Marisa Tomei claims that she recently realized that she was never paid for the Judd Apatow-directed comedy The King of Staten Island. Marisa Tomei is a versatile actress who has the ability to shift effortlessly between smaller indie and arthouse movies and blockbuster hits. She has been nominated for three Oscars for The Wrestler, In the Bedroom, and My Cousin Vinny (for which she won Best Actress), and has most recently been seen as Aunt May in the box office juggernaut Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The King of Staten Island, which was shot in the summer of 2019, was one of the first major comedy films to be released on premium VOD during the period in mid-2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down theaters and productions across the globe. The film, which stars and was co-written by Pete Davidson, is a loosely autobiographical film about a down-on-his-luck aspiring tattoo artist in Staten Island. In the film, Marisa Tomei plays Margie Carlin, the mother of Pete Davidson’s character who has friction with him throughout the film.
Tomei recently told Rolling Stone that she discovered that she was never paid for her work on The King of Staten Island. She reached out to Pete Davidson to see if he had been paid, saying “I was like, ‘I never got paid for that. Did you? In this age of transparency, can we talk?” At the time of publication, he hadn’t gotten back to her. She graciously affirms that she had a “rollicking good time” making the film despite this issue.
Tomei went on to say that “[with] Judd’s approach to improv — which is extensive — I was intimidated. I’m with all these stand-ups. It was so freeing.” Apatow is well known for having a loose approach to the script, allowing actors to riff on their lines and add their own improvised material. His upcoming film, the Netflix meta pandemic comedy The Bubble, appears to be more structured and gag-focused, but it will likely feature much of the same approach.
Hopefully, this issue around The King of Staten Island payroll will be resolved quickly. Tomei, having recently appeared in a huge Marvel project, is somewhat insulated from the financial hardships of a pay delay like this. However, if an actor as prominent as Tomei experiences these issues, it’s likely that they have occurred at every level of the industry, including with people whose very livelihoods are at stake.
