Dominic Sessa says his Tony biopic performance draws on Anthony Bourdain’s kitchen era and ‘kitchen bully’ reality

Dominic Sessa, whose 2023 breakout in The Holdovers brought him to wider attention, is again centering the 1970s in his next stretch of work, this time as part of Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic. In an Aug. 7 interview with The Guardian, the New Jersey-born actor described wanting to stay in the decade, saying it has become a familiar territory for him even though he is only 23.

Sessa’s comments connect his recent rise to a broader thematic interest in the world Bourdain helped define, both as a chef and as the author of Kitchen Confidential. The film places him in the role of Tony, with the project looking back on the period when Bourdain, as portrayed in the film’s framing, was navigating a culinary scene defined by tough work routines and sharp interpersonal dynamics, according to the interview’s description.

The Guardian report focuses on what Sessa sees as the tension between the surface culture of kitchens and the harsher conduct that can unfold inside them. Sessa, describing “kitchen bully” behavior, said the competitive, sometimes brutal interactions among cooks were a central part of the reality he wanted to capture, characterizing it as something cooks did to one another rather than something external imposed on them.

Asked about the appeal of playing Bourdain, Sessa also highlighted what he described as the joys of being a 1970s barfly, leaning into the social atmosphere surrounding nightlife and hospitality that shaped the decade’s personalities. Rather than presenting the kitchen solely as a workplace, the interview suggests he was trying to reflect the era’s blend of camaraderie, attitude, and social pressure.

The Guardian piece frames Sessa’s attraction to the time period as both artistic and immersive. The actor said that, even as a younger performer, he had developed an intimacy with the decade, and he expressed a desire to keep working in that setting. The report also notes that his filmography remains relatively brief, stating that he has starred in five films, with two of them in the period leading up to his more prominent visibility after The Holdovers.

While the interview does not provide a detailed release timetable in the Guardian’s summary, it situates Sessa’s Tony work as the next step following his mainstream breakthrough. It also places his performance approach within a larger media conversation about how Bourdain’s public persona grew out of an environment that could be intense, judgmental, and unforgiving.

For audiences, the project’s premise matters because it revisits a culinary subculture that Bourdain described in his writing, using a narrative form that can translate memoir and journalism into screen character and dialogue. For the industry, it illustrates how “kitchen realism” continues to be a draw for mainstream film, with productions leaning into the social dynamics that define how workers relate under pressure rather than focusing only on food.

The Guardian interview is likely to keep attention on how Tony chooses to portray labor and workplace culture in the culinary world, particularly the interpersonal conflicts Sessa described. As more coverage emerges, the key question for viewers will be how closely the film’s depiction of kitchen bullying and era-specific nightlife matches Bourdain’s own documented accounts and the broader historical record, rather than any simplified cinematic version of chef life.