The first glimpse of Dominic Sessa playing a young Anthony Bourdain shows the humble beginnings of the late chef, who found himself reluctantly working in a kitchen out of desperation.
A24 Studios on Tuesday released the trailer for “Tony,” the biopic slated to be out this August that follows Bourdain in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the mid-1970s. Sessa, the 23-year-old Cherry Hill native who broke onto the acting scene in the Oscar-nominated 2023 film “The Holdovers,” stars alongside Antonio Banderas and Leo Woodall.
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The trailer shows Sessa as a bumbling, intense, 19-year-old Bourdain whose dreams of making it as a writer are cut short after being passed over for a fellowship opportunity, causing him to punch a hole in his bedroom wall.
He eventually begins working in a restaurant under the wing of a chef, portrayed by Banderas, and eventually makes his own way in the industry. Bourdain, who died by suicide in 2018 at age 61, enrolled in culinary school two years after the movie is set.
Director Matt Johnson, the filmmaker behind 2023’s “BlackBerry,” told Entertainment Weekly that he chose Sessa after noticing “uncanny” similarities between he and Bourdain’s lives.
“”[They are] both from Jersey, both sent to private school, but didn’t fit in, both restless and searching,” Johnson said to the outlet. “I knew if a scene was working when Dom said, ‘Seems right,’ and I knew it wasn’t when he said, ‘Why would I say this?’ More than any movie I’ve ever made, this film was a partnership with an actor. He is in every shot of the movie, and carries the entire story on his hunched shoulders.”
Sessa also spoke to the outlet about how the “Kitchen Confidential” author’s journey inspired him to take on the role.
“Bourdain never wanted to feel like the smartest guy in the room,” he said. “He had an unwavering desire to learn as much as he could from the world and the people around him.”
Bourdain’s estate wrote a statement of support for the film, calling it an honest portrayal of a part of the acclaimed chef and TV host’s life that will “always remain somewhat unknown.”
“We appreciate the portrayal of Tony’s complexity, his intellectual appetite, and his conviction — qualities that eventually took him around the globe and endeared him to so many,” the statement reads. “We hope this film serves as a reminder that every journey has a start, and that audiences see the beginnings of the man who taught us how to be better explorers on our own paths.”
Check out the full trailer below.
