Entertainment company A24 has just released the first trailer for Tony, an upcoming biographical film about the late chef, writer, and documentarian Anthony Bourdain. Set for an August release, the biopic is the latest addition to American actor Dominic Sessa’s growing filmography.
In August 2024, Deadline reported that Sessa was in talks to star as Bourdain in the film, directed by Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson. In April and May 2025, it was announced that actors Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, and Leo Woodall would join The Holdovers’ breakout star on the project in undisclosed roles. Comedian Stavros Halkias was also cast in Tony, which wrapped filming in August 2025.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Johnson said that he had cast Sessa after having dinner with him and a producerProducerThe person who shapes how a record sounds, from arranging and recording to guiding performances and making creative choices in the studio. A great producer can bring out the bestGo to Producer Glossary. “Within an hour, we were writing what would become the screenplay of the movie together,” he said. “[Sessan and Bourdain are] both from Jersey, both sent to private school, but didn’t fit in, both restless and searching. I knew if a scene was working when Dom said, ‘Seems right,’ and I knew it wasn’t when he said, ‘Why would I say this?’ More than any movie I’ve ever made, this film was a partnership with an actor. He is in every shot of the movie, and carries the entire story on his hunched shoulders.”
Before ‘Kitchen Confidential’
Until the trailer was released on Wednesday, May 6, other details about the film had been kept under wraps. On A24’s social media pages, the trailer is posted with the caption “Where it all began.”
The trailer shows Sessa as a 19-year-old Bourdain meeting up with Nancy (Jones), a girl he’d met in high school. Anthony’s application for a writing fellowship has just been rejected, and he drinks to cope with the news. He becomes a helper in Ciro’s (Banderas) kitchen, making friends with the characters of Halkias and Woodall, and learning how to cook.
In a clip, Sessa’s Anthony pitches to Banderas’ Ciro: “Every Friday, something fancy, not pretentious. Something sexy, makes you want to fuck. Something only you can do.”
Two chapters of Bourdain’s memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, touch on his experience working for seafood restaurants in Cape Cod in the 1970s, which served as his foray into the culinary world. As such, we can expect Tony to follow Bourdain in the years before his The New Yorker essay “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” launched his media career in 1999.
Johnson said those two chapters, entitled “Food is Sex” and “Food is Pain,” read like “Genesis” to him. “So little happens, but the margins are packed. It meant the cast and I could investigate this man’s origin together, knowing only where he would end up 20 years later,” he said. According to Deadline, the film is also supported by Bourdain’s estate, represented by executive producerProducerThe person who shapes how a record sounds, from arranging and recording to guiding performances and making creative choices in the studio. A great producer can bring out the bestGo to Producer Glossary Kimberly Witherspoon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Dominic Sessa plays a 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain in the A24 biopic Tony, directed by Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson and supported by Bourdain’s estate.
The Tony film cast includes Antonio Banderas as Ciro, Emilia Jones as Nancy, Leo Woodall, and comedian Stavros Halkias in supporting culinary roles.
Tony focuses on Anthony Bourdain’s early life in the 1970s working in Cape Cod seafood kitchens, prior to his breakout 1999 New Yorker essay.
Yes, Tony is adapted from the early chapters “Food is Sex” and “Food is Pain” from Anthony Bourdain’s memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
A24 plans an August release for Tony, following the debut of its first official trailer in May showcasing Bourdain’s early culinary career.
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