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You grow up in a Sicilian household, becoming an actor is not a big leap.

Doing an accent removes you from yourself and reminds you, every instant, that you're playing a part.

Funny enough, every role that I have had, I try to tone down my accent or speak with better diction.

My accent remained terrible. It was very hard for me to initiate any conversation with someone I didn't know.

Back in Rome I did some acting lessons and I realised I loved it more than anything else I had ever done before.

I grew up in the Lower East Side, an Italian American - more Sicilian, actually.

I don't aspire to just play things that are like me. Whether the accent is Taiwanese or British or Canadian - that is the very craft in which I was trained. It is my absolute privilege and honor to do that.

If I can iron out my accent, it opens up another world of possible jobs. Whereas if you have that very strong European accent, it leaves you always being cast as the Hungarian maid or the stripper or whatever. I have voice lessons, and my coach has given me different tongue-twisters to rehearse at home.