Life & Laughs with Marisa Tomei - Panel Discussion - Fan Expo Dallas 2024

one more time let's bring out ladies and gentlemen of f [Applause] Marissa how's it going good hi thanks for coming there's a lot of people here um I want to start out maybe in the maybe not in the most obvious place the obvious Place being your work in Marvel though we'll get there um I want to talk about your producing work that you have uh that you've done recently you produce four phones two of them documentaries um in case people didn't know um this is kind of the perfect place for your F so kind of talk about getting into that aspect behind the camera okay uh just coming from acting as long as you have into producing and why those projects spoke to you especially the true kind of documentaries and something to you um well could you tell them what they are yeah so the the two documentaries that you produced are C the untold story and most recently I think 2022 was the Cod Nation um vers of the United States um which they are beautiful documentaries and very important messages that I yeah I was just invited onto I was um actually with the SE documentary SE I it was about preserving the the Heritage seats um because a lot of our our our seats are for example they used to be I hundreds of types of a right we only have like five so it becomes our guardianship to look after the seeds and to be sure that we have a variety foods for our own nutrition and of course for the for the planet for the soil so I had donated to their project and then I guess when they when they made the documentary that they invited me on to say hey we're going to take this seed Bing project and take it further and then with the L Nation uh I had some friends who were working in the indigen there and they inveda but the narrative uh that just recently came out it's going to be again A provin Town film festival um which is called high TI I have a small part in that but U I'm very cled with a writer director and we work together to to to put it together so we we ask me become honest and exec and then after that plays festivals will be streaming where people can watch it yes cool yeah but I don't know that schedule not that far yet yeah um so we got to talk about my cousin Vinnie of course have a a panel with you and not talk about that of course you you know you were 27 years old at the time I think um early role and then you end up winning um an Academy Award which you know it's such a special movie but it it also to be acknowledged in that way where most comedies are not acknowledged um in that way and comedic roles and especially female comedic roles so what is it like for you in your career early on to to win that award that early on does that kind of send you into a weird tail spin in a way no no t something that was um very I wanted to see how what the sign language was test exactly it it no it was just obviously lucky privilege and and helped me to be able to keep working and U need to work in films I really couldn't get a film job till then I mean it was in my my mind even though I was whatever 27 28 whatever I was I thought I'm never going to break into movies and I really wanted to so that helped me continue to work yeah it's such a special movie and I just rewatched it this week and and there's not a movie quite like it which is why I think people love it the way they they do is so good yeah I mean John directed a recording John clue which is of course a great company but he also had a lot ofree I mean the movie is that K is one of the best legal movies by the bar um but what do you think from your perspective makes it so special cuz it's it is a comedy it's also a Dr especially in the '90s at that time it's in this unique space of It kind of a I think it's I think it's a comedy but it's just a character trim comedy that we're not we don't do that much anymore which I I wish we did I actually yeah if my cousin VY came out today it would be like a Sundance movie or something be like true that whole section of kind of uh even the budget doesn't really exist absolutely I was going to ask you about working with Fred qu he's so sweet uh as as a human but he's so sweet as the judge in the movie he he passed away the year after the movie came out I know his interaction movie were much more with Joe pesi but do you have any kind of memories of working with him I I just really remember him fondly and his kind of I was kind of overwhelmed at the time remember that much I wasn't as much as I wanted to be on movie said I really hadn't been so it was a lot to learn and take in but he he was incredibly generous very very very warmhearted just like made yeah I mean I can imagine as a young actress just it's a lot to take in but you were you know you're kind of key scene you're you're kind of on off in the courtroom which is all you and it's it's a lot of dialog in your car but it is such a you're such a shining star in that scene it's it's such an incredible scene it's still day watching it's really yeah they just is just Fantastic live for that kind of writing yeah it's such a performance so um and did I agree correctly that they were we were talking about doing a sequel at some point where like in Britain or something oh that would be great that would be great I mean they could you know we see sequels much later all the time now it's one of those things where they put you could be a lawyer who knows where you go the movie yeah fashion designer she's a fashion designer SL lawyer you're um I would love that you know both on screen and off U fashion has always been was to that uh has seemed like it's kind of been a part of your identity and and I mean your looks on screen is that something that has always kind of been important to you um it's just effortless cool we all want to be as effortlessly no I think maybe I think about it now more because it's something that there was so many more camera and so much more media and it's like a thing now but it wasn't when I was growing up I I was exposed to some some of it because my my my M Barber was in the fashion business so she could dress me up a little bit I know I just admire her was more just that she was just making a subconscious imprint on me love my but it wasn't something that I sh sweatpants under the TSH um and then kind of later in your career and transitioning into um you know the Marvel catic universe as you did which you know you had really done comedies and dramas you had not done a movie that was on that scope and scale and yet coming into Spider-Man those movies to me are still even though they you know Spider-Man it's superhero they're they character movies it's about interpersonal relationships that's what John W our director always always said about those from the beginning he and just keep thinking about it like independent yeah and he himself came from the Independent world and but was that still did you kind of second gu making that choice it's the MCU was already what it was at the time um you had a sense of what it would be like for an actor to come into that kind of massive Marvel universe is there hesitation or you no I didn't know anything about assuming something so then did once you were in it was it you kind of find yourself in it was it overwhelming in that way so kind of no we said Johnn great director really character and just uh kept me uh included in the process yeah and I mean you of course works with Robert D J for chap yeah um so what was it like kind of all these years later to work with him again but in a very different I mean you couldn't be more opposite from chap to Spider-Man you know it's still start I don't know I think he was very gracious with being very uh welcoming and wan to yeah um and you're you're kind of um collaboration and relationship nextre Tom Holland is it feels so sweet and special and and it's so interesting because we have many other versions of what that relationship is like and and other versions of what it is like which have been very different but there's something really special that I think spoke to a lot of people about the dynamic between those two characters and and you and Tomas actors you seem to just have this kind of connection and it it only really works because of because of that in that way well maybe because we both had our first day on at the same time so little so I just saw him with with Julet he's on stage speaking the verse very beautifully in the West End in London he can really do anything he's a brilliant actor and I was in London and I went to to him and he's just he's he's fantastic he can do anything there you have doing Shakespeare probably know that he's been Billy Elliot dance stunts he could do the comedy he could do the drama he could cry and the Nai movie cry he can do everything he's really just amazing he's really kind of one of those old school actors in that way having from the ' 50s or 60s that that can do it all and bounce back and forth um to to your point I think that you know obviously these characters mean so much to us you know all of us are here because we grew up with comic books and then to see them you know come alive on screen in that way but those movies work in the way that you and connected us and speak to us because of the performances in the actors and the fact that the MCU is able to bring in that caliber like yourself in Jun I mean it's it's kind of incredible that you get to play with all of those people in this weird colorful way so yeah I that put a question just a um I I do want to talk about and I'm sorry if it's too soon and also I'm sorry if um some of you have not yet seen no way home but that's kind of your own fault at this point you've had a few years um of course that was something that was like very that was a very tough scene and sequence with ant losing ant in the way that happens and um just like such a raw powerful emotional scene did you did you know coming in that that was kind of always the plan for her character was that no I think they they planned it they just planned it right before the next yeah and then did that kind of feel I don't know I guess like it felt it felt so sad of course but it felt so right for what needed to happen in that moment that character even though I hate saying that cuz it's like that's sad that's so right well you ever say that about a death before I mean it was also one of those things where you know this is a different approach uh with Uncle Ben usually that's kind of or story and we we've seen it happen and by the third room we're like oh thank God at least we don't have to see Uncle Ben die again and then we're like oh wait a man is Uncle Ben um but it was that much it it was that much more powerful and yet again that much more kind of important for that moment with the character that was John L's ideal yeah um someone someone kind of gifted me a question uh in a beautiful way I guess it was a a fan a female fan if right there um and I really love this question and I'm I'm actually mad at myself that I was not CL enough to think of it but you know Stanley's iconic with great power becomes great responsibility line which is like you know sewn into the fabric of our prop culture people kind words to live by um we never really seen it on screen again and yet the way that delivers it and to be a female therap a strong female therapy delivering that line it does like it's it's a different kind of meaning and power my so did that feel I don't know like did that feel weighty to you at all uh it felt wordy was um because because I I say that that it felt woring because it was very specific way that it hadn't been being um repeated because he wanted to go back to the original way that it was written the first time in the first comic so it had a very interesting syntax which was with I I might remember with great power there must be so it was it was just different than what we always think so that's why on but um yeah I John felt that may bu was the person who had influenced him the most really in his life and who had sewn the seeds of him being a community organizer and and a super hero for local communities and that she infused him with how he would uh treat arent and and how he would be with women and how he would how he would conduct himself so he felt that that was appropriate for her to yeah and now there's literally people who have it tattooed on their bodies I'm sure there some of those being in um I like to talk about the wrestler as well which um you know was uh yeah um uh you know kind of another kind of such a special movie at a different part of your career that you know turn into a nomination and and was kind of a independent film in a way that we hadn't quite seen you know the kind Rus who Dar anounced you obviously VI's performance and their performance um what was that experience like just uh um I I guess just it it's it's one of those movies that I think again kind of in a very different way than my cousin buy obviously it's a weird double feature um uh um it is a movie that I don't think that there's a a comp for it there's you know there hadn't been a movie like it and there's a movie since um it's one of those movies that kind of took the World by storm in a way um but it's did you really yeah wow so I don't know if I got the part or just you got it yeah you got it um well that's I mean what is that then like was my brother yeah so it's almost like it's almost like shooting a student film in high school in a way yeah right yeah just just with a couple bigger names yeah um what's you know just kind of opening it up and going broader you other than your work in Marvel a lot of your movies have been comedies and dramas and and um independent films and and so it's interesting that this space at a pop culture convention has opened up I mean look J Davis Susan Tron they what women co-star was here it's kind of a fun reunion um what is it like to kind of be a part of these things in another weird world that you're coming into I think it's great I love meeting all of you I think it's so it's something we never we don't really get to do I mean if you do a play you can sometimes meet people afterwards who've seen the play but not the film so uh I think I think it's I love it it's really special interaction and um also I you get to go to different places in the country so good barbecue last night wait okay hold on now she ordered I can't tell you now we're now we're finally getting to like the meat of things here you and Susan and just eating with you right yeah we're on the road that's so cool we're here we and how was it it was good see Dallas kind of has a barbecue compx if you will we're very much overshadowed by Austin's barbecue in terms of the kind of Battle of Texas barbecue we'll have to wait till I do a Fan Expo in Austin we'll have to check in yeah yeah um but D have good barbecue now and most of it is actually Austin transplants that have come down so it's technically atin barbecue that's fair to say um do you ever get to kind of get out at these things and it like explore the city are you it kind of depends on how the days go I try to see something local yesterday was a little long so I guess that is true and think about that that you really don't you know other than maybe a press tour which is very insul and then having here in a different city um you don't get kind of to to kind of settle in in a certain city so yeah but you have time to go to like a museum or special Monument something that really fun yeah great yeah I mean you're literally like right right on the other side of this wall is uh we don't really like to talk about it but a pretty historic thing with JFK happened uh right outside the building and uh there's great museums down there so hopefully hopefully we get to do that some thank you for having me thank you so much thank so much another round of applause she'll be the rest of the day so stop by and say hi yeah for a couple hours so you got to you got to go another hour get it in if you want to go sing another round of applause rest the show w