Independent pro wrestler Vinny Pacifico, who hails from Staten Island, has been cast in a new film called “I Dream of Pizza,” adding another credit to a growing list of acting work he’s been building alongside his career in the ring.
The movie, directed by Matt Provenzano, follows a pizza-making prodigy who leaves Italy for New York City to open his own shop, only to find it taken over by an Italian crime family. The cast includes Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Michael Leavy, Giorgio Cantarini and Vic Dibitetto, with Pacifico saying more names are expected to be announced. The film is currently in pre-production and is expected to shoot partly in New York and partly in Italy.
Pacifico told OutKick Dropkick he didn’t hesitate when the project was described to him.
“When they came to me about it, it was described as like a ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Ratatouille,’ and I said, ‘Wait a minute. Are you kidding me? Who would say no to this?’ I love ‘Ratatouille.’ I’m a huge fan of that. … So, once I heard that, I was all in, and that was it.”
He added that the project holds personal meaning for him. “I’m Italian myself and it’s finally my first ever Italian film,” he said. “It’s about a kid who wants to have an Italian restaurant, and it kind of gets taken over by mobsters. Great story. It’s a positive fun story, a lot of twists and turns to it.”
Balancing the Ring and the Screen
Pacifico has mostly worked the independent wrestling circuit, splitting time between Coastal Championship Wrestling in Florida and Hollywood Wrestling. Despite his rising profile in film, he said he has no intention of stepping away from wrestling.
“Until I can’t do it anymore,” he said when asked if he saw an end point to his wrestling career. “I don’t wanna stop. I wanna do both until … I want to do both forever. I don’t want to stop either of them and I never will stop either of them.”
He said he’s committed to protecting his body so he can keep wrestling for decades. “I’m going to make sure that I keep my body healthy, that I do physical therapy all the time, that I make sure my body is up to speed where it needs to be to continue wrestling well into my 60s and 70s if I can. That’s what I want,” he said.
Pacifico acknowledged the physical toll of the business, from bumps and weapons shots to the grind of constant travel. “I had a month where I flew coast to coast like eight times. Flights do damage to your body, you know, sitting crammed in a seat,” he said, adding that stretching, vitamins and recovery work have helped him manage the wear and tear.
Other Wrestlers He’d Like to See on Screen
Asked which independent wrestling personalities could make the jump to film, Pacifico named several names he admires, including Richard Holliday, Ben Bishop, Gangrel, Effy and Rhett Titus. He said he’s working on separate projects involving Effy and praised Titus’s comedic timing as “massively underrated.”
Fans can currently catch Pacifico in “Mr. Reset and the Society of Turnbuckle & Bone” and “Between the Living and the Dead” while “I Dream of Pizza” moves through pre-production.
