Marisa Tomei Says She 'Really Regrets' Getting Stuck in Mom Roles: It's 'Not the Right Road'

Marisa Tomei, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1993, is opening up about playing the mom in Hollywood

Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei . Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty

Marisa Tomei is opening up about her reluctance to continue playing mom roles.

The Oscar winner, who won the award for Best Supporting Actress in 1993 for her role in My Cousin Vinny, spoke to Collider on Thursday about her current role as a mom opposite Pete Davidson in the comedy The King of Staten Island, and how she came to play motherly roles.

“I really regret starting down this road and I really regret starting to do that,” Tomei said. “I was, you know, talked into it — not [King of Staten Island], but I mean just that change — and I really always felt like, ‘Oh I could play a lot of things.’”

She continued, “Honestly, [playing a mom is] probably more of a stretch than other things. I think every actor and actress has a lot of dimensions to them and if the scope of what is being written and being made is narrow, and you want to keep working, you do what you can.”

“I mean, I do. I tried it,” she added. “It was maybe not the right road, but you know, I do try to make the most of it.”

WATCH: Marisa Tomei Reveals She Would ‘Love to Sing and Dance in a Movie’

Tomei’s career path has recently led her to play Aunt May opposite Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in the latest Spider-Man films.

She has starred in a slew of films including 1994’s Only You with Robert Downey Jr., 2008’s The Wrestler, The Lincoln Lawyer, Crazy, Stupid, Love, What Women Want and Anger Management

When asked what characters she’d love to play, Tomei said, “I mean, even genres that I would love to be in, you know? The femme fatale, and in a noir.”

“I still think there are other aspects of even romantic comedies. I really love them, but you know really at a screwball level,” she added. “There’s so many, many — the breadth of as much as women are, there’s so many roles.”

The King of Staten Island is on VOD today.

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