‘Tony’: First Look at A24’s Anthony Bourdain Biopic Revealed

The late, great celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain is the subject of A24’s newest biopic drama, Tony. The film adapts part of Bourdain’s prized memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, to screen, and the studio has just revealed the first behind-the-scenes look.

In the above-embedded preview, star Dominic Sessa says of the story, “The story we tell, it’s a chapter in Kitchen Confidential. It’s about Anthony Bourdain’s experience in the summer in ’75.” Director Matt Johnson then adds, “Bourdain looks at his young life, and he thinks, ‘I was a prick and really needed to get my ass kicked.’ So this movie is trying to be that ass-kicking.”

Here’s what else there is to know about Tony.

Who stars in Tony?

Dominic Sessa stars as the young Anthony Bourdain in the film. The movie also stars Emilia Jones as Nancy, Leo Woodall as Sal, Antonio Banderas as Chef, and Stavros Halkias as Stavros. Also appearing in the film are Michael Jibrin, Monica Raymund, Rich Sommer, Dagmara Dominiczyk, and Liam Fitch.

Matt Johnson directs from a script cowritten by himself alongside Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, and Matthew Miller.

What is Tony about?

The movie chronicles Bourdain’s work at seafood restaurants in Provincetown, Massachusetts, particularly at the Lobster Pot, while he was a student at Vassar. As Sessa says in the teaser, “The movie chronicles the moment he discovers that he has a passion for food and makes a decision that it’s going to be a part of his life.”

The official description for the film tells us, “A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain travels to Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life.”

When does Tony premiere?

The film arrives in limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, August 7. It arrives everywhere on Friday, August 21.

Tony, in theaters, August 7, A24