Call it box office magic.
Actor Michael Imperioli said he “used otherworldly means” to direct the 1999 thriller “Summer of Sam.”
Making the haunting revelation as part of Chip Baker’s new documentary ‘The Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (and Other Rock & Roll Stories)’, Imperioli, 57, claimed the ritual happened while he was staying at the famous haunted hotel.
“I had just started writing ‘Summer of Sam’ with Victor Colicchio — we wrote that script together,” the ‘Sopranos’ star said, according to Variety’s exclusive report on the documentary’s trailer. “I really wanted to direct it. So I met someone who lived here who was a witch, who told me she could help me realize it.
According to the ‘White Lotus’ alum, the ‘witch’ claimed the film would indeed be made even though it ‘wouldn’t turn out the way I thought it would’.
“I was very ambitious at the time and wanted this to happen, so I resorted to supernatural means to get it through the studio system,” Imperioli continued.
Although Imperioli didn’t specify what kind of magic was used, “Summer of Sam” was later directed and co-written by the legendary Spike Lee.
The thriller tells the story of Vinny (played by John Leguizamo) as he and his wife (Mira Sorvino), punk-rocker friend (Adrien Brody) and aspiring adult film star (Jennifer Esposito) all team up to uncover the identity of a serial killer terrorizing New Yorkers in the summer of 1977.
Elsewhere in the clip, Imperioli recalled how “mythical” the hotel seemed to him, “especially if you’re an artist in New York, it looms large and the idea of living here doesn’t really seem possible” .
The ‘Goodfellas’ star also claimed to have been the victim of his own obsession during his stay at the hotel.
“I saw a ghost here,” Imperioli swore. “Some people may think I’m crazy and that’s bullshit or whatever. But I am not the only one to have seen this apparition of a woman, apparently dating from the end of the 19th century, whose future husband died on the Titanic.
According to the actor, “She was coming from upstate or something and was waiting for him here, and when she found out what had happened to him, she killed herself.”
“The Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (and Other Rock & Roll Stories),” premiered Tuesday at Joe’s Pub in New York and will screen again next Monday before the documentary airs in the United States.
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