Marisa Tomei fought hard for her Aunt May role in "Spider-Man" – but when she learned
who Aunt May was, and how old she usually is, she was horrified.
Here's everything you might not know about her fascinating career.
Marisa Tomei was born in Brooklyn, New York.
She got into acting early, telling RoundAbout Theatre that her technical training included
plenty of non-acting sources and inspirations, including "literature, feminist studies, spiritual
texts" and tap dancing.
Things really kicked off for Tomei as an actress when she made the decision to drop out of
college and pursue acting full time.
She told NPR in 2010 that while most people associate her first role with her time on
the soap opera "As The World Turns," she actually earned a small part in the movie "The Flamingo
Kid" first.
As she explained, she filmed "The Flamingo Kid" in the summer between classes and then
asked her parents what she should do.
Tomei says,
"I talked with my parents about it, and my mom ... said stay in school, and my father
said, take this chance.
And so I took the chance."
Obviously, that choice worked out.
As fans of "A Different World" know, Marisa Tomei co-starred alongside Lisa Bonet on the
series.
Their characters were roommates on the show, and it turns out the arrangement mirrored
their real-life living situation.
The twosome really hit it off, and Tomei is godmother to all three of Bonet's children.
Both Bonet and Tomei eventually left the show, though for very different reasons.
As actress Dawnn Lewis told Vanity Fair, Bonet's departure was personal, with the actress being
pregnant with her first daughter, Zoe Kravitz.
The show creators didn't want to write the pregnancy in, and Tomei was asked to leave
after the show shifted direction.
According to Lewis,
"[The creators] wanted to go in a different direction culturally, which meant Marisa was
also gone.
She and Lisa are incredible women, and they were so much fun to work with.
It was sad for me — because we had started this journey together — for them to not
be there anymore."
Whatever might have happened behind the scenes, Tomei seems to have a lot of fond memories
of the show.
In 2019, Tomei told HipHollywood that filming the show was "one of the most fun times [of
her] life."
When Marisa Tomei landed the role of Mona Lisa Vito in 1992's "My Cousin Vinny," she
probably didn't realize that the role would land her an Academy Award.
While chatting with The Guardian in 2017, Tomei shed a little light on how she got the
role, explaining,
"It's such a funny movie and it really holds up.
I was fresh to the business and didn't know how movies worked but Joe Pesci chose me for
the part, then took me by the hand and guided me immensely, so I got very lucky."
Since that win, Tomei has been nominated for the same award twice more.
She told the publication that it often feels like she's a, quote, "leading actress caught
in a supporting actress vortex," implying that she certainly believes she has the acting
chops for weightier roles.
In addition to her time on "A Different World," Marisa Tomei also had experience on other
television shows, including the beloved comedy series, "Seinfeld."
Tomei appeared in a two-episode arc titled "The Cadillac" in Season 7, playing herself
as the love interest of George Costanza.
"Yeah, I have a thing for Marisa Tomei.
Like she would ever go out with a short, stocky bald man.
Like that's her type.
She's an Oscar winner!"
Tomei later told The Guardian that she ended up on the show because the team really liked
her name.
No, really!
She says,
"They just liked the way my name sounded.
Larry David told me: 'When you say your name over and over, it has a really strong rhythm:
Marisa Tomei ... Marisa Tomei.'"
For her part, Tomei was happy to do the show alongside friend Jason Alexander, saying that
whenever they bump into each other, they still talk about the experience.
After "Seinfeld," Tomei enjoyed another television role, though this time she was an animated
addition to "The Simpsons."
In the episode, Tomei plays a film star who has her sights set on Ned Flanders.
"You don't know who I am, do you?"
"I sure do – you're the most important person in the world because you're my customer."
In 2001, Marisa Tomei joined the cast of "In The Bedroom."
Unlike many of her films, she didn't have a lot of time to prepare.
As she told The GW Hatchet, director Todd Field called her up, gave her the role, and
then told her she had three days to create the character.
And what a character she was!
In the movie, Tomei stars as a divorced mom of two who has accidentally played a role
in the death of her ex-boyfriend.
Tomei admits that she was worried about putting the role together, but Field found a local
woman with a similar backstory who was willing to share her life to help Tomei create the
character she wanted.
She told The GW Hatchet that this kind of work is part of the job for her.
Tomei explained, quote, "To be an actor you are incredibly vulnerable and you are opening
yourself up."
Clearly, something worked, because she was subsequently nominated for the Oscar for best
supporting actress for a second time for this role.
Seven years later, Tomei took on Darron Aronofsky's "The Wrestler."
This time around, she was playing character who was new to her in a whole different way:
A single mom and sex worker who had a lot of nude scenes.
She found herself nominated for the best supporting actress prize again, though a win for Tomei
wasn't in the cards that year either.
After being recommended by former co-star (and ex-boyfriend) Robert Downey Jr, Marisa
Tomei took on the role of Aunt May in the Tom Holland-driven "Spider-Man" films.
"I have to tell you: Not a fan of that Tony Stark."
Tomei told The Guardian that the experience of working with Marvel is a little like the
days of old Hollywood, explaining,
"It's so old-fashioned in a way: proper spectacle, gloriously larger than life.
'Spider-Man' comes with fervent fans and intense scrutiny.
They keep the script so secret, you have to give back your pages at the end of the day."
Tomei has admitted that when she was first approached for the role, she was focused on
negotiating a great deal with Marvel — and she had no idea how Aunt May has been portrayed
in the past, as a significantly older woman.
She told the New York Times that seeing the illustration of her character, who Marvel
kept praising as being "iconic," crushed her.
Fortunately, this Aunt May is younger and more vibrant, with a hugely influential role
in Peter Parker's life.
Despite that, it seems that when it comes to her family, the only person who really
cares that Tomei is in a "Spider-Man" movie is her six-year-old nephew.
In 2019, Marisa Tomei returned to her theatrical roots when she performed in "The Rose Tattoo."
At the time, Tomei told Roundabout Theatre that she took on the role to hopefully bring
some light to the world.
As she put it,
"I think it's important to do this play now because the play's mysticism and poetry are
extremely uplifting, especially in the context of the intense grief in our world right now."
Tomei also enjoyed the role because it allowed her to lean into her Italian roots.
The actress is a quarter Sicilian, but as she told the theatre company, that lineage
wasn't always celebrated at home.
She added,
"Through this play, I reclaimed Sicily and a part of my mother's lineage."
Tomei also teamed up with Oscar Isaac when the pair performed a reading of "Beirut" a
one-act play, via Zoom in April 2020.
In 2020, Marisa Tomei took on the role of mother to Pete Davidson's character in the
semi-biographical film, "The King of Staten Island."
She told Vogue that the part definitely required some research, and she was lucky that she
could tap into the mind and heart of Pete's actual mom, Amy Davidson.
Tomei admitted that she called Amy up quite a few times to understand how she was so patient
with Pete in real life, adding,
"I could not wrap my head around how patient she is, but she's a very different person
than I am."
Pete admitted to the magazine that Tomei was the first and only person that the team had
in mind for the role, saying,
"I wanted her to do whatever she wanted because she's amazing and brings so much to the table."
Taking the role was a curious choice for Tomei, as around the same time period she lamented
making the decision to Collider, saying that she's not sure taking on "mom roles" was the
best idea.
As she put it,
"I really regret starting down this road and I really regret starting to do that.
I was, you know, talked into it ... that change, and I really always felt like, 'Oh, I could
play a lot of things.'"
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