An actorâ€s life brings surprises with every part and when George Pogatsia of Jersey City found himself on a film set about to play a role, something happened that eventually led him to make his own films.

“I heard a little voice like Kazoo from ‘The Flintstones†that said you can do this,” Pogatsia says on a break during post-production of his new movie. “I heard ‘you can do this†then I heard ‘maybe notâ€. Then I heard ‘letâ€s tryâ€.”

 From that day on, Pogatsia set out to pursue a life not just as an actor, but as a screenwriter and director.  He wrote the screenplay THE PIZZA TAPES which was optioned and then he set out to write FAMILY ON BOARD, which went from the page to film.

‘At the end of the day, itâ€s all about telling a story and hopefully doing it well,” Pogatsia says. ‘Maybe all the times I was acting, maybe subconsciously I took mental note.”

Pogatsia wrote, directed and plays the lead Mike Petito in his new film FAMILY ON BOARD about a family that loses someone to the criminal justice system and while on his way to report to prison, catastrophe strikes. Shot in New York and downtown Jersey City locations like outside School No. 5 and inside a funeral home, the film also stars Tony Sirico, the actor who played Paulie Walnuts in “The Sopranos” and Eric Roberts who starred in POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE and other great films.  In FAMILY ON BOARD, Roberts plays the prosecutor who sends Pogatsiaâ€s character to five years in prison.

“Iâ€m a true believer that it starts with the script and I got him the script,” Pogatsia says about how he cast the popular movie star in the film. “Eric responded to the material, and we negotiated from there. Heâ€s everything you think he is and gave me what I needed for the movie.”

Working with Sirico was a great experience.  Pogatsia says: “Tony is as pro as they get. Came in ultra-prepared and heâ€s a great guy, very professional.”

Pogatsia worked with Sirico before when Pogatsia had a role in “The Sopranos” episode “Stage 5” where Christopher is shopping his movie CLEAVER and Pogatsia performed in scenes with Alex Baldwin and Anthony LaPaglia.

“Tony and I have the same manager,” Pogatsia says. “My characterâ€s name was Frankie, I was an actor playing an actor. It was interesting being around the set. It was probably one of the greatest shows in history. It was a nice, almost surreal experience.”

After appearing in a couple of episodes of “Law & Order” Pogatsia says he learned a lot from watching directors work with actors and applied what he observed when directing actors in FAMILY ON BOARD.

“You have to let an artist do their thing,” Pogatsia says. “You donâ€t want to over-direct and put them in a box. They bring their own perspective to the work. I would talk to the actors about the character and the story and jumpstart their creativity and let it happen from there. I want them to feel safe and free and have fun. I want them to explore. I donâ€t have a monopoly on good ideas.”

He turned to writing when he got the idea for THE PIZZA TAPES and wrote the film in three days.

“I could not sleep,” Pogatsia says. “Ideas poured out of my head. When I was an actor, I would find myself writing backstory on the character I was playing and it would turn into 150-200 pages. It was more than just doing the work as an actor. I always loved creative writing as a kid.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Pogatsia moved to Jersey City in 2002. He studied acting with Sheila Gray and Paul Calderon in New York, but credits his cousin Gregory Rozakis, a “solid working actor” for inspiring him to be an actor. Rozakis earned a Golden Globe Award nomination in 1963 for his role as Hohannes Gardashian in the film AMERICA AMERICA.  Now, 50 years later, Pogatsia keeps memories of his cousin Gregory as his inspiration and maybe, one day, Pogatsia will take home a prestigious award like the Golden Globe for his film.

As FAMILY ON BOARD goes through the final stages of post-production with music by Los Angeles composer Pancho Burgos-Goizueta, Pogatsia and executive producer Michael Mazzeo who also plays the role of Carmine in the film are making plans for New York and L.A. screenings for press and friends. Then itâ€s on to film festivals like Sundance, Toronto and Cannes.

“We canâ€t go too public with the screenings, it violates some film festivals†rules that want premieres,” Pogatsia says.

FAMILY ON BOARD is also a family affair; Pogatsiaâ€s children play his kids in the movie, too.

“Thereâ€s one scene in particular, itâ€s the morning I go to prison,” Pogatsia says.  “Iâ€m up early and fixing breakfast for my son and Iâ€m crying and my daughter sees me crying and she starts crying, I reach over and pick her up and give her a kiss. It canâ€t be more organic than that. That sceneâ€s in the movie. Itâ€s real. How many people can turn around and share this experience with their kids.”

For more info:

FAMILY ON BOARD

Written, Directed and Starring George Pogatsia

Also Starring: Eric Roberts, Tony Sirico, Karina Arroyave, Matthew Cowles, Gino Cafarelli and Michael Mazzeo.

www.familyonboardmovie.com

The post The Movie Man Filmmaker George Pogatsia Writes, Directs and Stars in his Second Film, FAMILY ON BOARD first appeared on River View Observer.

On the HBO award-winning TV series THE SOPRANOS (1999-2007), it was easy to like Vincent Curatola character Johnny Sack Sacramoni, a mobster who worshipped his heavyset wife. Sure, Curatola’s character was a cold-blooded killer, and he was scary to watch, but there was always a touch of humor, especially when he had to endure wisecracks about his wife’s weight. Curatola was so convincing that when Johnny Sack winced at a fat joke, the viewers did, too.

 A Jersey guy, Curatola grew up in Englewood, a residential community just north of the George Washington Bridge. According to his website, VincentCuratola.com  he always had the acting bug, and his wife, Maureen, encouraged him to take classes soon after Curatola brought Johnny Sack to life.

In the seven years since the show ended, Curatola has made a few movies, appeared on several TV shows, and taught acting in New York. He recently taped five episodes as an exasperated judge on the CBS hit show THE GOOD WIFE starring Julianna Margolis. Has it been difficult for Curatola to reinvent himself after eight years in a hit series? Do all roles pale in comparison to Johnny Sack?

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Curatola took time from his busy schedule to speak to River View Observer about what itâ€s like to continue his career after THE SOPRANOS.

RVO: Mr. Curatola, can you tell us a little about your background; where you grew up?

VC: I was born and raised in Englewood and I had a unique paper route on the block I lived on. My customers were Tony Bennett, Jerry Vale, Wilson Pickett, Lesley Gore, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sarah Vaughn. I used to deliver The Record. My father had a masonry business, and I started one on my own in the mid-1970s, but I had fantasies (about acting). So I went to study with Michael Moriarty.

 RVO: Did you do much acting before being cast in THE SOPRANOS?

VC: Michael got me on LAW & ORDER, and I wrote a one-act play about a funeral guy called DEARLY BELOVED. I also did the show EXILED.

 RVO: How did you get the part of Johnny Sack; was there a lot of competition?

VC: I happened to be filming in Staten Island, and my agent called and said, there this thing THE SOPRANOS. I told her I don want to go to the audition. I thought it was going to be SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER meets The Bronx. She called for the third time and said, there going to cast this character; you need to go in. I went home to New Jersey, changed, and went to 72^nd Street in Manhattan for the audition. I got out of the cab and thought, let me smoke a cigarette. a gorgeous spring day, I’m late already, let me smoke another cigarette. I got upstairs 35 minutes late, and there’s a woman sitting at a big desk in the middle of the room. Sorry, you’re late, she says; I’m leaving. She looks up at me and changes her mind. She says do you have the pages they faxed you? Come over, sit down, and lets read the scene.  I read it once, and she said, do you want to do it again? I said no. She said, I want you to meet somebody on Monday That Monday I’m in this big ante room, and there were 40-45 guys in for callbacks, I hear them, and everyone is screaming the part. I said I know what I’m going to do. So I go in, meet David Chase (the producer) and when I started the scene, I started to whisper. I whispered the whole scene. I could see they were scared stiff. The next morning, they wanted me to do one episode. I ended up doing 33 episodes and I was in it from the beginning right through to the end.

 RVO:  THE SOPRANOS was amazing, like Shakespeare. What was it like being in a hit series?

VC: Every time FedEx delivered a script, you were like a viewer. The writing was so incredible that they would take twists and turns. In many interviews over the years, the interviewer would describe it as a mob show, and I would say, I’m not on a mob show. I always bristled at that. weird. When people meet me, they say you don’t sound like a mobster. Johnny was an executive, he wasn’t the guy on the corner with the pinky ring.

 RVO: So many people were devastated over the death of James Gandolfini; can you share what it was like working with him?

VC: Jimmy and I, we’ve been through a lot. One year, he lost his father, and I lost mine. We’ve been through more funerals, more christenings. We met before THE SOPRANOS. We used to hang out at Mary Lou’s in Manhattan. This is a guy who gave us a piece of his production company, and along with that came a beautiful check. On December 1st of last year, we had a street in Park Ridge where he grew up renamed James Gandolfini Way.

 RVO: What acting lessons did you learn working with him?

VC: Don’t think; just open your mouth and talk. Don’t stop to check yourself out, don’t think.

RVO: Is it true you watched the last episode together?

VC: Yes. It was a Saturday night in 2007, we were brought to Foxwoods in Connecticut  me, Jimmy, Lorraine (Bracco), Tony Sirico, Steve Schirripa, Steve Van Zandt, and then the next morning they had a plane take us out to The Hard Rock in Florida, to watch the final episode with 16,000 people. They gave us a private room to watch it in. Nobody knew what the final episode was going to be. When it was over, I thought is David Chase kidding? Now we gotta go out to these 16,000 people and they did not look happy. What Jim did he found a guy in Switzerland who makes handmade watches, and he gave each one of us a watch — you could buy a Cadillac with this watch. It says on the back: THE SOPRANOS, R.I.P., love J.G. He was incredibly generous and self-effacing. Whenever we’d see in the script that a guy was going to die that week, we would take that guy out for dinner. We couldn’t tell anybody“ we couldn’t leak something so if anybody asked, we’d say it was his birthday.

 RVO: Since THE SOPRANOS ended, you’ve been on LAW & ORDER, SVU, and LAW & ORDER Criminal Intent; MONK, and PERSON OF INTEREST. Were you offered other roles?

VC: I’m a little picky. Once you’ve been on THE SOPRANOS, it’s like what do you do now? You drove a Rolls, now you’re going to drive a Chevy? I did two movies, KILLING THEM SOFTLY with Brad Pitt and NICKY DEUCE which was written by Steve Schirripa. We shot it in Montreal with Jimmy, Michael Imperioli, Tony Sirico, and Rita Moreno.

 RVO: Can you describe your part on the good wife?

VC: I play a judge.  a complete 180 from Johnny Sack. I love working with Julianna. She played a girlfriend of Christopher’s on THE SOPRANOS. She’s a wonderful actress; I play the judge who gets exasperated easily. I love to play that.

RVO: Anything planned for the future?

VC: A few months ago, I picked up the guitar again. I have three great teachers. About ten years ago, I went to the China Club with my wife Maureen, and who’s playing but CHICAGO. I ran out to my car and took out a CD of their greatest hits. When their act was done, I went backstage and they said, you want us to sign your stuff? Only if you sign ours. We had dinner once at The Plaza  it was somebody’s birthday“ and one of the band members starts to hum and I start to sing. They said, you sing? So, for about 7 years i’d be their surprise guest singer. We played the PNC Arts Center, Jones Beach. They would say to the audience, we have a friend and he told us he has to come out and sing a song.

 To learn more about Vincent Curatola, visit his website:

www.vincentcuratola.com.

 Photo of Mr. Curatola as John Sacramoni- and with James Gandolfini -HBO Publicity Photo from the hit series THE SOPRANOS

 

The post Worth Repeating Article…LIFE AFTER SOPRANOS Actor Vincent Curatola Picks up where Johnny Sack Left Off first appeared on River View Observer.

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Family on Board, written and directed by George Pogatsia, may be short in length but boasts a cast tailored for the big-screen. The film features a stellar, hand-selected cast who collectively have garnered numerous Golden Globe, Emmy, SAG and Academy Award nominations and wins.

Pogatsia, who also produced and stars in Family on Board, plays Mike Petito – a family man and biker who receives a questionable prison sentence. On creating the motion picture, Pogatsia states, “The minute I finished the Family on Board script, I knew I had to direct this story.”

Supporting Pogatsia in bringing this compelling New York story to life is a lineup of celebrated talent.

Four-time Golden Globe and Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts plays the overzealous prosecutor pushing Petitoâ€s conviction. The biker’s defense attorney is played by Matthew Cowles, a two time Daytime Emmy nominee. Beloved character actor Tony Sirico, who won two Screen Actorâ€s Guild awards for his work on The Sopranos as Paulie “Walnuts”, plays Petitoâ€s mentor, Rocco, while Karina Arroyave – known for her work on televisionâ€s 24 and in films such as Academy Award winner Crash, Falling Down and Dangerous Minds – plays his distraught wife, Yvette.

The esteemed cast has been nominated for, or won, more than a dozen major awards, combined. “I enjoyed the challenge of tackling my character, Mike Petito from a physical standpoint, friends and family hardly recognized me.” Pogatsia said.

Reuniting with Pogatsia is executive producer and actor Michael Mazzeo, who plays Carmine, a career criminal that escorts Petito to jail and instigates his plot. Also making significant contributions to the film are co-producer Jesse R. Tendler and critically acclaimed cinematographer Jay Silver.

Beginning early this fall the film shot on location in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City wrapped September 27th.

Pogatsia is a long-time student of renowned acting coach Sheila Gray. He honed his craft in over twenty arthouse films. His television credits include Law & Order and The Sopranos. He is slated to star in the feature film “Indigo”, this November as we prepare for Family on Board.

The post “Family on Board” A Short Film Big On Talent first appeared on River View Observer.