Hidden talents of Pa. lawmakers: The legislators lurking in episodes of ‘Succession’ and ‘Cheers’

By COLIN DEPPEN
Spotlight PA

Pennsylvania legislators have hobbies too, and sometimes surprising hidden talents.

Months before launching his bid for a Schuylkill County state House seat, Tim Twardzik spent an entire day on the set of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Twardzik, a background actor in season 3, episode 3 of the lauded Amazon series, played a hotel chef on the periphery of a crowded party scene in midcentury America, “chopping carrots” as the show’s stars swirled around him, he recalled to PA Local.

His actual location was a New York City soundstage, where he wore a white pillbox hat and chef’s jacket for hours as takes were perfected.

Almost a year after that episode’s release, Twardzik won his state House seat. The Republican thought about returning to the Maisel set after assuming office but relented, telling PA Local that playing roles like “gentlemen’s club patron” no longer seemed “prudent.”

Twardzik, a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild, has appeared on call sheets for years. He’s played bit parts in films Glass and 21 Bridges, and the shows Servant, Succession, and The Mare of Eastown — which was filmed in Pennsylvania. In Creed II he played a pediatrician, a role he says allowed him to draw on years of experience as a hospital board member.

“Plus it has given me the opportunity to use the line: ‘I’m not a doctor but I played one in Creed II’ in a [legislative] hearing,” he added.

His only speaking roles came in commercials for the family business, Mrs. T’s Pierogies (the T stands for “Twardzik”), including one in which a plate of the frozen dumplings turns a grumpy biker bar into a wide-eyed polka party. The ad ends with a close-up of a pierogi-tatted bicep.

These days Twardzik is still fielding roles — he uses Philadelphia’s Heery Loftus Casting agency and websites like Auditions Free to find openings — but says they’re “hard to fit into busy Harrisburg and District schedules” given the time commitment involved.

Asked if there’s anything he’s learned working as a paid extra that has applied to his legislative career, Twardzik said: “Show up on time. Learn your role.”

There have been plenty of U.S. politicians with acting experience, from Ronald Reagan to Arnold Schwarzenegger to a SAG-AFTRA pensioner named Donald Trump. For the second installment of our recurring feature about the hidden talents of Pennsylvania lawmakers (here’s the first), PA Local is highlighting two state lawmakers whose acting ambitions have taken a backseat to public service.

In Pennsylvania’s state Senate, third-term Republican lawmaker Camera Bartolotta has her own IMDb page and film and TV credits dating back to the 1980s.

There’s an uncredited role in 2014’s The Fault in our Stars, executive producer and acting credits on the 2013 B-movie Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies, associate producer and acting credits on 2012’s Lucifer’s Unholy Desire, a “newswoman” role on an episode of the 1986 NBC series Hunter, commercials for Armstrong Cable, Roomful Express, and even a stint as a “White Cloud eCig spokesperson.” She’s also had plenty of nonspeaking roles.

Bartolotta, who grew up in Los Angeles and started acting in college, landed background spots in Pretty in Pink and the iconic sitcom Cheers.

She told PA Local she “looked like everyone in Hollywood at the time,” a benefit, though in the context of her Cheers appearances, a bit of a logistical problem.

“I did a ton of Cheers episodes, but after the first few, I was confusing the audience,” Bartolotta recalled, noting her likeness to the show’s star, Shelley Long.

“So I would be given my background directions, and anytime Shelley would pass in the same frame as me, I would have to turn my head away. Finally, they just planted me at the end of the bar with my back to the audience. … And that became my place to be. I was like a regular.”

Some parts would wind up smaller than expected. While Bartolotta said she was prominently featured in the trailer for the Pittsburgh-shot The Fault in Our Stars, she was reduced to just “a little dot in the background” in the final cut of the film. “You get used to that,” she explained, adding that’s why “you don’t tell everybody, ‘Oh my gosh, you gotta watch, you gotta watch.’” Now representing Beaver, Greene, and Washington counties in the General Assembly, where she founded the Film Industry Caucus, Bartolotta doubts there are more acting roles in her future and says she’s OK with that.

She thinks back to 1986, when after vying for a three-year contract part on a soap opera called Santa Barbara, she was rejected for the role but told the show had written a new one just for her.

“I was in my little tiny apartment in Van Nuys and the moving truck was outside packing up all of my stuff. I was moving to Pennsylvania that day with my then fiance, Bruce Bartolotta. … I got a call from my agent. I said, ‘Well, I’m moving to Pittsburgh.’

“He thought I was kidding. So 10 minutes later, I got a call from the head of casting [for the network], and she said, ‘I just wanted to hear for myself.’ And I said: ‘If I say yes to this, I say no to him. And I’ve already made that decision and, you know, I’m happy with my choice. Thanks very much.”