When I signed onto a video interview with the stars of the new Netflix release “Nonnas,” the conversation was already in progress. Brenda Vaccaro, best known for her work in “Midnight Cowboy” and “Once Is Not Enough,” was raving about the film, directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on the true story of Enoteca Maria, a restaurant in Staten Island where the kitchen is run by older women.
“This is my Jimmy Stewart movie,” Vaccaro said in between effusive praise.
I wondered if I was ever going to get a word in edgewise.
Eventually, I was able to greet the group, which includes Vaccaro, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire and Susan Sarandon. The veteran actresses, whose credits include “The Godfather,” “Goodfellas” and “Thelma & Louise,” all play the movie’s nonnas, who are recruited to cook Italian American delicacies by Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn), an M.T.A. worker mourning his own mother. Bracco is a brash Sicilian named Roberta whose specialty is a stuffed lamb’s head called capuzzelle. She fights with Vaccaro’s Antonella, loyal to her Bolognese heritage, over which region has the better traditions. Sarandon is the glamorous pastry guru and hair stylist Gia, while Shire is a nun who left the convent to pursue her dreams. (Not all the nonnas here have grandchildren.)
With the women, who have nine Oscar nominations between them, gathered on a call, they riffed on their history with one another, their cooking skills, aging in Hollywood and the movies that their grandchildren cannot yet watch. Below are edited excerpts.
Did you know each other before getting cast?
LORRAINE BRACCO: Oh, yes. I knew Brenda. I knew Susan. Talia was the newbie.
TALIA SHIRE: But I met Brenda years and years and years and years ago. Really years ago.
BRENDA VACCARO: Oh my God. Like we didn’t believe the “reallys” before that?
Where did you meet?
SHIRE: I dare not say. I can say. She came with her then boyfriend to look at my brother’s house to rent. And that was way, way back with Michael Douglas.
Your brother, Francis (Ford Coppola)?
SHIRE: Yes, he was renting his house and they walked in, young lovers, to rent a house. But they didn’t take it. I remember that.
Your boyfriend at the time was Michael Douglas, Brenda?
SHIRE: Oh my God, what did I say?
VACCARO: Nothing, darling, you just said the past. It’s fine.
What was your reaction to the fact that you all would be working together?
SUSAN SARANDON: You usually don’t get to work with women. Maybe there’ll be one older, one younger and they hate each other just because one’s older and one’s younger. You want to be in something where people come to the set and they’re prepared, and they not only are prepared, but they have ideas. And everybody in this cast is really tried and true. I’m just making up for lost time on not being able to have more women in my life in films. Vince was also really sweet as the token male.
BRACCO: Very tall male.
What are your relationships to Italian American cooking?
BRACCO: I cook. I eat.
VACCARO: I’ll sit and eat anything somebody cooks me, and I’ll praise them. That’s about as far as I go. I stopped cooking, for some reason, at some point. I guess my mother was better than I could ever be.
SARANDON: My mom was Sicilian, but she was raised in orphanages and things like that. She didn’t have a mom, so she didn’t land with cooking skills, and then had nine children. But we ate a lot of pasta, and I definitely gravitate toward Italian food.
SHIRE: My mother was brilliant. I don’t compare to the men in my family, except for my father. He never got the sand off the mussels.
BRACCO: Well, my dad worked in the Fulton Fish Market. He would have been able to help him.
So what was it like doing all the cooking scenes?
BRACCO: I would eat my way through whatever was put on the table. I saw Brenda follow that theme. We had great guys to cook. Everything was delicious. And I was laughing at times. I said, “Well, we ate all of that. I hope you have more in the back.”
SHIRE: Food was good. And Susan was in charge of the cannolis and I love filling. So I would go over to her station and I would steal all the filling.
SARANDON: There was a line that I had that unfortunately was cut, which I was sad about. When they’re fighting, I said, “Passionate people make passionate food.” What saves the day especially, Brenda and Lorraine fighting so much, is that it comes from a place of passion, not hostility. That’s why you still love them as much as you do, because you can see that really what they’re fighting about is that they feel so passionately about their specific Italian heritage, and having the food be the best it could possibly be.
VACCARO: I have to add that the passion about the head of the cow was fabulous.
BRACCO: It was a goat.
VACCARO: I thought I was going to throw up.
I thought it was a lamb.
VACCARO: It was a lamb. I don’t know what it was, but its eyes were staring at me and I was like, “How did this happen?” I was beside myself for a couple of seconds.
BRACCO: My favorite was Talia because she always got all the meat to cook, and she’s a die-hard vegetarian.
SHIRE: That’s why I went and I stole the filling from the cannolis.
How do you see “Nonnas” fitting into the legacy of Italian American cinema?
SARANDON: I think that this is the movie that my sisters would like. They don’t want to see anybody in harm’s way. They don’t want anything too tragic. When I went to the actual restaurant, some of the original nonnas were there. There was a woman who when I was sitting down was as tall as I was. She was just this little bitty thing. But there were also a couple of nonnas of different nationalities fixing their dishes and I think that’s also really important. What we’re saying is that, in so many cultures, the grandmothers carry on the traditions that have been established, and it’s kind of fabulous to see them collaborating in this restaurant.
BRACCO: I love the fact that my grandchildren can watch this movie and have a giggle. I’ve made a lot of very harsh movies, which they have not been allowed to see.
SHIRE: For me, also, the story that a son could love his mother and want to honor her through the table. I don’t think one of my sons will ever honor me with anything I’ve ever cooked, let me tell you. Not in this house. Because I’m terrible, I have to tell you that. But in the story, I felt it was a very moving thing.
Lorraine, your grandchildren are not watching “Goodfellas” yet?
BRACCO: They’re 11 and 6, and the baby is 17 months. No, they’re not watching “Goodfellas.” We’re not watching “Sopranos.”
Have any of your grandchildren been able to see some of your most famous work?
SHIRE: My grandson saw “Rocky.” He became very into that movie. And then he was nicer to me, too, after that.
What is it like to have younger generations discovering your work?
SARANDON: I’m very grateful for what I got to do because I don’t think most of those movies could be made today because of the way that the studios have changed their structure. There’s no such thing as a $20 million movie anymore. So you get these little indie ones, or you get these huge, monstrosity, legacy, all those comic book things and everything, but the medium ones don’t exist.
SHIRE: I’m in Los Angeles, and I still remember when there was a film community. There were the wonderful people who made props or the great musicians that were here that were at the sound stages. I miss that sense of community, ideas that were shared. That’s faded away, and that worries me.
BRACCO: The sequel, the sequel, the sequel, the sequel. Only Francis was allowed to do sequels, OK?
SHIRE: And that was the best, I mean, I’m going to say it. Can I say it? Because he’s my brother. “Godfather II.” We took it to this next level.
What does it mean to be playing nonnas at this phase in your careers?
BRACCO: A good role is a good role no matter how old we are. I didn’t really think twice about the age thing. And yes, I am what I am. I’m 70 years old.
SARANDON: We were also very lucky because Hedy Lamarr, the most beautiful woman in the world, was thrown out at 40. And now female actors are lasting a lot longer.
VACCARO: I also think, Susan, it has to do with bravery. It’s just being brave enough.
BRACCO: I think it’s brave just to get up every [expletive] morning.
SHIRE: Thank you. Boy, it hurts more to get up.
