closer to Beaver Cleaver.”
After a stint at Morton Junior College, he earned a partial scholarship to the Goodman School of Drama, leaving just short of graduation to take a role in ”Hair,” which also featured an old high school classmate, Arlene.
In 1978, Mantegna got fed up with Chicago`s weather and moved to Los Angeles, where he supported himself between acting jobs by photographing actors. The sideline was lucrative, but Mantegna`s acting career had some steep ups and downs.
In 1983, he found himself in a guest spot on the short-lived TV series,
”Mr. Smith,” acting opposite the title character, an orangutan with a genius IQ. To put the ape at ease, Mantegna spent a lot of time walking around the lot with him, hand in hand. Every so often Mr. Smith would pull down his pants and go the bathroom.
”I thought to myself, `You know, my career is not panning out the way I thought.` ”
A week later, he was on his way to winning a Tony, landing his role in
”Glengarry Glen Ross.”
