7/28/2019 Lorraine Bracco interview

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EDITORIALROUTTNG 5-18-9sTO: ENTERTAINMENT'Scam' artistBracco's latest role was a sweatBy Frank Lovece

You go into an interview with Lor-raine Bracco fully expecting a street-wise sounding Brooklyn girl with alot of "dese," "dem" and "dose" in hertawk, um, talk.And actually, that's pretty muchwhat you get."Yee-ehh," Bracco says endearing-ly, with a throaty patois located some-where between Bugs Bunny andBeverly Hills. "I tawked a lot with theMiami police about tons'a con womenlike this," she says of Maggie Rohrer,the grifter she plays in the Showtimemovie "Scam," premiering May 22and repeating May 27 on the cablenetwork. "She's a real sorta charac-ter. There really are women like that.I didn't get t'tawk t'any of them, butthe police showed me all these fileswith things like the Rolex scam," acon that Maggie pulls involving thatexpensive brand of watch."The movie is true-to-life," Braccoavows. "l mean, I don't know if anyex-FBI agents ever hook up withthese women," she adds with a laugh,referring to co-star ChristopherWalken's character, "but there ya go."And there she is. With her large,expressive eyes, Bracco is prettier inperson than she often is on thescreen, where she deliberately down-plays her looks to play feisty NewYork women like mob wife Karen Hillin "GoodFellas" (1990) - for whichshe earned an Oscar nomination - orEllie Keegan in "Someone to WatchOver Me" (1987) - where she wallopedphilandering husband Tom Berenger ina scene that women sfiil stop her onthe street and commend her for, shesays.Bracco, 38, has a bit of that pep-pery persona herself, having beenraised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, andWestbury, Long Island, the middlechild of a Manhattan fish wholesalerand a British war bride - a combi-nation that seems to account for her

aura of refined toughness. Both as-pects helped her endure the harriedproduction schedule - twosweltering months in Miami and Ja-maica, with only, she swears, a singleday off."lt was a very ambitious script,"Bracco says guardedly. "The wholelast scene was shot in one day that

'l don't know what itis you got, kid, but IIike you.'started at 4 (in the afternoon) anddidn't finish until 9 or so the nextmorning. I mean, we're shooting andshooting, and the sun came up, andthen it was high in the sky!"Nor was it exactly a Caribbean won-derland. "Jamaica was beautiful,"Bracco affirms, "but it was hot, and aworse type of heat there and in Miamithan in the Mexico rain forest wherewe did'Medicine Man,"'her 1992 filmwith Sean Connery" "In Mexico it hit117 in shade, but at least the airwasn't pollufed, y'know?" And as fornative Jamaican dishes like jerk pork,"It was delicious - but not after threedays 1 "Yet even when she's grousing,there's something likable aboutBracco. "People keep saying that,"she nods, launching into an anecdoteabout Wilhelmina, the late modelingagency head who gave Bracco herprofessional start at 16. "That veryfirst day in her office, Willie told me,'I don't know what it is you got, kid,but I like you."'So did Europe, where Wilhelminasent Bracco three years later, in astandard career move for untradi-

tional-looking models. Bracco, who'dappeared in the pages of magazinessuch as Seventeen and Teen, nowgraced the likes of Elle. Thrown intoa Cinderella whirlwind, she studiedacting, appeared in a couple ofmovies, produced a TV fashion spe-cial on France's Antenne 2, was a DJfor Radio Luxembourg, and met, mar-ried and divorced a hair stylist andsalon-owner with whom she had adaughter, Margeaux Guerard, nowt4.The collapse of that three-yearmarriage was the low point of a lifethat had become, Bracco once said,"a Jackie Collins novel of lies and pet-tiness." Sometime thereafter, shemet actor Haruey Keitel at a party,and returned to the United States.She and Keitel married in the mid-'B0s and separated in 1991; they havea 7-year-old daughter, Stella. She'ssince been dating actor EdwardJames Olmos, with whom she starredin "Talent for the Game" (1991).With two upcoming movies - GusVan Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get theBlues" and Bill Forsyth's "BeingHuman" - Bracco remains a busy ac,5tress. And a busy pet-owner as well."Yee-ehh," she says, "we justbought a couple of rabbits" for herfarm in upstate New York. Pets forthe kids? "And f'me, tool" she de-clares, with a major chuckle. "What,you kiddin'?"

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