My Cousin Vinny was one of the most unexpected hits of the early ’90s and a star-making vehicle for Tomei that drove her all the way to the Oscars. Nominated alongside Dame Joan Plowright and Vanessa Redgrave—who many viewed as the front-runner—in the best-supporting-actress category, Tomei was happy just to be considered. “I was over the moon,” she recalls. “But I also wasn’t really conscious of what the hell was happening.” Presenter Jack Palance even made a crack at Tomei’s newcomer status moments before announcing she’d won: “This is one of the few times in the history of the Academy Awards that five foreign actresses were up for the same award—four English and one from Brooklyn.”
Her hard work paid off early. Tomei was dangerously close to turning down Mona Lisa Vito, the gum-smacking, fast-tawkin’ fiancée of Joe Pesci’s titular lawyer in My Cousin Vinny. Traces of Tomei’s comedic brilliance in the role can still be found in the DNA of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn or Jennifer Lawrence’s Long Island housewife from American Hustle. Lady Gaga—a fellow wise-cracking Italian from New York who idolized Vito—has even gone on the record saying she wants Tomei to play her in a biopic.
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