**COLLINA STRADA** top and **BVLGARI** necklace.

A world marred by tragedy after tragedy, there is something to be said for the healing potential of cinema. To be fully immersed in another universe, to leave behind the troubles and minutiae of the day-to-day for just a few hours is a passport out of mundanity. This has been a triumph of modern times, a unifier of people from all walks of life. Though nowadays, it’s rarer to find a film that exudes pure joy and truly lets the audience slip away.

Marisa Tomei wants to return to the grandiosity and spectacle and innate goodness of the big screen. The Spider-Man: No Way Home actor, 57, fell under the spell of Hollywood in her youth by watching the glorious MGM musicals of yore. Left starry-eyed by Gene Kelly’s magnetic tap dancing in Singin’ in the Rain, Tomei took up dancing and dreamt of one day partaking in these magnificent productions herself. Unfortunately, the MGM musical was a relic of a bygone era by the time she dropped out of college and found her way to Los Angeles.

**TOD’S** dress and **BVLGARI** bracelet and rings.

While the grandeur and spectacle of a true Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production is still on her bucket list, Tomei has led an enviable and memorable career, marked by scores of accolades. The Brooklyn-born actor got her start on the television show, A Different World, which costarred her friend Lisa Bonet. But her real breakthrough came with the role of Mona Lisa Vito in 1992’s My Cousin Vinny, which would earn her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the first of three Oscar nominations to date. The cult classic, which turned 30 years old just a couple days after Tomei and I talk, has been a beloved example of excellence in both film and courtroom proceedings. Tomei counts lead actor Joe Pesci as one of her biggest influences, and still considers him a dear friend, nay, a guardian angel.

Mona Lisa Vito is one of the first modern approaches to the bimbo, an archetype that is once again starting to have its day in the sun, and Tomei’s flawless performance serves as a blueprint for heroines of the 2000s like Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods or Mean Girls’ Cady Heron. One wouldn’t expect that the woman who rolls up to a small town in Alabama with her tiny point and shoot camera to save two innocent men from certain execution. Mona Lisa, with her

New Yawk accent and penchant for floral catsuits, launched Tomei into icon territory. These kinds of roles, she says, are some of her favorites. The divinely feminine power of being underestimated is one that Tomei has tapped into throughout her storied career. That, partnered with her natural gift for physical comedy, has led her to some delightfully surprising roles, from Mona Lisa to Kate, the sober middle school teacher who hooks up with Steve Carell’s sad sack divorcé Cal in Crazy, Stupid, Love.

As with her past bimbos, Tomei never fails to subvert the tropes that are assigned to maternal figures. Most recently, she joined the star-studded cast of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Aunt May, the traditionally elderly caretaker of Spider-Man’s alter ego, Peter Parker. She was reportedly horrified to learn of Aunt May’s canonical senior citizen status, though her casting led to a completely new dynamic between aunt and nephew. There are certainly no other Spider-Man iterations that parse the complications of having a hot aunt. In fact, Tomei’s Aunt May earned the nickname “Aunt Hottie” by Tony Stark, played by her real life ex-flame, Robert Downey, Jr.

While her future in the Marvel Universe is murky (there is a multiverse, after all), Tomei is already looking ahead. Perhaps one day she’ll make a screwball comedy about a Lithuanian-American archaeologist and her monarchic rival, or star in a musical like she has always dreamed. But for now, she is relishing in the things we all took for granted two years ago: traveling, forging new bonds, and, of course, lots and lots of dancing.

**HERMÈS** top and **BVLGARI** bracelet and rings.

How are you doing right now? The world has been really crazy lately. How have you been taking care of yourself and your mental health?

Gosh, well, it’s ever-changing, isn’t it, as the challenges become different? There was obviously a lot of being insular and quiet with a small group of people, as we all were doing. And finding those times to go out and play now the world is opening up a bit with an enormous dash of grief and melancholy at the war, and climate change.

I know you like to meditate. Has that been helpful for you during this time?

Yes, enormously so. And dancing. Eating, taking hikes. The basics!

What kind of dance do you like to do? I was a dancer, so I always find the catharsis in that, personally.

Absolutely. That’s the right word, a catharsis. You know, it’s different forms, very different forms. I just went to my first maskless dance party in Paris last week, and that was its own kind of special thrill. But as a practice, I have a couple practices, one with a small group of women, about seven women, that is more devotional, spiritual dance circle. And I just dance around a lot in my house, actually. Also my friend, Kate Shela, does The 360 online and so, particularly during the pandemic, every Saturday, I just tune into that. And then of course, Questlove was spinning during the pandemic, which was incredible. So that was virtual group dancing.

**CHLOÉ** dress, **JIMMY CHOO** shoes, and **BVLGARI** necklace and bracelet.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about My Cousin Vinny, since it’s 30 years this month since its release. How do you look back on that time of your career now?

Well, it was just a very nascent career, and gee, to look back, I don’t really look back at it. I guess it’s kind of exciting that it’s been 30 years. I just saw Lenny Kravitz’s, album, Are You Gonna Go My Way [was almost] 30 years ago. Right now, I was just like “Wow, everybody’s having the same anniversary!” I’m still friends with Joe [Pesci]. Very, very special relationship, I feel very watched over by him, and he gives me good advice. It was a great first experience. It was so character-based, it was hilarious, and the writing that Dale Launer did is incredible. It’s such an archetype, but one that I really love to play, which is ‘you think she’s really stupid, but actually, she’s the smartest one in the room.’

I think that’s a really powerful part of storytelling to hold on to. Having that secret weapon that you can unleash is really special. And I think you have done it really well on screen. Barbara Stanwyck played some of that. She played it with a tougher angle, but that was something you saw a lot in the ‘40s. And I really don’t know if maybe we’ve retired that kind of stock character, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of it. A lot. Like Judy Holliday. She’s in that same vein. Don’t underestimate the broad!

Now that I think about it, what is the last character you saw who was like that?
Well, Clueless is great like that. What’s Reese’s character?

Oh, [Elle Woods in] Legally Blonde.
Yeah, I mean, that’s like the ultimate! So great, so great.

The bimbo character is having a resurgence right now in the Zeitgeist, which is really cool to see.
I didn’t realize that, actually. You feel like it’s coming back?

Yeah, particularly among Gen Z. I think we just haven’t had that kind of character in a minute, and people have really been missing it from the screens. It’s just such a fantastic addition to any story.
Yes. And it seems like a lot of the romantic comedies are coming back, thank goodness!

It’s about time!

We needed more love and high jinx!

Absolutely. I feel like I was just talking about Crazy, Stupid, Love the other day. How was that role for you?

I met on a couple different roles for that, and I really requested that particular part because I just thought she was just bonkers. And you know, and doing that make-out scene with Carell was just—it was kind of like a dance actually, now that I think of it, and when we were speaking on that subject. It had so much physicality. So any place that there’s an opportunity to do physical comedy, I jump at that.

There’s some tongue choreography.

[Laughs] I did not remember that, that’s funny. We constructed that dress so that it would really speak to the character in a certain way. I came to see later that they did that shot through the ruffle-y feathers on the tush. Every ounce of sweat that went into figuring out that dress was worth it.

Who do you consider big influences in your career? You just mentioned Joe Pesci being a mentor figure to you. Who else have you really looked up to over the years?

I would say he’s more of a guardian angel. Well, Robert Duvall, probably when I was younger, had a very, very big impact on me, because I had seen him in The Great Santini and also Tender Mercies right around the same time in the theaters. So he was really enormously eye opening. Linda Hunt. Barbara Stanwyck. Anna Magnani. Gene Kelly’s probably the biggest one—I mean, the tap lessons, and I always thought I was gonna be in an MGM musical. But they weren’t around anymore by the time I got to Hollywood.

I’m really curious about how you’ve done this shift in your career with playing more maternal figures. I think you’ve been pretty candid about not wanting to only be defined in these roles. So I’m curious, when you started seeing that shift to being offered more motherly, or, you know, maternal type roles in your career.

It was around the time I started making less money, and I needed to make a little more money. And I got a little bit hoodwinked by...well, I got hoodwinked. But ultimately, it’s my responsibility, and that’s the road I took at the time. I mean, not being a mom, you can just look at it as like a very big stretch.

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You said before that you “really regret starting down that road.” Do you still feel that way today?
Honestly, really talking about that in this framework is only going to feed that fire and it’s only going to get me stuck in that mud more. So I’d rather just say, “C’est la vie.”

I saw an interview where you said that you don’t know why women need to have children to be seen as a complete human being, and I really, really liked that. So I’m really curious what in your own life has made you feel really whole.

Connection to and deep friendships to the natural world. The Earth, the sky. Meditating, being able to connect on a deeper level to myself, which just opens my heart more. Relationships, really. Family. Taking risks makes everything sweeter, of course. Yeah, it kind of gets down to simple things.

What risks have you taken lately?

Being more candid about my needs or boundaries, and handling things like that in a more timely manner. That’s something that takes courage for me to do.

What kind of roles would you like to play going forward? Do you have a dream project that you would love to make one day? Well, I’d love to still do a musical, or two or three. I think there’s a way to still do something. I know that there’s been a movie about Mary Magdalene, but I feel like there’s still something else about her to be done. There’s a woman named Marija Gimbutas, who was an [Lithuanian-American] archaeologist who discovered, quote unquote, this evidence of a matriarchal society in Turkey, and she was challenged by Lord [Colin] Renfrew. This was in the ‘40s. She was also a folklorist, so she had a lot of conversations with local people, and about the stories and about oral histories. She was kind of derided. But years later, about five, seven years ago, they did some DNA tests, and a lot of her theories were borne out. And Renfrew came out and apologized and wound up celebrating her. I think that there’s a really interesting...I won’t go so far as to say screwball comedy. I think there’s an interesting story about Marija versus Lord Renfrew. And that’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a while seeing if something can get cooked up like that.

Oh, I love that. What are your favorite musicals?

Oh, wow. On The Town. Sweet Charity. Well, of course Singin’ in the Rain. The dance that Ann Miller does in On The Town at the Natural History Museum, that’s just one for the ages. I’m trying to think what other top movies may be...I would say Daughters of the Dust, A Woman Under the Influence, I Am Cuba and this movie called Wanda that Barbara Loden made and I finally, finally saw it. It’s about the interior life of a woman as she goes about her day. Beautiful movie.