His people — yes, it seems all Hollywood types have people — contacted the newspaper earlier this month, saying Pantoliano would be available for an in-person interview July 25. If we were interested, his time range was from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. We responded quickly, saying 1 p.m. would work perfectly for us.
We were quickly informed 10:30 a.m. would work better for Pantoliano, leaving me to wonder why we were given a time range in the first place. It was also a potential sign Pantoliano’s people might turn out to be more headache than necessary. In the end, nothing was further from the truth.
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Pantoliano was in New Orleans and Baton Rouge Thursday representing No Kidding, Me Too! in conjunction with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which released a report last week on hundreds of mental illness medicines being tested in human clinical trials or waiting FDA approval.
PhRMA provided the stats, which include more than 300 medicines in development to treat mental disorders, and Pantoliano provided the punch.
The 56-year-old actor held nothing back in talking about his lifelong battles with depression. In a 40-minute, wide-ranging interview Friday in New Iberia, Pantoliano openly discussed how his best friend, the man who married him and his wife, committed suicide two days after the men shared a laugh on the phone. Pantoliano went on to describe how his mother, an undiagnosed bipolar sufferer, was the daughter of an alcoholic. He said that led to a dysfunctional childhood that plunged him into a lifetime of depression. He didn’t seek treatment for his mental illness until after his friend’s suicide.
“The greatest thing that has ever happened to me has being been diagnosed with clinical depression, brain disease,” Pantoliano said. “I have been able to get everything I really wanted back.”
The most interesting part of the Pantoliano interview wasn’t that he was so open with his story, but the way in which he conveyed his story.
Actors are paid to perform and Pantoliano’s résumé includes more than 120 television and film roles, but that doesn’t always mean they are perfect pitch men. However, Pantoliano is the perfect pitchman for his cause of No Kidding, Me Too!
During our interview, he never sat still. Wearing his trademark flat cap backwards and fancy cowboy boots, the actor known to some as “Joey Pants” performed as much as spoke. He was entertainingly profane as he pulled no punches in discussing his own battles with alcohol and female addiction.
He was open to suggestion, asking many times for help with the perfect word that would finish his thought. He stopped during the interview to compliment Daily Iberian photographer Bill Smith’s photos, which were hanging on the conference room wall.
For 40 minutes he made our conference room his bar room. He made the water bottles on the table seem like a couple of beers and the four men around the room seem like old buddies at a laid back barbecue.
In the end, he delivered a message of hope, asking why is it there is no shame in Viagra television commercials, but people are still hesitant to talk about depression?
“In order to get recovery, more than anything else, you have to eliminate the shame,” Pantoliano said.
It’s obvious to me Pantoliano is a great actor but the 40 minutes I spent with him was no show.
STEPHEN HEMET is city editor for The Daily Iberian. He can be reached at stephen.hemelt@daily-iberian.com.
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