I Lie for a Living
An interview with Tony Revolori…
Tony’s advice for aspiring actors is simple, “If you want it, keep at it. It’s hard as fuck. Some people will always gonna say ‘No,’ and ‘Hell no,’ and ‘Fuck no.’ But just smile and move on, because one day you’ll make it. Then you can look back and give them a nice little wave.” He emphasized the importance of not giving up. We should forget what everyone else thinks and be our own person — this is the underlying theme of everything Tony attempted to communicate, and is at the core of that which he thinks, or rather what he knows, makes a good actor.
When asked what the most difficult part was about his journey, he did not have to think long. He answered, “[The] difficult part is the beginning.” Quickly, then, he rebutted his own statement: “But it never gets easier; it just becomes easier to ignore what’s hard. And so I guess everything is the hardest part.” At first, this seems like a cop-out, a way of betraying the truth by saying everything is hard and that it’s impossible to pinpoint one part. But in that answer lies the essential truth: We experience the most difficulties when we start something new, and those difficulties never fully go away. The difficulty remains, and it is we who changed, who are newly better at overcoming the obstacles that remain in our way.
Tony does not look at acting as a competition to break any boundaries. He remains so resolutely confident in himself that he does not allow himself or his view of the art form be swayed by the fickle nature of the industry. The film industry today can be so competitive that actors, striving for greatness or maintenance, will push themselves to places where they are no longer true to who they are. Tony rejects this idea altogether. He does not focus on breaking or pushing boundaries; instead, he contributes in whatever way he naturally can to the art of acting without diluting his identity for it.
Tony’s father and brother were both actors, but he believes that they did not influence his decision to become an actor or push him in any particular directions. Tony continued, “I knew I wanted to be an actor at 12, so my family didn’t really have time to influence much.”
The audition process was nothing out of the ordinary for The Grand Budapest Hotel, until it was down to just two actors for the role of Zero…. Tony, and his brother Mario. Tony joked and said that Wes Anderson made them fight to the death. Until finally, Tony came out victorious.
He had his breakout role as Zero Moustafa in Wes Anderson’s film The Grand Budapest Hotel at the age of 18 years old. He worked alongside amazing actors including Bill Murray, Edward Norton, and Jude Law. Tony’s parents are Guatemalan, and he ethnicity gave the film some racial diversity. Wes Anderson is often criticized for only using white actors, and it was impactful for one of his leads to be anything other than white.
Whitewashing in films has been a controversy in Hollywood, and Tony is an example of a person of color being cast as a traditionally white character. He has just recently finished filming Spiderman homecoming in which he plays Flash Thompson. Flash Thompson is Spiderman’s high school bully, and will be a new type of personality for Tony.
His outlook on life is very down to earth for someone who had so much success at such a young age. Tony was only 18 when he received his breakout role in the Academy Award-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel. He is very modest during his interviews and does not take anything too seriously. He has a relatable charm that is unlike most of the people that make up today’s young Hollywood.
In this time where it seems that everything in the film industry has been done before, and just a remix of something that has come before it is important for actors to brand themselves in a way that makes them original, and not like everything else. When this idea was posed to Tony he said, “That’s the question…. What makes people special?” he followed that up by saying everyone is like a unique. He continued by saying, “I’m constantly being surprised by what is weird to me and what is normal to another.”
Tony says that he is fortunate and not lucky to be where he is today. He believes that he is fortunate because he put in a lot of hard work and that work paid off. He believes that his future is a blank canvas and he is that painter.