An Interview with Joe Mantegna

Abstract

Joe Mantegna is the preeminent interpreter of the work of writer/director David Mamet. He is like a crooner, singing the poetic phrasing of Mamet’s stylized language with relaxed composure, endowing the characters with a unique combination of street-smarts and panache. The figures he portrays are Everyman Plus: more aggressive, hip, suave, and savvy than those around him—or so they would like to believe. On stage, he limned the leading roles in Mamet’s A Life in the Theater (1976–77 at Chicago’s Goodman Theater), Glengarry Glen Ross (at The Goodman, 1983–84, and on Broadway, 1984), and Speed-the-Plow (1988 on Broadway). The actor has starred in three films directed by Mamet: House of Gantes (1987), Things Change (1988), and Homicide (1991). As Mantegna opines, in a typically cool understatement, “Some people have a flair for Shakespeare ... maybe I have a flair for David’s dialogue ...”