(Cathy Moriarty-Gentile and Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, above.)This interview with Cathy Moriarty-Gentile originally appeared in Venice Magazine in 2002. I was speaking with Cathy during the press interviews for Analyze That, the sequel to Analyze This, in which Cathy played a female mob moss. It was also an on-screen reunion for Cathy and Robert De Niro, who had originally starred together in Raging Bull when Cathy played Vickie La Motta, the young wife of De Niro's Jake La Motta. For this reprisal, I've cut out much of the Analyze That questioning and focused on the Bull.
by Terry Keefe
How were you originally cast in Analyze That? Did you read for it or did they have you in mind from the get-go?
Cathy Moriarty-Gentile: I had just had [daughter] Annabella and I was at our old house, we were moving. The phone rang, to ask if I would be interested in coming in to do this reading. I wasn't even living in that house anymore! At first I panicked and then I said, "God, I would love to. Thanks for asking me." I went in for the table reading and it was so nice to see everybody. I think Harold Ramis was quoted as saying I did a "spirited reading." [laughs]
Had you kept in touch with Robert De Niro in the years since Raging Bull?
It's not like we all take the time out to telephone each other but we've been friends for 20-something years. I did Cop Land also with him, although we had no scenes together. In L.A. you run into each other. You're always in touch but it's never really like, you know, 'I'm just going to pick up the phone and call.' But it's always really cordial and friendly.
Has De Niro's style of working changed much since Raging Bull? He wasn't really known for doing comedy at the time.
Well, not on Raging Bull because it was such a serious movie. But I always knew De Niro to do lots of comedy. I thought he was brilliant in The King of Comedy which he did right after Raging Bull. He was so great in that! Everyone of course always thinks he's great with comedy now from films like Meet the Parents, but I've known him for 20 years as a very funny man. We've always had a lot of fun on the set.
Let's go back a bit. You grew up in the Bronx?
I was born in the Bronx, but I grew up in Westchester, actually. We moved from the Bronx when I was about four or five.
Had you always wanted to be an actress growing up prior to Raging Bull?
I definitely always wanted to be an actress. I had even applied for a grant to go to acting school. I saw Born Yesterday (1950) with Judy Holliday and watched "Rich Man, Poor Man." And I just looked at my sister and said, "I'm going to be an actress and I don't care." I think I was about 13 or 14. But even when I was very little I used to put on big stage productions in my back yard. On my report cards they used to write "Imagination -- very vast and very big. She'd like to pursue an acting career -- maybe she should." So everybody in my family kind of knew that was what I wanted to do. There was this unbelievable back porch in our first house. I still miss that house just for that. And I would put on plays and I would charge everyone in the neighborhood who would come, which would be like four people and my dad. [laughs] I have six brothers and sisters. There were seven of us in nine years. So I used to be the casting director, the production designer, the director, the producer, and the writer, the whole thing. I used to give everyone a part. I had a great time growing up.
The legend is that you were just 18 when you were cast as Vickie La Motta.
I was 17 when I first met with them. I was 18 when I was cast. I was 19 when I finished it. And I was two weeks shy of 20 when it opened.
That's a terrific way to do those years of your life!
Three years of my life basically. And a great three years, too, I might add. A lot of learning, a lot of learning.
How were you cast originally?
I sent my picture in. The first thing that got me in, I think, was that I resembled Vickie La Motta and had a Bronx accent! I don't really have that much of an accent now but back then it was like [does heavy Bronx accent] hey, one, two, three. [laughs] I went in and read for Cis Corman (casting director on Raging Bull). I think I read for her two or three times, and then she said, "Cathy, this is Bobby and this is Marty." And I'm like, 'Hi, how you doing?' You know, at 17, how much fear do you have? All I wanted to do was be an actress and I just thought that this would be the most unbelievable opportunity. I thought, 'Look how close I am to being associated with the world I want to be a part of for the rest of my life.' They were very nice to me, and I kept coming back down, reading with them and reading with them. And I did that for months, from October to February. So for five months I did that. For two weeks I didn't have to go down because they went to L.A. for casting. Then, in February, they finally said, "We want to give you a screen test." They were still seeing other actresses, but I just figured that I didn't really care if I got the part or not. I was just getting free acting lessons. You couldn't get this in school. I couldn't go to college for eight years for that. For 50 years for that. After the screen test, they said, "Well, we'd love to have you in the movie. You've got the part." Then they were supposed to start in New York and I was all nervous and I had dyed my hair platinum blonde. And they then all of a sudden said, "We're going to L.A. Pack your bag." And I went to L.A. I was an 18-year-old girl with my little suitcase. I was so scared. I had no agent, no manager, no anything. Who did I know in L.A.? Nobody!
Had you met Vickie La Motta prior to shooting?
You know, they wouldn't let me meet her when I was shooting the movie and I had such a guilt trip over it. She had sent me letters and I had sent her letters, and we never received the letters! See, the movie is through Jake La Motta's eyes. The movie didn't say what Vickie did. It's what Jake thought she did. So they figured I was very inexperienced and that meeting her might influence me in certain ways as to how I might play her. So when she came to the set, they made sure I wasn't on the set. She came to visit for a week. I can understand it now but at the time I couldn't come to terms with it. I finally got her phone number, and when I finished the movie, I flew myself down to Florida to meet her. We stayed up all night, gossiping and talking. And after she saw the movie, she said, " I am very proud of the job that you did." And that was all I wanted. Because I would have felt really bad to portray somebody and have them be unhappy with it.
Did you get any special attention from Marty Scorsese during the filming or was it kind of a situation of being thrown in the deep end and having to swim?
It was my first movie and there were so many things I didn't understand, so sometimes I would think I was doing something wrong. Because I didn't know that much about the technical aspects of filmmaking. But Marty was very kind to me. One thing he did that stands out in my mind was that he explained to me his storyboards and showed them to me. By his doing that, I was able to visualize a lot easier because I could see what his vision was. He shared that with me and I don't think he shared that with very many people. He even let me keep his storyboards.
He did?! Do you still have them?
Yes, I do. I do. [smiles] Treasures. And Marty paid me a very nice compliment many years later. He looked at me and said, "Cathy, you've done some nice work." And I was so touched by that.
I watched Raging Bull last night for the first time in a while and what struck me was how subtly your character ages from the beginning of the film to the end. Not just in terms of make-up, but also the performance. How does a young actor know how to do that? It seems very difficult.
How do you do that when you're 18? I aged 18 to 30. Does an 18-year-old know how to play an old person? I just listened to them, kind of took my guidance. It was such a long process that I may have aged 15 years while we were doing it! The aged scenes we actually did last because that was when De Niro gained the weight anyway for those scenes. Your question is a very good one and I have no idea. I'm just going to take it as a compliment!
After filming Neighbors, you took some time off.
I took some unintentional time out too, didn't I? A bad patch, I suppose, and a very bad car accident. But I don't even blame it on that. I just wasn't getting offered parts that I wanted to do. There was also a lot of tunnelvision that this was all I could play and I had taken Neighbors thinking I would solve that problem. That was a pretty big mistake but I'm glad I did Neighbors because it taught me a lot about comedy. And I learned from the best [the late John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were her co-stars]. I really did. So it was worth every bad review really. But I took time out and made a few bad choices in my life. And I was also doing the sequel to Chinatown, The Two Jakes, and lost all this weight and cut my hair and dyed it blonde and went to work. And on the second day, they shut it down. That went by the wayside. I was like, "You don't understand. I've waited three years to do this movie!" Then everything started to get back on track.
For about ten years there you never stopped working.
I know. And then for the last two years, I took a little time off because it's really hard to hire the pregnant ladies these days and I've just been pregnant forever. Now it's time to get back to work. My kids are getting a little older. I'm just waiting for something really special to come and for someone who has something really special to bring it to me.
Somewhere in the middle of this you found time to open your pizzeria Mulberry Street. What prompted the decision to open it? Couldn't get a good pizza in L.A.?
Couldn't get good pizza in L.A. And I can cook like there's no tomorrow. It's a nice family place. I grew up in my neighborhood pizza place when I was little. We moved up to Lincoln Park in Westchester and I spent more nights at the pizzeria with my two slices and my soda. To this day, I bring my own kids there. It was just the family place you went to. It was a safe heaven. It was also great when I opened the pizzerias because every unemployed actor got a job. I didn't have my own family out there so I became like the Old Lady That Lived in the Shoe, the Mother Hen. [laughs] It's a family hang-out. This is just for people who need a place to go and they're welcome here. You come in, you read the Post, it's a day late, it's kind of cool. [laughs]
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