Antonio Banderas Becomes the Man Who Shaped Anthony Bourdain in Tony
Antonio Banderas will play a composite mentor drawn from Anthony Bourdain’s real-life influences in Tony, while The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa takes on the chef himself.
File this under: unexpected pairings I did not have on my 2025 bingo card. Antonio Banderas just talked about mentoring a young Anthony Bourdain in Matt Johnson's biopic 'Tony' - and the details are oddly vivid and fishy, literally.
What 'Tony' is aiming for
'Tony' comes from director Matt Johnson, the guy behind 'BlackBerry.' The film focuses on Bourdain long before he was a TV icon - when he was young, drifting, and figuring out who he was. Variety says Banderas shared new info at the Torino Film Festival, including how the movie charts Bourdain's post-college plan to be a writer, and the quick slide into depression and drug addiction that followed. It is very much about those rough early years rather than the globe-trotting celebrity era.
The mentor, the smell, and the setting
Banderas - yes, that Antonio Banderas from 'The Mask of Zorro' - plays a composite character inspired by several people from Bourdain's life. In the film, he is a Brazilian-born restaurateur who takes the young Tony under his wing. He is not just a teacher in the kitchen; the character shapes Tony's identity and outlook, not just his technique. The backstory: this mentor studied at top culinary schools but never felt like he fit in with the elite-chef world. He started his own place outside that bubble and built dishes with ingredients regular people could actually get - simple food for everyday diners.
Production-wise, Banderas said they shot for about six weeks in Cape Cod and Newport, which came with a very specific occupational hazard for an actor: the constant smell of seafood.
'Every time I came back to the hotel, I had to shower because I absolutely reeked - I was cleaning fish every single day!'
Who is playing young Tony?
Dominic Sessa, fresh off 'The Holdovers,' has been in talks to play Bourdain. Not locked in publicly yet, but that is the name attached.
Quick refresher on the real Bourdain
- Graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, then worked across New York City kitchens, eventually becoming executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles.
- Broke big with 'Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,' a New York Times bestseller that spelled out the darker side of restaurant life and his own drug use.
- Hosted the travel-food series 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations' on Travel Channel and, later, CNN's 'Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,' which turned meals into cultural storytelling.
What to expect from the movie
If Banderas's comments are any indication, this is not a greatest-hits bio. It is a grounded character study about how a lost, ambitious kid becomes a cook - and how one complicated mentor nudges him toward a voice and a life. Less glam, more grit. And apparently, a lot of fish.