Over the past 20 years everywhere I travel, whether here or abroad, people approach me with lavish compliments for the movie I wrote based upon my play, A Bronx Tale. Some even saw the original play some two decades ago and see it as a fond memory.
After appearing in 50 movies, people tell me that A Bronx Tale is their favorite. A broad spectrum of fathers and sons tell me that the message of the film changed their lives. "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent" was the theme that ran through the movie, a message my father, Lorenzo Palminteri, instilled in me when I was nine years old. The genesis of the phrase involved a young boxer who was extraordinarily talented, but died from an overdose of drugs at the tender age of seventeen. My father was devastated. He looked me in the eyes and with conviction in his heart uttered the phrase that drove the movie. He even wrote it on an index card and in my room on the wall.
My father's passion in that phrase made a great impression on me and served me well through the tough years as an actor and writer. I was determined not to waste mine. At the lowest point of my life I saw my father's card and I was determined to succeed.
Unemployed and broke, I was contemplating leaving LA and going back home when I decided that if they wouldn't give me a great part, I would have to write my own. I wrote A Bronx Tale and it changed my life.
I'm back on Broadway now to see if I can inspire and change some young people's lives and have them realize that the talent inside of them will bubble to the surface if they have faith in themselves and persevere. Many parents come to see the show and wait outside for me with their children and express how much the message of the play and the movie mean to them. I give them all a little going away gift, a card that says "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent." I sign it and ask the child to do the same, a social contract designed to inspire. The parents are generally moved and it makes me feels like the child has made a promise to all of us.
A young mind is so precious that it can go astray in a NY minute. We have the power to keep them on the straight and narrow. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. But, I believe that we all have the talent to be anything we want. We just don't use it. It's not about looking outside ourselves, it's about looking inward. The idea is not to waste what we already have. Wasted talent is a great sin against our potential. Whether you are a Rhodes Scholar or an ex-convict, you can achieve anything you want. That is why I am back on Broadway to make people realize that they all have the power within.