Sam Nivola by Maddie Schumacher

I remember thinking he was really normal. 

I met Sam Nivola some years ago at a holiday party in our mutual friends' West Village apartment. 

I remember he was funny, kept good eye contact, and understood how to keep “the bit” going. I also remember thinking he was normal. 

It’s not that young men aren't normal, you see. It's that young male actors can be fairly egocentric. At past New York parties, I have found myself listening to young men rattle on about the meaning of art. I have found myself sitting near many who claim to be the current day Marlon Brando.

It’s not that young male actors aren't normal; it's that they are very loud. 

Sam, however, has a quiet confidence. What’s louder is his love for art.

To be clear, I had no idea Sam was an actor. Nor did I know he would go on to work alongside Bradley Cooper, Noah Baumbach, or Mike White. 

I even vaguely remember telling him about my own experiences in being an actress.  I probably spent most of my drunk slurred speech telling him the meaning of acting. And he sat by nodding and listening to me deeply. At his core, Sam is (and always has been) a really good listener. 

It turns out Sam is an actor - a big one. Yet much like a few years ago, Sam being an actor is about the most boring piece of information about him. 

Sam has become a profoundly good friend of mine. So good a friend, when he was starting a production company; he kept the writers in mind. Sam and I discussed the optics of creating a cultural column about art (the one you're reading right now.) He made my own fixation on the genre of creative essay seem as cool as filming a show in Thailand for seven months. He made my participation in joining his team as cool as having one to begin with. 

Sam doesn’t make anything a pissing contest or a competition. In knowing him, I have found my favorite moments with him always go back to talking about our favorite pieces of art. Sam has made (and will continue to make) really special tv and film. But he's also a devoted spectator. He is as much a part of the screen as he is the audience. 

Sam is intelligent, deeply empathetic, and ambitiously certain to make waves in the film and tv industry alongside the people he cherishes most.. but most of all Sam is just a really decent person. 

On Friday November 14th, we sat down as I did my best impression of Diane Sawyer and gabbed about Nivola’s first born child “Cold Worm Productions..” 

***

Some of this conversation is abbreviated for clarity and because Sam and Maddie are chronically long winded. 

Maddie: Hey Sam 

Sam: Hey Mads !!!

Maddie: Letterbox. Top four favorite movies.. Go 

Sam: Definitely Swingers is number one. Fellini’s Roma. The Dear Hunter and (long pause) either Step Brothers or (here's where he cheated just a tad..) Leos Carax’s Bad Blood

Maddie: What was your first favorite movie? 

Sam: Finding Nemo! Actually my first word was nemo !! 

Maddie: When did you get into movies? Did you watch a lot of movies as a kid? 

Sam: I had this “sort of girlfriend” and she was like this sort of Tompkins Square “stripey shirt” Julian Casablancas type. And she was into all the French New Wave movies. In order to impress this girl, I bought myself a Criterion Channel subscription and became this “total level one pretentious film guy.” And I watched all the French New Wave and the classics and I was just hooked. And then COVID came and the fling with the girl ended and I found myself with nothing to do but watch a million movies a day. And I got really obsessed. 

Maddie: So you didn't always want to be an actor? 

Sam: I wanted to be a director. I still want to be a director. I got into acting because I got an audition to be in Noah Bambach’s White Noise and he was just one of my idols. Growing up in Brooklyn, The Squid and the Whale was everything. It was just one of the best movies I’d ever seen. I didn't care about getting the part. I just wanted to get to the director meeting so I could talk to him and nerd the fuck out. And then somehow I got the role. I love acting now. I always liked acting. I just am a bit of a control freak and the lack of control as an actor is kinda miserable. 

Maddie: Oh god it's the worst. Is that what led you to wanting a production company of your own? When did that start in you? When did we all learn what a production company was?

Sam: Yeah no I had no clue. My parents started their production company. They started really self producing and I thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever done. Like of course I had seen their movies and thought they were incredibly talented actors but I just thought it was so cool to be pursuing this side of the industry.. It makes no money and you’re grinding to raise the money and make a tiny, tiny movie where pay is so elusive.. But you're doing it for love. It felt honorable. 

Maddie: How did you assemble the team for Cold Worm?

Sam: Teddy Ryan and I have been best friends since we were two. Teddy and I were obsessed with watching horror movies together growing up. And Teddy was always so smart about them, always in a way that I sort of wasn't. He is also this amazing writer and we always took creative writing classes together in high school. We had this one lunch where it just seemed like the two of us were a bit lost. We realized we could make something that kept us creative in all the ways we were craving (writing, directing, acting, producing, etc). Teddy also has this incredible knack for numbers and business. So we took a chance. I met Anthony Ertle because he was my on set guardian when I shot White Noise. Anthony went to Loyola Film School and was a Cleveland local and he went to LA and he kinda said fuck you to the natural path that had been laid out for him. He moved to New York and wanted to start this thing with me, his weird young teenage friend.. He's also a genius, an amazing writer, producer, AD on all these little things we've done. 

Maddie: (I smirked) 

Sam: And then we have you, Maddie (Readers note: Sam really said this - this is not the interviewer's ego) and you manage and edit our column. And you work so fucking hard (true xx). 

Maddie: Keeping it in the family! Why do that? What's the biggest pro and con working closely with people you know really well? 

Sam: The pros are that it just never feels like work. They say “if you love your job you never work a day in your life” or whatever. But I feel like it's more “if you love your co-workers you never work a day in your life.” Luckily, I love my job and my co-workers. It's just so fun. It's so fun when you have the same humor and the same goals and the same values. It's the best. 

Maddie: The cons? 

Sam: I don't know if there are any really. I feel like the only way there can be cons is if one of us were a ruthless businessman and wanted to take more. We decided on day one that everything to do with the company (profit, share) we were always gonna split equally. That's an easy way to avoid conflict and it's so obvious. I feel like the way conflict arises in this type of thing is very Social Network. If one of you is an egomaniac that tries to fuck the other people then of course there are problems. But luckily, none of us are assholes. 

Maddie: What production companies inspire you? What are your reference points? 

Sam: Maude Apatow’s production company “Jewelbox Pictures” is awesome. When we started {Cold Worm Productions} it wasn't just companies in particular but more the scenes and groups of people, directors in history who have all been buddies. The Scorseses and The De Palmas and The Spielbergs and The Schraders all hanging out together. All the new wave people: Godard and Truffaut. Then the Neorealists: Da Sica, Visconti, and Fellini… I just wanted to foster and ideally be a part of a community of people who live near each other, people who go out for beers together who just really love movies. People who love making them as much as people who love talking about them. People who are motivated by passion instead of cynical bullshit. 

Maddie:  I keep coming back to your description of being an actor means giving up a real sense of control. I completely agree. Do you think having creative control (as a part of having your own company) affects the creation of the characters? How different is the control and creative process really now from this side of the table?

Sam: It's funny because I feel like the more control I have, the more comfortable I feel delegating that control to people I trust and love. We're doing this movie right now and we've cast the two lead actors who are amazing. My sort of aim with it {from a writer's perspective} is to get all the actors to help polish off the script and make sure the characters feel very specific to them. I've sort of given chunks of my writerly control away to the actors because maybe that's sort of what I've always wanted as an actor myself? Control to me is all based on trust. Another huge benefit of being able to assemble a team of friends and peers and people you've grown up with is the way you can delegate tasks with complete trust that not only will things get done well, but they will also understand your directorial and writerly vision. It's harder (still beautiful) on a bigger project because there are a lot of people who get pulled together for various reasons: higher production value, streaming services, more budget etc. In fact the only time I've seen that type of internal trust on a bigger budget production was on The White Lotus. I mean Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell are married and Walton Goggins and Parker Posey are best friends with them. And they all came up together in the early 2000s with Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan. Their chemistry on that set was just so infectious and fun and badass and amazing to watch. 

Maddie: I love the idea of rising with the people “who knew you when.” It's a special thing and you would think it's an obvious way to work but not everyone is out to make the same work and not everyone is working with the same values. Getting to watch a community of people grow together is just such a fulfilling watch. And it continues to inspire audiences. 

Talk to me about the column. Why start an attached column to this production company? 

Sam: It goes in line with everything we've talked about so far. My goal with all of this is to create a sort of community of people who all share the same love of art. I think the French New Wave even proves that people who write about movies get better at making movies. I love the fact that we keep reaching out to friends and friends of friends. We've been able to get so many different, diverse voices in on this. Growing up in Brooklyn, it's the same people for years and years. And the circles within the industry are similar that way too. I think it's so cool to hear what some friend of a friend thinks about their favorite movie and to hear people who have strong feelings and attachments to these pieces of art. People who may be within the industry but also people who are just spectators. Because 99% of people sitting in the movie theatre don't make movies but they love them just the same. 

Teddy, Anthony, and I are also reading and writing for the column all the time. We love how it changes so frequently and continues to be this melting pot of artistic voices. 

Maddie: There's something so recognizable about Cold Worm Productions and Column now (if I do say so myself) in that you can watch a project here and recognize an actor in that project's friend from high school who happens to be writing that month in the column. It doesn't matter who you find first but that there is a group of people adding to the zeitgeist every month with opinion and art. So so special!!

What have you learned thus far? What has surprised you the most? 

Sam: The workload is really determined by you. You are your own boss to a certain extent. And if Anthony is doing PA work on something or Teddy is or I am acting .. It's very easy to need breaks. It's also very easy to bite off more than you can chew. I can set a million meetings and have three scripts we are actively working on right now and also have things in post production and get so overwhelmed. But then again the grass is always greener. You always wish you were working less when you're working more and always wishing you're working more when you're working less. But you ultimately get to modulate this however you want. And you get to figure it out as you go. 

Maddie: Ending thoughts !! What are you most looking forward to within Cold Worm?

Sam: I’m looking forward to shooting something in New York. We shot my short film “Why Not Pat?” in New York and it was the most fun experience. We've shot two features - one in the West of the US in a sort of rural area and one in Wales - they were both incredible. But I think we're realizing more and more that one of our goals as a company (very big goals for kids like us) but our “pipe dream” is to bring movies back to New York. New York is such a major part of all our lives and upbringings. Even Anthony growing up in Cleveland, the way he talks about New York is so sweet and romantic and it's awesome to see New York through his eyes. I've realized I don't have a lot of friends who live in New York who aren't from here. New York is just a really special place and it produces really special, interesting, weird people. I feel similarly about New York as Fellini feels about Rome: it's this super magical weird place full of odd characters that you can't take your eyes off of. 

Read our website! We have movies coming! We're in post production on some and hoping to submit to festivals soon!! Keep reading the column every month and we'll keep writing. It's early days and we're so happy to see where this all goes

*Maddie and Sam high fived*