Dominic Sessa says one of the biggest surprises in preparing to play Anthony Bourdain was learning that the chef’s early ambitions were not centered on food, according to E! News.
While working on the upcoming biopic Tony, Sessa said he initially thought of Bourdain as a familiar Food Network personality. But he learned that Bourdain first saw himself as a writer and believed that was his true calling.
The film, directed by Matt Johnson, focuses on Bourdain at age 19 during a summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, rather than on the later years that made him famous. Johnson said the team wanted to explore what it was like to be a young person trying to become Anthony Bourdain.
Bourdain died by suicide in 2018 at age 61. Before his TV career, he became known for his writing, including the bestselling 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and later went on to host several widely recognized food and travel shows. Tony opens in limited theaters on Aug. 7 and goes nationwide on Aug. 21.
