PLUME: I would be remiss if I didn’t talk to you about your feature film directorial debut, with Hot Stuff. We talked earlier about your time behind-the-scenes in the Cleveland theater shortly after high school. How much of that was helpful when you finally got a chance to direct?
DeLUISE: It all helps. You don’t really realize what you’re absorbing as you live your life. The main thing is how you deal with people. I directed Hot Stuff and Boys Will Be Boys, and I directed Carol Burnett and Burt Reynolds onstage in Same Time Next Year… And they were very, very funny and the play was very, very good. In fact, he came in with a cigar, thinking he was going to make love to the lady he meets every year for a weekend – and she’s facing the fireplace – and as she turns around, she’s pregnant. And the audience howls, and his cigar went from an upright position to facing the floor. The cigar was up, and slowly, in Burt Reynolds’ mouth, the cigar went down to the floor. They were howling! It was good.
PLUME: What is Boys Will Be Boys?
DeLUISE: Boys Will Be Boys is a movie that had Jon Voight, my son Michael DeLuise, Catherine Oxenberg, Mickey Rooney, and Julie Hagerty. That was a very nice experience.
PLUME: Wasn’t Ruth Buzzi also in it?
DeLUISE: Ruth Buzzi was also in it, right. And Charles Nelson Reilley.
PLUME: Is directing something you want to do again?
DeLUISE: Sure, sure. It’s wonderful fun. Especially if you’re onstage. Burt Reynolds had a stage in Florida, and I had an opportunity to do something called Butterflies Are Free, with Farrah Fawcett and Dennis Christopher, and it was a wonderful experience to do.
PLUME: So when are you going to direct again?
DeLUISE: I’m ready! I’m ready! But at the moment, I’m busy with my radio shows and my children’s books.
PLUME: Well, I know you have an appointment coming up, so perhaps this is a good wrapping up point. Again, I appreciate your time…
DeLUISE: Oh please, it was fun. It was wonderful remembering some of the things I could remember.
PLUME: Well, I’m glad it wasn’t too painful.
DeLUISE: Nah it wasn’t.
PLUME: Well thank you very much, Dom.
DeLUISE: Bye!
10 QUESTIONS
1. What is your favorite piece of music?
“Fly Me to the Moon” – Sinatra
2. What is your favorite film?
The Wizard of OZ
3. What is your favorite TV program, past or current?
The Honeymooners and The Sopranos
4. What do you feel has been your most important professional accomplishment to date?
Entertaining my grandchildren.
5. Which project do you feel didn’t live up to what you envisioned?
My honeymoon.
6. What is your favorite book?
Any story by Eudora Welty.
7. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?
More people would work more often, so they wouldn’t have to wait tables.
8. Who – or what – would you say has had the biggest influence on your career?
Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Gleason, and my father.
9. What is your next project?
Waking up tomorrow.
10. What is the one project that you’ve always wanted to do, but have yet to be able to?
A picture I wrote with my son, Peter, called Cacciatore Ghost.
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