Trailer Drops for Anthony Bourdain Biopic 'Tony' Showcasing Turbulent Teen Years

The trailer, released this week, follows Dominic Sessa—known for *The Holdovers*—as a restless teen Bourdain lands his first kitchen job on Cape Cod in 1975. The young Bourdain, portrayed with a profanity‑laden swagger, declares, “I’m actually not a fucking cook, I’m a writer,” underscoring his early struggle to define his place in the culinary world.

Matt Johnson, the Canadian director behind 2023’s *BlackBerry*, helms the biopic. Johnson says he chose Sessa because both men grew up in New Jersey, attended private schools, and felt out of step with their surroundings. He describes the project as a partnership with the actor, noting that Sessa’s instincts guided each scene.

The film also features Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones and Leo Woodall, but the focus remains on the formative summer that shaped Bourdain’s later global explorations. The Bourdain estate issued a statement supporting the film, emphasizing that it is not a conventional biopic and does not attempt to summarize his entire life. The estate praised the depiction of Bourdain’s “complexity, intellectual appetite and conviction,” qualities that later made him a cultural touchstone.

*Tony* follows a 2021 documentary, *Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain*, which chronicled the chef’s career. This new narrative zeroes in on a single, largely undocumented period, offering an interpretive look at a young man who would later become a celebrated author, TV host and culinary ambassador before his death in 2018.

The trailer’s gritty tone and explicit language signal a departure from sanitized biopics, aiming instead for an immersive, character‑driven experience. With a summer release slated, the film will join a crowded slate of biographical dramas, testing whether audiences respond to a focused, early‑life portrait rather than a full‑career overview.

What to watch next: Box‑office performance of *Tony* and audience reactions to its unconventional storytelling approach will indicate whether this focused slice of Bourdain’s life resonates with a broader public.