Following his breakout role in the Oscar-nominated film “The Holdovers,” South Jersey-native actor Dominic Sessa is poised to take on his next big-screen role.
Sessa will star alongside Rose Byrne and Demi Lovato in the drama, “Tow,” Deadline reported. The film will depict the true story of Amanda Ogle, an unhoused Seattle woman who entered a legal battle with a towing company that impounded her car after it was stolen and demanded $21,634 to return the automobile to her. Ogle will serve as an executive producer on the film, which will be directed by Stephanie Laing.
RELATED: Meet South Jersey’s Dominic Sessa, star of the Oscar-nominated film ‘The Holdovers’
Sessa, 21, was born in Cherry Hill and grew up in Egg Harbor Township and Ocean City. He was a senior at the Massachusetts boarding school Deerfield Academy when he earned his first movie role as troubled teen Angus Tully in “The Holdovers,” which was using his school as a filming location.
“The Holdovers,” directed by Alexander Payne, follows a group of workers and students at an all-boys prep school who become unlikely companions when they are forced to stay on the New England campus over the Christmas break in 1970. Sessa’s character Angus soon becomes the only student left “holding over” with unpopular instructor Paul Hunham, played by Paul Giamatti, and the school’s grief-stricken head cook Mary Lamb, played by Philly-native actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The film was nominated for five Oscars, including best picture and nods to Giamatti for best actor and Randolph for best supporting actress. Giamatti and Randolph already scored Golden Globes for their roles.
For his part, Sessa earned rave reviews — New York Times critic Wesley Morris called him a “natural.” He also received the Critics’ Choice Award for best young actor, a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actor and an Independent Spirit Award win for breakthrough performance.
Sessa continues generating buzz online for his talent, fashion sense and floppy-haired good looks. While he claims to be “ignorant” to social media, he did tell GQ he hopes to “bring sideburns back,” acknowledging his signature hairstyle.
In his cover story for the Spring 2024 issue of Wonderland magazine, Sessa discussed how his unique look may have helped him earn the role of Angus when the casting department for the “The Holdovers” scouted actors at the schools where the movie was filming.
“I think in all of [Payne’s] movies, he’s looking for real people and not wanting [them] to seem like an actor or a celebrity, which I think is why he really liked me,” Sessa told Wonderland. “He had a look in his mind [for Angus] and there’s something about my hair and I had these crazy sideburns in high school. Maybe he was just in a good mood the day he saw my tape or something. You never know what it is. It really does come down to those moments, the stars having to align in a perfect way.”