Joe Pantoliano almost missed out on Memento
Summary SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Joe Pantoliano ended up being the perfect choice for the role of Teddy in Memento, but Christopher Nolan initially didn’t want to cast him for one reason in particular. Memento stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with short-term memory loss who uses a series of tattooed clues to track down his wife’s killer.
According to James Mottram’s book The Making of Memento, Pantoliano was recommended for the part by his Matrix co-star Carrie-Anne Moss, who Nolan had cast as Natalie. But Nolan didn’t like the idea at first and resisted giving the role of Teddy to Pantoliano. While it seems like a no-brainer to cast Pantoliano now that he’s starred in the movie and proven himself to be the right choice for the part, the director had a very specific reason for wanting to avoid casting Pantoliano.
Before casting Pantoliano, Nolan sought out some other actors for the role of Teddy. Mottram’s book mentions that the producers reached out to comedian Denis Leary, but he proved to be unavailable. Nolan eventually relented and gave the role to Pantoliano. In Mottram’s book, Nolan said that he was surprised by the subtlety in Pantoliano’s performance. Nolan’s concern that Pantoliano was too well-known as a villain actor ended up being a big reason why he was so perfect for the part of Teddy.
Joey Pantoliano Being Associated With Villains Makes His Casting Better Pantoliano’s association with villainous roles, like Guido in Risky Business, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, and Ralph Cifaretto in The Sopranos, is exactly why the actor is perfect as Teddy. At the beginning of the movie , the audience isn’t sure whether Teddy is actually a bad guy or why Leonard shot him. Then, throughout the movie, the audience doesn’t know if they should trust him.
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