The late Anthony Bourdain remains one of America's most beloved cultural figures.
Hollywood is finally bringing his story to the big screen.
And Dominic Sessa revealed one detail about playing young Anthony Bourdain that left fans stunned.
A24 brings Bourdain's origin story to life
The Holdovers breakout star Dominic Sessa just gave fans their first real glimpse into his upcoming portrayal of Anthony Bourdain in the highly anticipated A24 biopic Tony.
The 23-year-old actor dropped details about the film during the New York City premiere of Now You See Me: Now You Don't on Monday.
"It's a sort of origin story in a way," Sessa told PEOPLE.¹
The timing couldn't be more perfect for this project.
Bourdain would have celebrated his 69th birthday on June 25, and fans have been hungry for a proper biopic since the chef's tragic death by suicide on June 8, 2018.
Tony marks the first narrative film about Bourdain's life, following the 2021 documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.
Sessa filmed on Cape Cod where Bourdain found his calling
Sessa revealed that production wrapped earlier this year in Cape Cod, Massachusetts – the exact location where a young Bourdain's culinary journey began in the mid-1970s.
"I'm playing Bourdain sort of, you know '75, '76, that era, when he was working there in the summers," Sessa explained.²
That timeframe is critical to understanding Bourdain's transformation.
In 1974, Bourdain worked as a dishwasher at the Flagship Restaurant in Provincetown after dropping out of Vassar College where he'd spent two years partying instead of studying.
The 18-year-old was what he later called "a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive, and thoughtless young lout"³ with zero direction in life.
Then something happened that changed everything.
Bourdain later recalled the moment that set him on his path: a restaurant manager told him their dishwasher hadn't shown up and he was the replacement.
"The next day I put on the apron and I didn't take it off for thirty years," Bourdain said.⁴
Bourdain described Provincetown as "a wonderland of tolerance" with a "long-time tradition of accepting artists, writers, the badly behaved, the gay, the different."⁵
He called it paradise.⁶
The film captures Bourdain during this formative period – before culinary school, before Kitchen Confidential, before television fame.
Just a directionless kid who stumbled into a kitchen and found his purpose.
Antonio Banderas also stars in Tony, though his exact role hasn't been revealed.
The Bourdain estate is backing this project
Here's what makes Tony different from other celebrity biopics Hollywood churns out.
Kimberly Witherspoon, who represents Bourdain's estate, is serving as executive producer on the film.
That's huge.
The estate already denounced one unauthorized Bourdain biography in 2022 – his brother said it got things "totally wrong."
But they're fully on board with A24's vision.
Director Matt Johnson of BlackBerry fame is helming the project from a script by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe.
The production even held open casting calls seeking "real restaurant kitchen staff with unique, dynamic personalities" to appear alongside Sessa.
No acting experience required – just real kitchen experience.
That's the kind of authenticity Bourdain would have demanded.
The chef built his entire career on telling truth about the restaurant industry, exposing the chaos and brutality most customers never see.
His 1999 essay "Don't Eat Before Reading This" in The New Yorker pulled back the curtain on kitchen culture and launched him to stardom.
Bourdain later said that working in Provincetown was the first time he felt respect for others and tried to gain their respect, though "up until then he had never felt any for himself."
Sessa's breakout continues Hollywood's hottest streak
Sessa's casting as Bourdain continues one of the most remarkable Hollywood stories in years.
The kid was literally a high school senior at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts when casting directors showed up to scout locations for The Holdovers.
The school's theater director offered students a chance to audition since the film was using the academy as a shooting location, and Sessa was selected among twelve students who tried out.
He went from performing in his school's production of Antigone to starring opposite Paul Giamatti in an Oscar-nominated film.
Director Alexander Payne discovered Sessa had that rare quality that can't be taught.
"He is a remarkably talented young actor who instinctively understood how to access his own life experience for an emotionally intelligent performance," Payne said.⁷
Sessa's performance in The Holdovers earned him the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer and a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.⁸
Now he's taking on one of the most iconic figures in American food culture.
The parallels between Sessa and young Bourdain are striking.
Both were scholarship students at elite East Coast boarding schools.
Both felt like outsiders looking in at a world of privilege they didn't quite belong to.
Both found their calling through unexpected opportunities that changed everything.
Sessa told interviewers he identifies with that sense of alienation.
"I go to what some people would consider to be an affluent boarding school, but I don't necessarily come from a very affluent family, so I definitely have a sense of slight alienation," Sessa explained.⁹
That authenticity is exactly what this role demands.
Bourdain never pretended to be something he wasn't – and neither does Sessa.
Tony doesn't have an official release date yet, but A24 wrapped production earlier this year.
Fans will finally get to see the origin story of how a lost 18-year-old dishwasher became the voice of a generation.
¹ Sabrina Weiss and Bailey Richards, "Dominic Sessa Makes Rare Comment About Playing Young Anthony Bourdain in Upcoming Tony Biopic," PEOPLE, November 12, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ "Anthony Bourdain," Tasting Table, September 24, 2023.
⁴ "Anthony Bourdain's Love For Food Started on Cape Cod," Fun 107, July 22, 2024.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ "Dominic Sessa," Wikipedia, November 7, 2025.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ "'The Holdovers' Angus Tully Actor Dominic Sessa Interview," Town & Country, November 10, 2023.
