Parade sat down with Debra Messing to discuss her latest role in 'The Alto Knights' alongside Robert De Niro's mob boss character.
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00:00we're sort of titillated to go and see Mafia movies.
00:03We sort of get to go and see, like, what life would be
00:07if we just didn't follow any rules at all.
00:11And then we get to walk out of the theater
00:13and just sort of say how great a human being we are,
00:16given that we're not in the Mafia.
00:24If you had told me at any point in my life
00:28that I would be playing a mob wife boss
00:31opposite Robert De Niro,
00:33I don't think I would have believed you.
00:36It's a dream come true.
00:37He was a gentleman.
00:39He made me feel welcome immediately.
00:42He was playful and funny.
00:45We improv'd, which blew my mind.
00:49He just started going off script,
00:51and I thought, oh my God,
00:52I am improv-ing with Robert De Niro.
00:55And it made the work more fun and more free.
01:00The whole experience was better
01:02than I ever could have imagined it being.
01:05I mean, he is the greatest of all time.
01:07I will absolutely be approaching my work differently
01:11now that I've had the opportunity to watch him
01:16and to act opposite him.
01:18You know, there is an effortlessness
01:21and a self-trust that he has
01:23that was so inspiring,
01:26and I hope that I can endow my work
01:30with just a little bit of that going forward.
01:33Oh, she's unlike anything I've ever been given
01:35the opportunity to sink my teeth into,
01:39and I will forever be grateful to Bob and Barry
01:43for choosing me to play his wife.
01:46The world of the Mafia is intriguing to everybody.
01:51These stories are very rich and colorful,
01:54and the characters are extreme.
01:56And what I loved about this was it's a true story.
01:59She was a real person,
02:01and there was a lot of source material.
02:03And she was unlike any other mob boss's wife
02:08of any of them.
02:09Most mob wives are home,
02:12taking care of the children
02:13and just keeping their mouths shut.
02:16And Bob and Frank couldn't have children.
02:20And so all of her attention was on Frank.
02:22He married her because she was so educated and intelligent,
02:26and he respected her.
02:28And so she was his consigliere.
02:31She guided him and gave him advice.
02:33He didn't always take it.
02:34She created a world where there was an uptown world
02:40that she loved to live in,
02:41where it was legitimate.
02:43They were part of society.
02:45They went to the Copacabana,
02:47and then he would go off to work downtown,
02:49and she would stay away.
02:51Because Frank never really resorted to violence,
02:56her concern for his safety was never an issue
03:00until, of course, Vito comes back to town.
03:02And that's the first time that they have to contend
03:07with how to keep them both safe.
03:10I did just think about the concept of loyalty
03:15and what it meant.
03:17Because the mafia world,
03:19they have very strict rules
03:21that dictate what loyalty means.
03:25And there are consequences if you don't follow those rules.
03:29It's very different than the civilized world
03:32and the rules that we have to follow.
03:35And in both cases, it's about just following the rules.
03:41I think that we're sort of titillated
03:43to go and see mafia movies
03:45because it is so extreme and so immoral
03:51and so outside the realm of what is acceptable behavior
03:59that we sort of get to go and see what life would be
04:03if we just didn't follow any rules at all.
04:07And then we get to walk out of the theater
04:09and just sort of say how great a human being we are,
04:12given that we're not in the mafia.
04:15She was older than me in this movie
04:18and she was a chronic smoker nonstop.
04:21So in order to age me,
04:24I really worked on sort of having that cigarette voice,
04:30and then bringing it down.
04:31That's what cigarettes do.
04:33And worked with the dialect coach.
04:36She was from Jewish Harlem
04:37and it had a very distinct dialect.
04:41And then of course,
04:42all of the most extraordinary costumes from that time.
04:47They gave me nails, red nails that were this long.
04:51I couldn't even open a banana.
04:52Stepping on that set really felt like
04:55I was stepping outside of myself and into a whole new world.
05:00And it's the most thrilling way
05:03to be able to experience telling a story.
05:08I'd like to say yes.
05:10I mean, she's loyal.
05:13She's trustworthy.
05:14She loves dogs.
05:16She's loving and playful.
05:18She's educated.
05:20And she is reasonable.
05:26She is good at looking at situations and analyzing things.
05:32And so I relate to those parts of her.
05:37Bobby was the only Jewish mob boss wife in history.
05:41It was foreboding for them to,
05:44for interfaith marriage at the time.
05:46And the fact that they got married anyway
05:49showed me how deep their love was
05:52and how strong their characters were
05:56because they were willing to push against the tide
05:59in order to be together.
06:01You know, I am Jewish.
06:02And it was very important to me
06:04that a Jew was able to play this Jewish character.
06:08There are not a lot of great Jewish women characters
06:13that are really rich.
06:16You know, it's usually comic relief.
06:19And so to see this opportunity,
06:22I felt that she had a dignity and a strength
06:27and an intellect and a softness
06:30that I really, I just really loved.
06:36And I loved showing this particular Jewish woman.
06:40At first I was going to say the wedding date,
06:44but I actually think it was a movie, Mothman Prophecy.
06:48It was a drama and I played Richard Gere's wife.
06:52And it was based on a true story and Laura Linney was in it.
06:55And it was a very, very dark drama.
06:59And that was the very, very first time
07:02while doing Will & Grace
07:04and being in this raucous, funny world
07:08that I stepped into something very, very, very dark
07:12and realized that there were challenges there
07:16that I wanted to work on
07:19that were different than the challenges of comedy.