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New York Post
Anthony Bourdain biopic in the works — here’s who’s rumored to play the late chef
By Lauren Sarner,
6 hours ago
He’s got no reservations.
Dominic Sessa, the breakout star of the Oscar-winning movie “The Holdovers,” is in talks to play legendary chef and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain in a biopic that will be called “Tony,” according to Deadline .
A24 is reportedly in talks to produce the project.
Sessa, 21, rose to fame in “The Holdovers” playing Angus Tully, a boarding school student left at his school over Christmas break while classics teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) was forced to chaperone. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who co-starred as cafeteria manager and grieving mother Mary Lamb, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the film.
Bourdain in front of his restaurant in 2000. David Rentas/New York Post Dominic Sessa at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Variety via Getty Images
At present, it hasn’t been announced what era of Bourdain’s life “Tony” will cover or how many years it will span.
There’s a lot of ground to cover, even if it’s focusing on his younger years.
Bourdain grew up in Manhattan and New Jersey, with a record exec father and a New York Times editor mother, and worked at various seafood restaurants in Provincetown, Massachusetts, before attending the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and running various restaurants in New York City.
Sessa could play that era of Bourdain’s life.
His best-selling book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” was published in 2000.
Bourdain had a colorful life. Tamara Beckwith/New York Post
Sessa at the 14th Governors Awards. Variety via Getty Images
In 2005, Bourdain divorced his first wife, high school sweetheart Nancy Putkoski. He met restaurant manager Ottavia Busia not long after, and the two tied the knot and welcomed a daughter, Ariane, in 2007 before separating in 2016.
“Tony got really famous,” celeb restaurateur David Chang said in the 2021 documentary “Roadrunner,” which shows Chang and Bourdain commiserating about feeling isolated and distant from old friends.
“It was just an incessant, nonstop barrage.”
Other friends and colleagues in that film recall Bourdain saying he was becoming agoraphobic and his life was getting “smaller and smaller” because he couldn’t be out in public.
Sessa (from left), Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in a scene from “The Holdovers.” AP
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