Vincent Piazza reflects on his time on ‘Boardwalk’

ALICIA RANCILIO
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Vincent Piazza is pondering his next move.

His critically acclaimed series, “Boardwalk Empire,” created by Terence Winter and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, is in its fifth and final season on HBO (Sundays, 9 p.m. EDT.)

Piazza plays Charles “Lucky” Luciano, a leading Mafia figure in the United States.

“It’s like my dream ended here. Now I need to re-dream something else,” he said.

One possibility is writing. “I love writing. I love telling stories, and I’m going to try and give a crack at that for a bit.”

Piazza, 38, shared his thoughts on co-star Steve Buscemi and what he kept from the set in a recent interview.

AP: Where you were when you got the role?

Piazza: I was in a little room in my (New York) apartment on 17th Street. I remember getting the call and I was just, ‘Wow.’ It was a wow moment, and then I had all this energy and excitement to begin, and I was like, ‘All right, when does it start?’ ‘Like in six months.’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’ And that’s when I became a bookworm and was watching every documentary, reading every biography, just went to work in trying to learn more about the time.

AP: What did you learn from working with Steve Buscemi?

Piazza: Steve has been so gracious to me and all the actors that I get to see him interact with, and he’s such a great leader. As an example, it was the first episode that we were shooting of the entire show, and I’m a huge Steve Buscemi fan, but I’m also getting the feel of it. I don’t know the hours, I don’t know a TV schedule that well. So, I was just getting to know everyone and spending time with the actors and the crew, and I look over and I see Steve just in his chair, his eyes closed, just sitting there. I go, ‘Oh, interesting. He wants time to himself. OK, anyway, carrying on …’ But by the 12th hour, 13th hour, 16th hour of the day I’m just fighting to … keep my energy up. I’m watching him just come out of his chair like, ‘All right, we’re ready to go.’ And I was like, ‘Wow.’ Those little things, you know, you pick up along the way. Just conserve your energy, stay focused. Yeah, there was a lot of great stuff that I learned by watching him as well as talking with him.

AP: Did you keep anything from the set?

Piazza: I kept my cigarette lighter because it was with me from the pilot and it took me about a year to not burn myself whenever I clicked it because it’s an old lighter and you’ve got to flick it and try and look cool like, ‘I’ve used this lighter all my life since I was 4 when I started smoking,’ you know, that kind of a thing, so I would — it took me a while to do it so we have this relationship, the lighter and I, and it’s been with me the whole way. Always in my pocket or in the scene, so yeah, it’s my little buddy.

AP: “Boardwalk” is so visually spectacular. Could you pick up on that during filming?

Piazza: There was actually a moment last season when I was sitting back in the chair … and I’m just staring at the monitor and I looked and was like, ‘We’re in a moving oil painting,’ like it is just so like rich in color and texture. It was really special.

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Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar

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Online:

http://www.hbo.com/boardwalk-empire/

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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