Actor and mental health activist Joey Pantoliano: June 29, 2010

Click on the player below to listen to the interview with Joey Pantoliano on June 29th

Resources mentioned on the show:
Remind.org
The No Kidding, Me Too! website
Click here for Joey’s article on Huffington Post about the stigma surrounding mental illness!
Click here to go to Amazon for the NKM2 DVD.

No Kidding, Me 2!! DVD

If you’re depressed or considering suicide and need someone to talk to, call: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

About Joey Pantoliano:

This prolific, stage-trained character player transcended a youth of urban poverty, crime and poor academic skills to establish a successful entertainment career, often playing denizens and products of the kind of environment he escaped. Slender, bright-eyed and balding, Pantoliano has become known for playing low-level crooks, hustlers and other shady types in film comedies; lackeys and sidekicks in dramatic features; and a wider range of ethnic types on TV. Something of a lighter, taller Joe Pesci, he has excelled at projecting an air of somewhat likable sleaze, low cunning and street smarts.

Pantoliano grew up on welfare in a public housing project in Hoboken, New Jersey. He has described his parents as “bohemian”–his father was a hearse driver with mob ties and his mother was a bookie–who separated when he was a 12-year-old. Reading at a third grade level at age 17, Pantoliano decided that acting was a way out of a life that seemed to be leading to criminal behavior. Because of his comprehension skills, he had to memorize his scenes just to audition but it paid off as his literacy and confidence increased. Pantoliano moved to Manhattan where he waited tables, took acting lessons and built up stage credits.

Pantoliano moved to L.A. in 1976 where he found work in TV sitcoms. He gained attention with his performance in the TV miniseries version of “From Here to Eternity” (NBC, 1979) as Angelo Maggio, the role played by fellow Hoboken native Frank Sinatra in the 1953 film. Pantoliano first registered in features as the comic yet threatening Guido ‘The Killer Pimp’ in “Risky Business” (1983). He went on to regular work in film and TV in strong supporting roles: the ruthless anti-Communist attorney Roy Cohn in the miniseries “Robert Kennedy and His Times” (CBS, 1987); a bumbling criminal outwitted by kids in both “The Goonies” (1985) and “Baby’s Day Out” (1994); John Malkovich’s long-suffering sidekick in Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun” (1987); and the slippery bail bondsman in “Midnight Run” (1988). Playing a more laudable character than usual, Pantoliano took part in a critical and commercial hit as Cosmo, one of Tommy Lee Jones’s marshals, in “The Fugitive” (1993).

Pantoliano has also done several TV guest shots (“Amazing Stories”, “L.A. Law”), stints as a recurring character on hit series (“NYPD Blue”) and a regular on flops (“The Fanelli Boys”). He returned to TV in the fall of 1996 playing a shady supporting character on the short-lived CBS crime drama series “EZ Streets”. Also in 1996, he played a frightening money launderer for the mob in the feature “Bound” opposite Jennifer Tilly as his mistress.

After reprising his role of Deputy Marshal Renfro in the sequel “U.S. Marshals” (1998), Pantoliano had his biggest box-office hit as the traitorous renegade Cypher in the blockbuster “The Matrix” (1999). The busy actor went on to play a seedy character that played off his on-screen persona in the stylish thriller “Memento” (2000) and joined the cast of the popular HBO series “The Sopranos” in 2001, playing the hotheaded, loudmouthed mob lieutenant Ralph Cifaretto, who becomes a major thorn in the side of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini). Pantoliano’s adroit portrayal made Ralph a love-to-hate-him character and at last had audiences connecting that well-known face to a now recognizable name. After his “Sopranos” tenure came to a memorable end in 2002, ‘Joey Pants’ next essayed Ben Urich, the dogged reporter on the trail of the secret identity of the super hero “Daredevil” (2003), before reprising his previous role as police captain Howard, comic foil to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the sequel “Bad Boys 2.” In that same year, after winning a dramatic supporting actor Emmy for his much-admired work on “The Sopranos,” Pantoliano held down a starring role as a FBI agent in the CBS drama series “The Handler.”

About No Kidding?! Me Too:

Throughout human history, actors have made their living as entertainers – on stage, the big screen, small screen, even the computer screen. During our journeys, we sometimes encounter roles where the characters exhibit mental issues. Just a quick thought to the most memorable moments in movies and on television over the last century will provide you with many depictions of individuals exhibiting mental illness — almost all encountering seemingly insurmountable barriers.

As artists, what we learn as we become more knowledgeable about mental illness — its symptoms, diagnosis and treatment — is these barriers are not insurmountable and by stigmatizing those with mental illness, we are doing a grave injustice to them, ourselves and all of society.

Our goal is to educate the public about the wonderful possibilities that exist when we break down the societal barriers which hold us all back because we treat those afflicted with mental illness differently — we label them and isolate them. What we passionately want to accomplish is to relieve the weight of millions of people who suffer this isolation.

In our roles as communicators, we have found that by infusing humor into a message — by having a “spoonful of sugar help the medicine go down” — that the message not only grows faster but is retained longer. That is our hope. To use the humor in the name No Kidding, Me Too! to lighten the message, to cause people to remember the name, so when they are ready for the message, they will get it. To pay some recognition to the statistic that one in five adults in this country suffers from a mental illness. To allow people to have a conversation that includes, “…and I’m bipolar.” “No Kidding, Me Too!”

There is an oft-quoted statistic that for every person who is diagnosed with mental illness, eleven loved ones are affected. The immediate short-term result is that the mentally ill person becomes isolated from the outside world because they are deemed unable to “handle” it. And isolation breeds isolation which creates the stigma and discrimination we need to eliminate. The brain is an organ — just like the heart, liver and kidneys — and we need to encourage everyone to treat it as such from both a medical and social perspective.

So we will do what we do best — communicate — in the best way we know how — through humor and direct dialogue — the message that we need to remove the stigma and reap the benefits of a fully integrated society. The message of No Kidding, Me Too! is empowerment — empowering those with mental illness to admit their illness, seek treatment, become even greater contributing members of society and obliterate this stigma.

We know this is a tough fight. We know years of ingrained socialization causes people to recoil or isolate anyone with the scarlet letter of mental illness. Just saying the magic words “mental illness” can cause a deep-seated defensive reaction in many people. However, we also know that by releasing the talents of those with mental illness — by giving them the opportunity to use their outstanding artistic and intellectual skills — we will vastly improve the world. And this is a cause worth supporting. We are ready for the fight and we ask you to please join us in the revolution and help us educate souls all over the world to “Remove the Stigma!”

Click here for the NKM2 site!