Actor Andy Dispensa, known for his recent role as Luca in 1923, reflects on his dynamic journey from theater to television and film in this candid interview.
With a deep passion for storytelling and a rich Italian heritage, Andy Dispensa is sitting down with HOLR to share how his theater training helped shape his screen work. During this candid interview, we dive into how Andy’s experience helped land him the role of Luca, as well as some of his exciting plans for the future as a writer and filmmaker.
From his early days at Elon University to his aspirations in filmmaking, Dispensa is offering insight into what drives him creatively—and how he continues to push artistic boundaries
Talk to us about how you got your start in the industry.
My start as an actor, if we’re going way back, began at Elon University. It’s where I took my first acting class, an acting for nonmajors course. I was still really trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do and it lit me up like nothing I’d ever tried before. I eventually found myself becoming a cinema production major, I started acting a ton in my fellow directing major’s films. I think on our final screening day senior year I was in like 5 out of the 10 films shown on the day haha. Afterward, I went to teach English in Rome for 6 months while applying to graduate filmmaking programs. I was all set to do a master’s at Chapman University in California when I received an honestly rather mysterious email saying that someone had recommended me to audition at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NY, a drama conservatory, and that they would waive the application fee. I still don’t know who made the recommendation. I had never auditioned for anything before in my life so I said, why not, let’s give it a go. But I got in! It would give me the chance to study the craft seriously and stay close to my family.
I did 3 years there of intense acting, voice, and movement training, doing scene work, and plays. The stage is the best way for any actor to learn, I think. It molds and hardens you into a performer. And working on great writing, which playwriting has so much of. It also helped me blossom as a writer. So after graduating, I did theater in NYC and abroad for a solid 4 years before moving to New Orleans, where I got my first agent, a film and TV agent, and then Los Angeles a year later. Started auditioning more and more in LA, doing self-tapes, and working at Margie Haber Studio as a self tape reader, which really allowed me to further refine my audition process. Dallas Jenkins, creator and director of The Chosen gave me my first TV credit. I had auditioned for Thomas, one of the apostles in season one, even flying to Texas for a callback, which I didn’t end up booking. We kept in touch and he brought me back in to audition for season two, which I also didn’t book. But then one day I got a call from my agent saying that they wanted to cast me in a role for season 3, straight up, a really nice two episode guest star. That was the start, breaking in there. Been grinding away for close to 15 years now.
Can you share your experience of auditioning for 1923 and how it felt to be cast as Luca so quickly after your initial audition?
Alright so, my initial audition was for another character on the show, you’ll see him this season. Got the audition, obviously ecstatic to work on Taylor Sheridan’s writing and for the opportunity. Did it, crammed it in, and sent it to my manager. He loved it, as did I, I felt good about the work. Then about 3 weeks later I got an email from both my agent and manager at 10:30 at night saying that casting wants to read me for another role. They tell me to get it in as soon as possible because they’re down to the deadline on it and they haven’t found anyone for it yet. I’m like “ok…interesting.” I look at the sides, it’s 10 pages, 3 scenes. Which is a lot! I sat down and read the sides and immediately I knew, this was meant for me. Honestly, and this sounds crazy, but I felt in that moment I’d been preparing for my whole life to play this role, and I knew there would be a very short list of people who would be right for it. I looked over the script and went to sleep to try to prepare the next day.
Usually, it takes me 2-4 days to really memorize well, but for some reason, when I woke up the next morning everything was in my head. It was just there ready to go. I did have trouble finding a reader, though, and the only person available I called wouldn’t be able to help me till the weekend. I’m pretty particular about who helps me on auditions. A good or bad reader can make or break you, it can elevate you, or throw the music off. So like the crazy man I am I said, “Ok, I’m not waiting, I think I can do this myself?” I had just moved back to New York and I was missing my usual self-tape studio in LA where I do all my auditions. So I recorded all the other characters’ lines (in character voice) on my MacBook, set up my tripod with my iPhone 8 (don’t ask why I have an old phone, I just like it and do not want to upgrade, the thumb unlock is Gucci), and timed it all out and taped it. Sent in the tape around 4 pm, right before hopping to an acting class. In the middle of the class, my agent calls me and tells me casting likes it and is going to send it to Taylor. By 9 pm I was pinned for the role. I was ecstatic, to say the least. I wasn’t shocked. It felt right.
How did your Italian heritage influence your portrayal of Luca?
My Italian heritage is immensely important to me. I’m of Sicilian and Napolitan origin. My ancestry is from Palermo, just like Luca. C’MON!!! I have a big Italian American family, 18 first cousins, and I will be the first to tell you- I love being Italian. The food, the romance, the art, music, and film! I definitely lean into it all. I have had a lifelong infatuation with the country. I’m actually the only one in my immediate family though who speaks Italian fluently. I started studying in middle school, through high school, and then in college. I was president of the Italian Club at Elon and I studied abroad in Florence my junior year, which was one of the happiest periods of my life. The films of Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni have influenced me greatly.
I have been to Italy to visit my grandmother’s cousins in Napoli many times. I really wanted to approach the role of Luca as authentically as possible. The Italian accent is probably one of the hardest accents to get right, even for someone like me who speaks it. You see it done terribly in Hollywood all the time. For two weeks leading up to the shoot, I submerged myself in Italian media. I studied with my dad’s Italian teacher (he’s learning, slowly but surely ;)) and was coached on accent work by her. Her name is Annasole Podesta, she’s an incredible teacher and actor if anyone needs lessons! My mentor Samuele Pardini put me in touch with a real Sicilian to help me with translation on certain lines. If I didn’t have the background I do, and the network, it would’ve made creating Luca authentically way more difficult in such a quick turnaround. TV moves fast. Film and Theater you have a little more time with the process.
Your career spans theater, television, and film—how do you approach transitioning between different mediums, and how has your theater experience shaped your screen performances?
They’re all heads of the same monster. Maybe where the audience is and how to reach them is the major difference. You can do a lot more subtle work on camera with film and TV. Emotions running underneath, a quiet glance, just living it, goes far because the camera and audio equipment pick up everything. Where the camera is matters and you have to be aware of its eye because it’s the eye for your audience. I had to get smaller coming from theater when I first started doing self-tape TV and film auditions. I love that I have a theatricality about my screen work though. I think coming from theater, my voice is strong. I want people to understand what my character is trying to communicate and the voice is huge for me.
A teacher at drama school always said, when we were doing plays, “PROJECT! You have to hit the last seat in the house, they paid for tickets too, and are just as deserving as those in the front row.” That always stuck with me. I also like playing character characters, if you know what I mean. In theater, it’s more acceptable to play a character who is 40 years older than you or 15 years younger. Or someone with an unusual accent or physicality. Those are my favorite types of performances. Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Cate Blanchette in, I don’t know, everything! Film and TV generally aim for a more realistic, authentic product. I love theatricality in film though. Birdman is one of my favorite movies. I think that movie really encapsulates what it means to be an actor. Another thing is, coming from a theater background, you learn what’s good writing and what isn’t. All the best writers like John Patrick Shanley, Mel Brooks, Billy Shakes, came from the theater (well Billy of course, I would have been curious though to see him try his hand at film or TV, maybe he’s been reincarnated as Spielberg). Theater, it’s one take, I think that training has definitely helped with my competence in screen acting.
I try to come in and bring my all from the first take. And then it’s always great to work with a director to tinker between takes. Also, I think my discerning eye and script analysis are two of my strong suits and it’s because I was forced to read so many plays in drama school. To dissect your question further, ultimately I think film is the director’s medium, television is the writer’s medium, and theater is the actor’s medium, as the main driving creative element but of course they all overlap, and beautifully so.
You’ve spoken about pushing creative boundaries in your work. Can you tell us about a particular role or project that really challenged you and helped you grow as an artist?
I mean this one for sure. Luca was simultaneously the most difficult and favorite character I’ve ever had the chance to play. I played Lord Byron Off-Broadway in a play called Mary’s Little Monster back in 2018. It was about this infamous weekend at Lord Byron’s Lake Geneva mansion where Mary Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein. The role was very freeing. I spoke with a slightly aristocratic affectation. I allowed my passion to run wild. After my audition, the director wanted to cast me for another role and I had to convince him that I would be perfect for Byron. He and I both agreed after the run, I was right. I think roles that you connect with deeply and have the most fun with are the ones that serve your growth the most.
Byron was the most famous writer at the time, a gifted poet, someone who lived outside the conventionality of what was considered normal. He was a complicated figure. He hated being alone but also hated being around people. He was bisexual. He fought in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman empire in 1824 and died from war complications at the age of 36! I learned so much about him reading his biography and also felt very close to him in a way. He had a clubfoot that caused him to walk a certain way. He had a deep burning artistic passion in him. He definitely had a chip on his shoulder. I definitely resonate with that. I feel I have a lot to prove and that the world needs to see what I’m capable of.
Working on complex characters makes you feel closer to your own humanity. There’s way too much judgment nowadays, it feels with social media and all. Human beings are very multifaceted. And I think that’s the point of art, to bring us closer to a universal essence of what it really means to be human. To cut through all the bullshit and get down to the core. Because my goodness there’s a lot of it out there!
Beyond acting, you’ve also pursued writing and filmmaking. How do these creative endeavors complement your work as an actor, and do you have plans to explore more of these roles in the future?
Being able to write is a gift. I’m very grateful to have it in my toolbox. There are thousands and thousands of insanely talented actors out there, but honestly not that many truly great writers. Taylor Sheridan has built an absolute towering empire because he is a prolific writer. A genius. I use the word genius meaning ‘someone rare to be among us’. Sicario, Wind River, Hell or High Water, the entire Yellowstone universe, the list goes on. I’m happy to be a half-way decent writer. I enjoy my writing. I write for me, to suss out issues I want to express or to have a laugh. It’s a lot of fun discovering what you can create. Writing, acting, and directing all help to communicate the story. It’s also all music and language correlated. Can you hear it? Can you play it? Excuse the Oppenheimer reference (saw it 3 times in the theater like a sicko film junkie).
Great writing creates emotional, dramatic or comedic images in my head that I enjoy experiencing. I’m an only child and spent more time by myself growing up than probably those with siblings. My relationship to my imagination is strong. And you need to have both strong imagination and communication skills to be a great artist, or actor. To show what you want or need to show. It all starts with an idea in someone’s head that is translated to the page, and the actor needs to interpret the pages in their own way. As for future roles, I plan to do it all, write, direct, and star in my own feature films. That is my ultimate goal. I believe my passion is big enough to do it at the highest level, though you have to be totally out of your mind to want to star in your own work. Acting alone is stressful enough. You better have exactly the right team behind you if you’re gonna be acting in your own thing. I’ve done it twice and it’s a beast, but both times came out very well and gave me a satisfaction different from just acting alone. Filmmaking is very difficult because you need money, and lots of it to make it happen. You have to be a mad dog to get anything made. Unearth every stone looking for funding. A good filmmaker friend of mine once told me this about the filmmaking process and I think it’s bang on, “Cheap, Good, Quick. Pick two.” Theater is a little easier to get done.
Right now I have a few things I’ve written I’m trying to get off the ground. The first is my second full-length stage play “Tweet Tweet”, a psychological comedy about what we can control and what we don’t know we can’t. It’s one of the best things I’ve written and very current. I’m close to raising all the funding for it and I’m going to do it at the beautiful Hudson Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. The second is a 20-page short film called The Rosewood Interview. It’s a drama about this 30-year-old, down on his luck, who gets the chance to interview at a tech company helmed by an old high school friend. The tagline is: What will get in the way of your future? The third, and most ambitious, is Jazz n’ Mo, the first feature length screenplay I’ve written with an independent budget in mind. From a story and acting perspective it’s the project I’m most excited about at the moment. It’s a dark comedy about two dating con artists who are trying to pull one last job to retire. It’s also about two people who have been scraping by most of their lives, what that does to a person and how your job becomes you whether you identify with it or not. It’s set in Jacksonville, Florida and I’m going to be reaching out to investors there soon to see if I can utilize some local incentives to make it happen. A feature film is an absolute behemoth, but the script is tight and ready to go, so yeah just need a few small miracles to fall into place to give it legs.
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Published by HOLR Magazine
Image Credits: Danny Cooney