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Winter 2003

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Profile: Big breaks, neat coincidences

Anna-Maria Goossens




	MAID FOR THE MOVIES: Marissa Matrone, right, in a scene from “Maid in Manhattan” with co-star Jennifer Lopez. (photo by Barry Wetcher)

HERE'S A HELPFUL HINT FOR those of you doing that “on-the-cusp- stardom” thing: Make sure you have a publicist on staff.

Actress Marissa Matrone ’94 lost her publicist shortly before the December premiere of her first film, “Maid in Manhattan.” In the Jennifer Lopez-starring Cinderella tale, Marissa plays J. Lo’s best friend, the wise-cracking but supportive Stephanie Kehoe who sets the romance in motion.

At first, Marissa had things under control: with the help of a publicist from the film staff, she prepared for the premiere and walked the red carpet. (Though she’s not in the business for its celebrity aspects, she admitted that it’s exciting “to have the paparazzi scream your name.”) Then, the film topped the box office, reviews called her a “scene-stealer” – and she guest-starred on the widely acclaimed HBO mobster drama “The Sopranos” – and Marissa was flattened by the ensuing media tsunami.

Soon, she was fielding requests for TV interviews, People magazine profiles and newspaper stories, and dozens of congratulatory phone calls from friends, family and former classmates. “It’s terrific, it’s exciting, but it’s too much at once for me,” she said, overwhelmed. “Now I know why people have personal assistants.”

The hubbub benefited her career almost immediately.

“I’ve gotten in other doors now,” she said, noting that she’s been asked to audition for the television series “Third Watch,” as well as a Jack Nicholson film. She’s been based in New York since graduating from New York University’s graduate acting program, and now people involved with the film have offered to help her break into the LA side of the business.
Marissa’s big breaks came within days of each other last winter.

After four years of liking her work but not having a suitable part for her, the casting directors of “The Sopranos” “cast me as Joey Pants’ wife,” she said, referring to her co-star Joe Pantoliano, who played the late, not-so-lamented Ralph Cifaretto. She was surprised to get the part because of the age difference between them, but “they cast young to make him more of a sleazeball.”

Working on that show had an unanticipated benefit: “That was some of the best-catered food ever,” she said.

She also had a reunion with Edie Falco – Mrs. Carmela Soprano – whom Marissa understudied in the play “Sideman,” later taking over the role. In a neat coincidence, Falco was onstage this fall in “Frankie and Johnny,” which co-starred Stanley Tucci, one of Marissa’s castmates from “Maid in Manhattan.”

Because Marissa is theater-trained, she loved the chance to interact with him and other stage veterans working on the film – Ralph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Frances Conroy.

“Bob Hoskins has got to be one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Bob was like my papa on the set. We had cappuccino in the morning. He would tell stories about acting with Olivier.”
With Jennifer Lopez, meanwhile, she had a “Lucy and Ethel” rapport. “Humor was what connected us,” Marissa said.

Marissa said she learned from Lopez and her other co-stars.

“Onstage, you’re telling the story in an uninterrupted way. You’re free to get lost in that,” she explained. Film is shot out of sequence, and “little, intimate moments are what’s caught on film,” she said. “I had to learn to adjust my size. I didn’t want to be a caricature.”

When the film was finished, the cast attended a pre-premiere private screening – “as an actor, you don’t want to be shocked,” she said, by the way the film’s changed from the script you signed on to do.

This film was “cleaner and smoother” than she envisioned. “[The script] was edgier. My character was a lot more brash,” she said. While she felt that the original was “more New Yorker,” the final product “served the PG rating. As an artist, I didn’t agree with it. But as a realistic person, I understood why they did it,” she said.

Being on the cusp of big things is not without pressure.

“I think my next choice is really important. I don’t want to get stuck in stereotypes, or certain parts,” she said. “I don’t want to take the next job just to take the next job.”

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