Live to Tell the Story
“There’s so much little time in the day, and every day, you get older, and there’s so much I wanna accomplish before my life is over,” says Peter Facinelli, who made his directorial debut on Breaking & Exiting released literally the day before. It’s a Saturday late afternoon in mid-August.
He just flew into New York City in the midst of the movie promo cycle, and looks a bit exhausted since his flight got delayed. “Film and television are a director’s medium because as an actor, you come in and do your part and you give it over to the director, and as a writer, you give it over to the director so it’s really the director’s vision, and the director is telling the story, visually. I’ve been acting for almost 25 years now and I’ve given my work over to other people, so I know how hard that is to trust the director. Sometimes, it works out, and sometimes it doesn't, but it’s not in your control so I wanted to be able to have the control over telling the story visually myself,” he comments on the new role as a director. “I had 3 female producers, 2 women that were producers Martine [Melloul] and Cecile [Cubilo], and then Jordan Hinson who wrote the script was also one of the producers. I felt very comfortable and felt at home being around them because it reminded me of having 3 sisters,” says Facinelli, who grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, which was, according to him, “an interesting neighborhood because it was very Italian-American but also had Hispanic mixtures, as well. My 3 best friends were Cuban. It was like West Side Story that they kind of beat the crap out of each other but I was friends with both sides. And, my 4th best friend was Puerto Rican.” (Facinelli is first-generation American, having a dual citizenship and 2 passports: “I grew a little mustache and put my hair back for my Italian passport so it’s been fun.”)
Although you may see him pop up everywhere (e.g., border-crossing drug-trade thriller Running with the Devil, indie comedy The Wilde Wedding, award-winning indie director Chris Sivertson’s Heartthrob, Timothy Woodward Jr.’s 1920’s mobster pic Gangster Land, Michael Caton-Jones’ thriller Asher, NBC’s drama American Odyssey, Showtime’s hit dramedy Nurse Jackie, CBS’s S.W.A.T.), born to Italian-immigrant parents, it took a while for Facinelli to pursue an acting career – believe it or not. “Telling my parents I wanted to be an actor was like telling them I was gonna go to Mars, asking to be the first astronaut to go to Mars. I was just a kid from Queens that nobody in Queens was an actor that I knew. And, I was also very shy when I was younger, very painfully shy, actually. It was very nerve-racking being around people but I found acting to be something that helped me to get over my shyness because if I could play a character, nobody was looking at me so I found freedom in that. And when my parents said what I wanted to be, I said an actor and they laughed, so next time they said what I wanted to be, I said a lawyer and the family was impressed so I went to St. John's University and I studied pre-law, and then I took an acting 101 class and I quite enjoyed it so I transferred to NYU and I studied theatre there, and my parents said, ‘Why do you wanna study theatre?’ And I said, ‘Because I’m shy so I need acting classes to speak in front of the jury,’” he shares with a laugh. “But they didn’t know any better because they were both from Italy so they didn't know that you didn’t need acting classes to be a lawyer. So I ended up studying acting at NYU, and I got my first job before I even graduated and then I just kept working after.”
Facinelli started the production company A7SLE Films in 2010 – originally named Facinelli Films. “I just changed the name maybe a year or two after I formed my company. I just didn’t want it to feel like a vanity company so I thought, rather than having my name in the company, I’d rather have a name for the company,” he explains. “I worked in a grocery store when I was younger, and I worked in aisle 7 so I wanted to be able to remember my roots as a hard worker then, and I’d like to consider myself a hard worker now.”
“I have a lot of love and respect for women. And, growing up with 3 sisters, I saw how powerful women are.”
“I love storytelling, so for me, when I am an actor, I tell the story through a character. And when I write, I create the story. When I direct, I get to tell that story in a visual medium. When I produce, I get to bring people together to help create the story but all of it is a form of storytelling. I just love stories. When I was a kid, my dad used to tell me bedtime stories. Every time he finished the story, he said, ‘You liked that story?’ And I said, ‘That was the best story I’ve ever heard.’ So I just grew up loving stories, and now I am very fortunate that I get to tell the stories and I get to do it through different mediums so I don’t think I’ll ever give up acting, I don’t think I’ll ever give up writing. I don’t think I’ll ever give up producing,” he confidently shares. “There are some things that I produce that I don’t act in. But if there’s one I direct that I feel like maybe there’s a role in it that I could help the project with, then I would do it. It really is a matter of what’s best for that project, not what’s best for me.”
On a side note, in addition to his own upbringing, Facinelli is a father of 3 daughters. So I ask for his thoughts on the “zero tolerance” immigration policy. “I don't think parents should ever be separated from their children for any reason, especially since right now I’ve heard that they are having a hard time putting them back together. Children should never be penalized for anything, you know. And, losing one’s parents can be the hardest thing for a child, I mean, I don’t know how you, or why or, I don’t understand why that would happen. I really don't,” he answers, unconsciously changing the topic to gender-equality issues. “In the house I grew up in, there were a lot of females because I had my mom, my grandmother, and my 3 sisters. My dad worked 6 days a week so I saw him once a week, pretty much. So now, I’m in a house full of women again because I have 3 daughters. But you know, I have a lot of love and respect for women. And, growing up with 3 sisters, I saw how powerful women are.” Only because he gets very passionate, I ask him to further elaborate. “I have 3 daughters and I want them to live in a world where it’s equal. I don’t ever look down upon a woman because I was raised by women so I’ve always seen them as equal and even stronger and smarter in some cases. In the world itself and Hollywood, there is inequality that has happened in the past, and that needs to get changed. I was watching a documentary called Women in Film, and I didn't realize women were a lot more prevalent in the silent-film era. They had a lot more female writers, a lot more female directors. A lot of men were off at war so women were the ones actually making movies. And then, somehow the shift changed and erased the history of those women. I’m glad to see that it’s starting to become more equal. I think there’s still a ways to go but because I have 3 daughters, I want that, you know,” he continues, somehow getting back on topic and chuckling. “I’d like to see more women in power in the government, too. I’d like to see a female president. We’ve had men running things for way too long. Females are mothers, they take care of things, and men don’t have the pain tolerance that women have. You can take down a man with just a swift kick between their legs whereas a woman is passing like something the size of a small watermelon through her legs. The pain level and tolerance are a lot different. Look, I’d like to see a future where there’s a female president. The Earth needs a mother right now to take care of it because we are destroying it.”
Writer: Eiko Watanabe
Photographer: Ron Contarsy (for Highmark Studios)
Contributing Fashion Editor: Ty-Ron Mayes
Men’s Grooming: Anthony Isambert (using Stila Cosmetics & Bed Head by TIGI)
Videographer: Sarkis Delimelkon
Editorial Assistant: Mike Varius
Special thanks to Comprehensive Hospitality Solutions
