Celebrity Talk

with Joe Mantegna

Archive: George Trulock Patrick Sweeney Richard Grozik Tom Turpin Carlo Fiocci

Welcome to the Shotgunworld Celebrity Talk. This section of Shotgunworld is used to bring you interviews with the rich and famous, industry leaders, authors and shooting innovators. These will be celebrities that you want to hear from. In conjunction with this we will often provide a section in our Celebrity Forum for you to ask questions directly. To ask a question visit our Celebrity Talk Forum. Lets get started...

Our Celebrity Interview is with Joe Mantegna. Tony award winning actor, nominated for two Emmy's and a Golden Globe, director, writer and one of the current stars on the hit TV show "Joan of Arcadia". Joe seems to do it all and seems to do them all very well. Some of Mr. Mantegna's most memorable roles are Dean Martin in "The Ratpack", Pippi De Lena "The Last Don" and the voice of 'Fat Tony' on 'The Simpsons". Shotgunworld is excited to bring you an interview with such a talented man.
Be sure to visit Joe Mantegna's website at http://www.joemantegna.com

Interview by Mike "MD_Beatt" Beatty, Shotgunworld.com staff

SGW: Thank you for giving us this opportunity Joe.
First off the bat are you familiar with Shotgunworld?

Joe M: Yes I have actually looked at it in the past

SGW : Can you tell us about how you first got in to Shooting and the Shotgun sports?

Joe M: I was in my early twenties. In Chicago that’s where I grew up. There used to be this wonderful Skeet Range Right on Lake Michigan , In a beautiful park right near downtown Chicago.
I think it was called Belmont Harbor Shooting Club. They Had these old Skeet towers that looked like they were built back in the thirties, and they used to have Skeet shooting right over Lake Michigan there. And it was this wonderful club, and I used to ride my bike over there in the summertime. And up to this point understand, I had never shot a gun in my life but I was always intrigued by it. I would watch these guys shoot their shotguns, I would just stand there at the fence there and watch them, and it was such a beautiful setting there with Lake Michigan in the background. Then one day this one guy was on the other side of the fence, Was walking from his car carrying a shotgun, walked over by the fence and said “do you shoot?” I said “No I never done it, I just like to watch you guys shoot I think it‘s interesting” And he say’s “Well would you like to shoot?” I said “well I don’t have a shotgun, I don’t know anything about this, I am just watching” Then he says “Come on you can shoot with me” I said “Right Now?” he said “yeah right now, just go ahead and park your bike and come on with me” I said “Well I don’t have any money, I don’t have anything.” He said “Don’t worry about it just come with me”
So I go in ,the guy goes back to his car, to his trunk and opens it up, he has another shotgun back there, and hands it to me, of course at the time I did not know he had two Perazzi’s. I didn’t know a Perazzi from Adam at that time. He takes me over, we go into the clubhouse, he gets the shells, and he treats me to a round of Skeet. He along the way gives me tips and pointer’s and then we shot a second round.

And he introduces me to several of the people there, and I mean obviously by that time I am hooked, then I found out he was the president of the club.
Now this was the most perfect introduction anyone could have to the shooting sports. Because at the end of those two rounds I loved it. And of course he wouldn’t take any money, nothing. He paid for everything the eye wear, the hearing protection. He said “What do you think?”
I told him I could not wait to get my own shotgun and do this. He advised me to get a Remington 1100 with a Trap Stock.
At the same time I was doing a play where I had to shoot a handgun, that was the first time I ever fired a hand gun. I remember to this day I went out the next day to the same store (where the play had got the handgun... Shore Galleries). I explained that I wanted a Remington 1100 with a Trap stock. I still have that gun today.
I went back to that gun club a week later with my shotgun. I told the guy I did it... I did what you told me...so I wound up occasionally shooting at that club. Unfortunately, a few years later the club fell to the politics of some do gooders who thought there was too much lead falling into the lake. It’s just a shame that they tore the place downl., but I was hooked from that point on ... on shotgun shooting. That lead into Sporting Clays and Trap.

SGW: I had read a few years ago in an interview with you where you had not yet , as of then, shot Trap how do you get into Trap?

Joe M: Well the Trap came later. In other words I started with Skeet, so that’s what I really got in to. Then I got introduced to Sporting Clays and really got in to that. I mean Trap was always there, and I always had an interest in it I just had not had much experience in it. Then actually one year at the 'Charleston Heston Celebrit' shoot I actually won a Trap gun..a very nice Trap gun, so I took that as a sign that I should start getting in to some Trap here. So I started shooting some Trap, so on an occasion, especially at these events I would get an occasion to shoot some Trap. Now I enjoy that as well. Skeet was kind of the first thing that got me into it then Sporting Clays, but I'm starting to shoot more Trap then I had in the past.

SGW:I my self am a Trap shooter and a little sporting clays, I guess I have never got up the nerve to walk on the Skeet field.

Joe M: I understand, it’s a different thing I mean this is where I started, so it's what I got familiar with... and I just shoot Skeet better. I mean I have cleaned 25 in Skeet . I have never done that in Trap, yet.

SGW: When you first started shooting Skeet what was the biggest problems/bad habits that you had to overcome?

Joe M: Well, I mean I think you find out that gun placement is real important, and first of all getting the proper gun fit and all that . And what your shooting is important. I would just say the main thing is to get good instruction right away, just like in any sport . I found this to be true in golf, and anything else. Because I also play some Golf. Is if you can get really good instruction from the beginning, you can avoid developing lots of bad habits that might come from kind of winging it on your own, and trying to assume you know what your doing. A lot of it is also just getting back, I mean I had shot some rifles prior to that . People think that the first time they shoot a shotgun, that it is going to be similar to shooting a rifle, kind of like aim at the target. You have to overcome that belief that a moving target is the same way as a stationary one. It’s that whole thing of keeping the gun moving, is always a big factor, and it’s the one habit that you have to get out of if you have done target shooting. Whether it be pistol or rifle, shotgun shooting is just a different principal. It’s a different form of shooting. The same rules don’t apply, but beyond that just things like fit, and all that, learning about beads, that’s just something that don’t apply to target shooting. But again if you can start with some good instruction, you can learn more in just one round with some one who really knows what they’re doing, Then you can going out a hundred times on your own.

SGW: Do you shoot all four gauges in Skeet?

Joe M: I have tried them all, I am a little intimidated by the .410, Because I really don’t need the disappointment . I primarily shoot 12GA, But the second gun I bought was a 20Ga so I have shoot a lot of Skeet with a 20GA. Then recently I got one of my daughters involved, and bought her a 28GA, I have all four. So I am prepared to shoot all four. But I primarily , Because of my work schedule, because I cant go out shooting as often as I like. I primarily shoot 12GA because I give myself a little break and then if I can get myself in a groove and start feeling more confident and go out on a more regular basis. I would think I would start thinking about playing around with the 20GA and the 28GA. The .410, like I said, I am always impressed when I see guys that can really master that gauge, That’s what’s great about the game. Once you have one thing locked in pretty well, then you can kind of move on to another gauge, then it becomes a whole new game.

SGW: I know you said your daughter is now shooting, have you taken your wife, and kids shooting?

Joe M: Well they have all tried it, but my youngest daughter, I think has taken an interest in it to where I feel good about taking her out. I look forward to taking her out shooting ...she’s still pretty young. She’s fourteen .

SGW: You spoke earlier about the club you first shot at being shut down. We have some members that are fighting to save there gun club from the do gooders. In your View what would be a solution to that or is there a solution to that?

Joe M: Well you do what you can. Now here in California I am a member of a private gun club, so in other words we own the land and we share it with three other clubs. We have about 80 acres. We control it and we own it. We at least avoid the problem of someone stepping in and saying well this can't happen, as far as we can tell at this point. There is always going to be that constant battle between people that don’t quite understand what the sport is. I guess the only solution is, if people are really serious about it They have to make sure they can get control of the property and designate it for shooting. And then maintain it, you know its difficult to count on outside forces to always be there, and be sympathetic. That club in Chicago was on Park district land and the shooter there had no control. They were at the whims of government . On the other hand there is a range here in California called Oak Tree that was just recently purchased by a gentleman. I mean it was a nice range, but it was getting kind of run down. It was in a part of L.A. where property values were going up and I could almost see it coming where the guy was going to have to bail and sell it to some developers. Then this guy stepped in who is a very wealthy man. He single handily bought the whole property. Then invested a couple million dollars into it, and turned it in to a first class Skeet, Trap, Sporting Clays field. Just built upon what was already there, and it's great. It is a really terrific shooting facilities now and it's within 30 minutes of Hollywood.

SGW: What do you feel is the best way to bring new people in to the shotgun sports?

Joe M: I think education, and what that guy did for me every shooter has a responsibility to propagate the shooting sports. Start with the youths and be able to say "look your going to get a lot of weird images, people of different factions are going to tell you that guns are evil, and this and that and the other. And guns can be used for evil purposes but that’s got nothing to do with the shooting sports. I mean you can use a chainsaw for evil purposes. That doesn’t mean its an evil tool. So you just have to be exposed to it in the proper way."
We have an event coming up here in June that we do every year. It's the "Hollywood Celebrity Shoot" which is really a nice thing, and they are very tied in to youth shooting programs as well. He used to have the Charleston Hesston Shoot years ago, but Mr. Hesston got ill and he could not support that much any more. So now its been renamed the Hollywood Celebrity Shoot and I am very active in that. Once a year we all get together and that’s a good way to get a lot of press on it. I think it’s a way of showing that this is a pretty interesting sport. You know we are not all these madmen running around shooting guns. It’s a disciplined and organized sporting event . People like Robert Stack ...the Late Robert Stack.... who was a great ambassador for the sport. That’s just what we need to do... to propagate the sport in the best possible light and the best possible way. That way people understand that it is a viable recreation . One argument I won't accept is when people who have never shot a gun are opposed to it. I say well look lets do this, I will meet you half way, you just come with me once let me expose you to it. If you still don’t like it fine, but you at least have to experience it first to know what you are talking about. Nine out of ten times, when I offer people that opportunity, it will turn their head completely 100% around. Let alone a person that has no feeling about it, and then you expose them to it, usually their hooked right away. Very often I have had people that were absolutely negative against it all of a sudden, once expose to it, go "you know this isn’t what I thought the shooting sports were all about". I think that’s what we need to do.

SGW: Do you Reload your own shells?

Joe M: I do, I reload all of my own 12 GA, I don’t have all the other dyes for all the other Gauges. But I load all my 12 GA.

SGW: Do you do it to get just the right load, or is it more of a hobby ?

Joe M: I do it for enjoyment, I really do, because to be honest with you, I am fortunate enough with my career I can afford to buy any ammo I want to. But I learned early on when I could not afford it... when I was really hooked on the sport... a friend of mine who was an avid shooter and a wonderful teacher... and was a wonderful shooter was into it in a very big way. He was a guy that did not have a lot of money or anything , so he was always very frugal about how he spent his money. So he was totally in to reloading of every thing. He would reload pistol rounds, rifle rounds, shotgun shells. He is the one who got me in to it, and so early on he helped me in terms of buying a press, and all the equipment , and all the stuff I would need. I mean literally setup in my garage. I have powder, I have hulls, I have wads, and shot. So at any given moment I can go down in my garage. I find it very relaxing and very rewarding to be able to load my own . I don’t know enough about it to get real creative or start changing loads that he preset for me years ago. I still load that same load.

SGW: would you say that cost is the biggest challenge to new/younger shooters entering the sport?

Joe M: I would say cost is a factor, but you know any recreational sport is expensive, look at Golf for example. You have to buy the equipment then if you want to play at any decent course, it is going to cost you a lot of money. It is a factor, but there are more economical ways to shoot. You can buy a used shotgun. Invest in some used equipment, learn to reload. And a round of Skeet or a round of Trap , I don’t think is much more than bowling. The biggest expense after the shotgun is the ammo.
It is a factor, but thats not really going to change. I would not say it’s like being a polo player or something like that.

SGW: Are you a gun collector, or do you mainly buy guns that you plan on shooting a lot?

Joe M: My guns are pretty much shooting guns. I don’t have a shotgun today that I would not take out and shoot. I don’t have any antique shotguns or anything like that. I have plenty of other antique firearms. My shotguns are mainly for shooting. Maybe down the line if I had the time and space I might get in to the collecting part of it. I think of guns more as working implements or tools. So when I am impressed by a shotgun it is something more that I am anxious to shoot as opposed to something to put away.

SGW: What are your main shooting shotguns?

Joe M: My main shooting shotguns are Beretta O/Us, I have Sporting Clay ones that are designated for Sporting Clays, some what, but they can be used for other sports depending on how I choke them, but my main gun is a Beretta Super Sport, and then I have a Browning Trap gun with the high rib. I also have a Winchester pump and I have a Remington 1100, Charles Daly in 28 GA and a Charles Daly in 12GA. I know the President of the Charles Daly Company, so I am partial lately to the Charles Daly. My main gun is the Beretta, but lately I have had the opportunity to shoot a Perazzi. The very first shotgun I ever shot was a Perazzi. I did not shoot another Perazzi for over twenty years, but I was out recently and was able to shoot a friends Perazzi. I really liked that gun. I think there might be one in my future.

SGW: what would you say is your favorite thing about the shooting sports?

Joe M: Part of it is the camaraderie. Part of it is that little society of shooters that we all are a part of and also to be in the outdoors. Really, the same thing I like about golf....to get out there with people that have a like interest. It’s really that I mean.... were a fraternity.... it is a fraternity of shooters. In other words, we are people that share this common interest and when we all get together and do it, there is a certain kind of enjoyment in that. To be able to just forget about everything else and talk about this thing we are doing. It’s primitive in a way. In other words its going back to a time when you feel like your doing something guys did 100 years ago. The shooting sports go all the way back to the invention of firearms. So there is a certain tradition to that. I love shooting outdoors. I mean once I moved to California from Chicago I spent a lot of time shooting pistols and such at indoor ranges. Once I realized there were outdoor ranges that were designed for all kinds of shooting, like the range I belong to, we are able to shoot anything there from pistols, rifles, shotguns...and a variety of games. I love the outdoors, and that aspect of it. Like I said the camaraderie of it. The fact that people from all walks of life, from Doctors, lawyers, actors, and plumbers, truck drivers, farmers, etc we're all equal when we are out on the range.

SGW: Speaking of actors and Hollywood, have you had to deal with a lot of Anti-Gun bias?

Joe M: Well there is anti gun bias everywhere. I think what happens is with show business the anti gun crowd get more press, just because it is show business and in the public eye on a larger scale. But I don’t know if there is any more or less in my business than any other walk of life. So of course I am aware of it and I know that there are people in my business that frown on this whole thing, and think its bad and should be stopped and whatever. But all I can say is there are those of us also that feel otherwise. We propagate the sport and do what we do to show there is no real reason to be Anti . If you don’t agree with it personally then fine then don’t do it, but that’s no reason to be against others doing it. That’s like there are people who are anti hunting because they have certain feelings about animals. Yet if they had a real knowledge about what hunting was about , that hunters for the most part are the reason a lot of this wildlife exists , they might understand it a little differently...but then a lot of is just education.

SGW: A couple members of shotgun world wanted me to ask you, what you think of Hollywood actors that come out as being against the 2nd amendment , yet then go out and make violent shoot them up movies?

Joe M: Exactly I think it is totally hypocritical. I absolutely think that’s hypocritical. It is the old it’s "ok for me, but not for you". In other words they should follow through with their beliefs 100% and not make these types of movies.
That’s why I am doing this interview with you right now. I make no bones about my enjoyment of these sports and gun ownership and I don’t care what anybody else thinks about it. You know people read an interview with Joe Mantegna saying how much he likes shooting shotguns, and that bothers them, So be it. I think that you would find a contingency of people here in Hollywood that own guns and shoot. But are very low profile about it and wont talk about it. They do worry that they don’t want an image attached to them. I think that’s unfortunate.

There was a politician out here in L.A. who was one of the biggest anti 2nd amendment people going... I forget his name and it was a while back... and it turns out that somebody was in his back yard and he thought it was a burglar and he shot him. And this was a guy that was trying to Ban Ownership of handguns in L.A. period. And he winds up shooting a guy. He did not kill him but wound the guy in the leg. The hypocrisy of it makes me a little upset

SGW: In your Role as a supreme court Justice in First Monday in October, you came down in support of the 2nd Amendment.

Joe M: Yes as you saw I supported the 2nd, when the producer of the show came up with the idea for that episode. I told him it’s a good idea, but my character has got to come down on the side of the 2nd. I think it was a first for CBS to do a show where the lead actor on a show ultimately promoted the 2nd.

SGW: I know a lot of our members here have a pretty good sense of humor, So I wanted to ask you about one of your best roles. Fat Tony on the Simpson’s. How did that come about?

Joe M: Well it was almost 15 years ago when they first came to me to do an episode of the Simpson’s . They asked me to come in and do just one episode . I had done a lot of gangster type roles like in the Godfather3 and the last Don, so I thought this would be fun to kind of parody . I liked the show so I went and did the one episode. I had no idea that it would resonate like it has. The Fans of the show and the writers liked Fat Tony so well that they keep bring him back. Matter of fact I just finished up three episodes of the Simpson’s that will air this season. It’s all in good fun, it’s a good character so I keep doing it.

SGW: what are some of your other projects that are coming up soon?

Joe M: Well I have the movie Uncle Nino, it’s out in the Chicago area right now in fact, and it’s a independent film I filmed in Chicago about two years ago. It also has my daughter in it, (the one that now shoots) also. http://www.uncleninothemovie.com/
Then I am continuing on Joan of Arcadia. I have a film called the Kid and I , with Tom Arnold and a film... another independent film... called Nine Lives that will be coming out. So I keep busy, and I still read the books on tape, I do all the Robert Parker “Spenser” books.

SGW: Well Joe I really appreciate you giving us a small bit of your time to do this interview.

Joe M: Oh it’s my pleasure, I think it’s a good website, I love the shotgun sports the best out of all the shooting sports. I have met wonderful people by taking part in the shotgun sports.