When I signed onto a video interview with the stars of the new Netflix release “Nonnas,” the conversation was already in progress. Brenda Vaccaro, best known for her work in “Midnight Cowboy” and “Once Is Not Enough,” was raving about the film, directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on the true story of Enoteca Maria, a restaurant in Staten Island where the kitchen is run by older women.
“This is my Jimmy Stewart movie,” Vaccaro said in between effusive praise.
I wondered if I was ever going to get a word in edgewise.
Eventually, I was able to greet the group, which includes Vaccaro, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire and Susan Sarandon. The veteran actresses, whose credits include “The Godfather,” “Goodfellas” and “Thelma & Louise,” all play the movie’s nonnas, who are recruited to cook Italian American delicacies by Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn), an M.T.A. worker mourning his own mother. Bracco is a brash Sicilian named Roberta whose specialty is a stuffed lamb’s head called capuzzelle. She fights with Vaccaro’s Antonella, loyal to her Bolognese heritage, over which region has the better traditions. Sarandon is the glamorous pastry guru and hair stylist Gia, while Shire is a nun who left the convent to pursue her dreams. (Not all the nonnas here have grandchildren.)
With the women, who have nine Oscar nominations between them, gathered on a call, they riffed on their history with one another, their cooking skills, aging in Hollywood and the movies that their grandchildren cannot yet watch. Below are edited excerpts.
From left, Sarandon, Vaccaro, Bracco and Talia Shire in “Nonnas.”Credit…Jeong Park/Netflix
Did you know each other before getting cast?
LORRAINE BRACCO: Oh, yes. I knew Brenda. I knew Susan. Talia was the newbie.
