By Eddy Friedfeld
Actor/comedian
Adam Ferrara used to fight fires with Denis Leary on Rescue Me. He now drives way too fast on Top Gear. This season he is trading witty banter and love
scenes with Edie Falco. As New York City
Police Sergeant Frank Verelli, his scenes with Falco are as funny and even hotter
than those with the crew of the fictional “62 Truck.â€
Nurse Jackie,
the superb Showtime comedy drama about hospitals, addiction, friendship, and
family, with the former Carmella Soprano, the brilliant Edie Falco, leading a
magnificent cast and guest stars including Merritt
Wever, Paul Schulze, Dominic Fumusa, Anna Deavere Smith and Peter Facinelli, Bobby
Cannavale, Morris Chestnut, Stephen Wallem, Betty Gilpin, and Ferrara.
As the fifth
season wraps up this Sunday night, the show is still smart, tight, and
interesting and has just been renewed for a sixth season.
“When I got the
Nurse Jackie gig I called my Mom,†Ferrara said. “‘Ask Carmella if she got to keep the
jewelry,’ she told me.â€
He commented on
the different energy on his new gig, responding to my observation that Rescue Me
was working with a baseball bat, versus Jackie where the comedy and drama
require a scalpel-like precision: “Rescue Me-was all percussion- every one banging away on their own
instruments. Jackie is an orchestra-
it’s all woodwind. The first day I got to
the Jackie set- there was a juicer. Rescue Me was a guy show. We
would smoke cigars. There was so much
smoke billowing out of Dennis Leary’s trailer one day it was like we were
electing a new pope!â€
The Long Island
born actor always loved comedy. “I loved
The In-Laws, Animal House, Smokey and the Bandit, The Sunshine Boys, and
anything else by Neil Simon. When I was
growing up, I kept [Mel Brooks and Carl Reiners’] 2000 Year Old Man and George
Carlin and Richard Pryor albums under the mattress with the Playboy Magazines.â€
He is a literate
and thoughtful comedian and performer- the more you studied in school, the
funnier you will think he is. And there
is a lot of thought that goes into the comedy and the drama.
“The comedy and
drama feed off each other. I studied
with Stephen Book. His approach to
breaking down a script is a technique called ‘purpose of scene,’ which helps
you become a better writer as a standup comedian. It lets you look at what the joke is
about. I’m a confessional comic, and a
lot of my material is scenes. I interact
with characters I create on stage in a standup capacity. I don’t have to get the laugh, one of the
other characters in the scene can get the laugh and it colors the presentation
of the standup in a particular way. It’s
about crafting the comedy.â€
“When you’re
acting and hit a line, you can’t hit it the same way you hit it in
standup. In standup you’re winking at
the audience, in drama you’re connecting with the other person. I look at the audience as one person. In standup, you’re in control of the entire
process. In acting, you’re one person
who is part of a larger scene. You’re
serving your part of the whole. You can
play the scene the way you want, but you have to hit the story beats, you have
to react to the other characters and story points, and character
revelations. It’s like playing nine
ball, you gotta hit the balls in sequence.â€
Ferrara is
keenly aware of the challenge of mixing comedy and drama into a careful blend
that generates both laughter and pathos, and the risks of not getting it right: “In my Rescue Me training, just because the
words are done- doesn’t mean the scene is over. “Denis used to say- there’s no pop in this scene. He would yell: ‘Make me laugh, Ferrara!’â€
When asked about
the challenge of being funny and poignant, he said: “You get the chance to be an actor, not just
carrying pipe. You’re not the wacky
neighbor walking in and saying ‘this was my toast!’â€
“Half the
‘trouble’ of doing the Jackie show- is watching Edie work. She is so amazing, she’s distracting. She can break your heart and piss your off
with just a look. I was just doing my
job. But people are talking about our chemistry.â€
The challenge is
great for Frank, who despite their palpable chemistry, is still not fully aware
of the depths of Jackie’s complexity and addiction, which will hopefully be
developed next season.
“The Jackie set
is a happy house. It’s nice to create
with that kind of group. It’s a joyful
birthing process. Sometimes there’s
kicking and screaming, but we’re having a good time making it. Rescue Me was like that too. We laughed our asses off. When I came back after hiatus it was like we
never left. Denis created, wrote,
starred in it, and then sold it. After I
got the Jackie gig, I sent Denis an email thanking him for giving me a place to
learn. He sent me an email back that
said ‘Go f-yourself.’â€
I pointed out
that most of Ferrara’s characters are working class and that the articulate and
educated Ferrara chooses a regional accent for most of his characters, the way Michael
Caine kept the Cockney accent because he wanted to preserve it. The earnestness, authenticity, and heroism of
his working class characters, including Frank Verelli, goes back to his Long
Island roots: “I know who this guy
is. I come from working class people. People who shower after work. When Frank has to take care of Jackie, I saw
my father in this character. He was full
of insight and advice. He said: “If you ever get jammed up, pay off your
car. They can never tow your house.’â€
He recalled his
role in Definitely Maybe, where he co-starred with Ryan Reynolds (“I don’t care
where your mail is delivered, that is one handsome man,†comes the almost
involuntary joke). “I played a
professional character, but I lumbered when I walked and I put a pencil behind
my ear out of respect for my roots.â€
He also talked
about his role on Top Gear, where he gets to drive the world’s most amazing
cars, his favorite being a Lamborghini Gallardo. “I did 180 and change- it tops out at 202
miles per hour.â€
When asked how
much training he was given, he said: “They didn’t even ask to see my driver’s license! I did go to stunt school on my own. I trained with Danny Aiello III, God rest his
soul.â€
After the
seasons of his two shows wrap, he will continue to develop a new one-man show-
a comedy drama about dealing with his father’s death from cancer.
“I was
lucky. I got the support. My Dad wanted to do a lot of things with his life
that he didn’t get to do. When I told my
Dad that I was thinking about being a comic, he said- do it now and give it
your best shot, before life gets complicated. I realized that he had unfulfilled dreams and he was encouraging me to
chase mine. When I got an Olive Garden
commercial I was unsure whether to take it. He said: ‘you can be an artist, you don’t have to be a starving
artist. Otherwise, go rent a loft and be
misunderstood. You have to eat.’ When he saw the restaurant, he said ‘no self-respecting
Italian is going to eat at a place with a window that big so someone can come
by and aim.’â€
Cinema
Retro Contributor Eddy Friedfeld teaches comedy and film history at NYU and
Yale.
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