going by nicolo, speaking only eye-talian in my first feature film role, and pretending billyburg is italy.

Got to film a few scenes this past week in an indie feature directed by award winning filmmaker and composer,  Sasha Gordon.  Played Dezi, a grumpy photographer, and shared my scenes with two of the film's leads, former NYU classmates from back in the day  Danny DeFerarri and Cristin Milioti. More info to come on that.

but if i may for a second.

This was another gig in a trend of gigs this summer making use of my italian fluency.  
After years of going by "Nic" professionally and not pursuing hiding my italian roots  in fear that certain types of roles would be barred from me, (despite the fact that I am rather adept at most accents), I've taken back my name and so much work has come forward because of it. I'm proud to be going by Nicolo professionally now and not making myself be so easy for people. 

I am many things, and I am not ashamed of any bit of my recipe.  
I am complex, and because of it, I bring quite a lot to the table.  It does not make me a risk, it makes me an asset.  

Sono Italo-Americano. Sono orgoglioso.
and I'm so much more, 
you just have to take the time.

"sharper than ever the air remaining, you must breathe. breathe and be you."
-from one of my favorite poets, Paul Celan, whose poems I once recorded in Italian.

also

"I am large. I contain multitudes."
-Walt Whitman

also, this is the quote tattooed on my back, in case you've ever wondered:

"If you do not need to hear my thought, because you can read it in my face and behavior, then I will tell it you from sunrise to sunset. If you cannot divine it, you would not understand what I say. I will not molest myself for you. I do not wish to be profaned."
-From my hero Ralph Waldo Emerson and his essay the Transcendentalist