Michael Imperioli claims he consulted a “witch” to direct the 1999 thriller
Michael Imperioli has revealed his “otherworldly” attempts to get his hands on his 1999 thriller Summer from Sam made.
Directed by and co-directed with Spike Lee, the crime drama follows a group of residents of New York’s Bronx whose fear and distrust of one another grows in the wake of the 1977 “Son of Sam” murders.
It also starred 57-year-old Imperioli, who co-wrote the screenplay while living in Manhattan’s notorious Chelsea Hotel.
“I had just started writing Summer from Sam with Victor Colicchio – we wrote the screenplay together,” he says Goodfellas Star said in an exclusive clip from next year Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel Documentary shared with diversity.
“I really wanted to do it. So I met a witch living here who told me she could help me make it, but it wasn’t going to happen the way I imagined,” recalls Imperioli.
“I was very ambitious at the time and I wanted to do it, so [I] resorted to otherworldly means to get it through the studio system.”
Imperioli was 29 when he moved into the infamous hotel, which he described as “a very mythical place”.
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“Especially when you’re an artist in New York, it’s very important and the idea of living here didn’t seem really possible,” he added.
Summer from Sam In the leading role, John Leguizamo played the womanizer Vinny, who almost falls victim to the serial killer. Afterwards, he and his wife (Mira Sorvino), his punk rock boyfriend (Adrien Brody) and the rising adult film star (Jennifer Esposito) join forces to uncover the killer’s identity before it’s too late.
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That same year, Imperioli starred in David Chase’s critically acclaimed mob boss series The Sopranos as Christopher Moltisanti, the role for which he would become best known.
In an interview with The guard Last month, the actor reflected on the “most brutal and difficult” scenes he filmed on the six-season drama, which ran from 1999-2007.
“The most brutal and difficult thing for me was when Christopher had to physically abuse Adriana for obvious reasons,” Imperioli said. “On a technical level you try to be really careful so you don’t hurt the person. But to get to that point of violence against a woman, you have to go to some bad places to get there.
“Sometimes it’s very immediate. Sometimes it’s something that exists in your life that you can use. Sometimes you have to travel to a place from the past. And sometimes you have to go to an imaginary place. It’s a lot easier to shoot a gangster or heroin. It’s not difficult for me. But the stuff with her was.”