Dominic Sessa spent a muggy June afternoon over a burger and fries in New York, wearing a New York Rangers cap and talking through why he did not want to become the face of a project right after his breakout. The 23-year-old now plays a teenage Anthony Bourdain in Tony, the forthcoming A24 biopic that pushes him into a lead role after The Holdovers.
Sessa said, "I was offered these big projects where I’d be number one on the call sheet." He added, "My priority was: Get on another set, surround yourself with as many great actors as you can, but don’t be the face of the project."
The Holdovers after 2023
2023 is the pivot point here. The Holdovers made Sessa a breakout and brought a Critics Choice Award for best young actor, but he chose smaller parts in Tow and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t instead of jumping straight into another top-billed job. In industry terms, that is a deliberate career reset: more set time, less pressure, and a cleaner transition into leading-man work without forcing the issue.
Antonio Banderas connects Dominic Sessa to Tony’s $0 biopic setup sits behind the film’s development, but the practical takeaway is simpler. Sessa spent the post-breakout stretch positioning himself for range, not status, and Tony is the first project that makes that choice visible.
Anthony Bourdain and skepticism
Sessa did not sell Tony as easy material. "Generally, [there was] that skepticism of, this is a biopic about Anthony Bourdain," he said, and he added, "I feel skeptical about it myself." He still concluded, "But for a lot of different reasons it felt like the right story to tell about the right person." That is the pressure point for the film: it has to justify telling Bourdain’s life in a form he himself might have dismissed.
Bourdain’s own blunt standard gives the project its yardstick. In a 2003 episode of A Cook’s Tour at Corner Bistro, he asked, "What is one looking for in bar food?" and answered, "Well, you want it simple." He continued, "You know, I don’t want a tower of foie gras with microgreens here." Then came the line that still defines the mood of the scene: "I want blood and grease on my fingers and chin."
Eric Ripert and Tony
Eric Ripert backs Dominic Sessa’s turn as teenage Anthony Bourdain, and that support fits the logic of the casting. Tony is not trying to imitate the later public version of Bourdain from Parts Unknown; it is reaching back to the wayward college kid phase that Sessa is playing. That narrows the story to a more defensible slice of the life, which is usually where a biopic earns its keep.
The open question is how Tony will handle everything after that teenage period. For now, Sessa has already done the harder part: he moved from winning for The Holdovers to taking on a role that invites scrutiny before the release even lands.
