Wasted Talent

- When I was first approached to do

the documentary, I was a little apprehensive,

obviously being a former police officer

and they said why don't just take a meeting

and see if you guys, you know, get on the same page.

And I spoke to him.

I told him if we were to move forward

with this, it could not under any circumstances

be a puff piece and you know,

there might be people calling you

a scumbag, piece of shit

as well as people saying you deserve

a second change and he was okay with that.

So, once I found out he was okay with it

and it wasn't going to be a puff piece,

I decided, you know, I think

it would be a good idea doing my due diligence

on what actually happened.

Once we decided to move forward, I really

dug in and did my due diligence on the case

and realized that a lot of stuff that I perceived

was through tabloids and the newspaper

and a lot of other people had the same perception.

So basically, it's my job and hopefully

when you leave here, you have an opinion

of other either way.

That he either deserves a second chance

or he got out because he is who he is.

How you doin'.

My name's Lillo.

I'm an addict. - Hi, Lillo.

- You know, I went from the kid in the Bronx Tale.

You know, rising star from the neighborhood.

Starring in the classic movie to a junkie.

- Five a.m. December 10th, 2005.

Off duty New York police officer, Daniel Enchautegui

responded to what sounded like a break in

at a neighbor's home.

The burglary erupted into a gun fight

with Broncato and his accomplice.

- They said the police officer is dead.

He was villainized in the press immediately.

- We all remember Lillo Brancato.

He was such a rising star.

Acted with De Niro, James Gandolfini.

But his career came to a screeching halt one night

when he was involved in a crime that ended

with a police officer dead.

- So Lillo, tell me about how it was growing

up in Yonkers.

How about your childhood?

Family and all that stuff.

We were very middle class.

Blue collar family.

It was a very tight knit community.

It was all, it was all Italian.

It was all Italians with the exception

of my next door neighbor which was Puerto Rican.

But pretty much, it was all Italian.

There was a lot goin' on in the streets.

You know, we were playin' stick ball, football.

Lot of that goin' on.

Parents yellin' from the window to get inside.

You know, yeah, it was a really, really good childhood.

Lot of great memories from my childhood.

- Was there ever type of drug use back then?

Not with you.

Did you ever witness any of that stuff

or was that even a thought or--

Absolutely not, absolutely.

I mean, you would hear about things, you know,

in cautionary things, cautionary stuff in school.

- Right. - You know about drugs,

but that's something that wasn't really prevalent

in my life or something that I ever witnessed.

Or I really never paid attention to it,

only until later on in my life when it, you know,

the opportunity to do drugs started presenting itself.

You're on Jones Beach one day

with your brother--

- Yeah, brother, like I was like maybe 10, 15 of us.

- Uh huh, then what happened?

- It was the day after Fourth of July.

July fifth, 1992, and you know, we just decided

let's go to the beach tomorrow.

We used to go out to Jones Beach, field four

and that's a drive.

Yonkers with traffic, it could take you

an hour to get out there, sometimes even more.

So we went out there.

We just went out, school just ended,

so this is the beginning of summer vacation

and little did I know that that day

on the beach was gonna totally change my life.

Now, I had heard about The Bronx Tale

and I heard that there was open call auditions

and that they were looking for someone

with no previous acting experience

to play Robert De Niro's son

and a film called A Bronx Tale

which Robert De Niro would make his directorial debut.

And you know, to go back to what I

was just sayin', I thought in my mind,

that would be pretty interesting,

being that people tell me that I look like him,

but I said, naw, there's now way I'll

ever be in a movie.

I mean, it's a movie on the big screen.

Where the long shot, middle class, blue collar family,

it just doesn't happen every day.

And my brother, I hear my brother screaming.

I didn't know what happened.

I ran out of the water and my brother said,

"hey, you know, remember that movie we heard

"about, that Robert De Niro movie?

"Well, this guy, he's out here right, he's out here

"on the beach today looking for kids

"to play the part and I told him

"that you look like him."

And the guy's name is Marco Greco

and my brother, and the guy said,

he told my brother, "you're right, he

"does look like him."

And I just kind rose to the occasion.

I knew, I knew this was my shot.

So, he didn't have to ask me to do anything.

I just started doin' the face and

the whole thing and are you talkin' to me

and the guy's like oh wow, this guys' great.

I love this guy.

So, it was a Sunday, July fifth.

He said usually we're closed

at the Belmont Playhouse.

"Usually we're closed today, but I like you."

he goes, can you meet me in the Bronx tonight

at this time and for some reason, I just knew.

I knew on the ride home from the beach, I

just knew that something was gonna happen

from this situation.

I went home, I told my mom.

It was my next door neighbor's birthday.

My aunts were there and then, ah, you know.

Her son read for the part and she was like,

oh, you know, so and so read for the part.

You're not gonna get it.

They've got so many kids reading

and you know, it's big.

So I said, well, I can only try, right.

So, I went in that night.

My two friends drove me down there

and the guy, Marco, was there,

and I'd never seen anything in the screen play,

in screen play form.

The guy just gave me the scene

and he said, "have you ever done this before,"

and I said, "no, I've never done this before."

he said, "well, here's the scene.

"Just read it, see what it is

"and I'll come back in a little bit.

"Let me know when you're ready

"and you'll read it."

And I remember just lookin' at it

and just looked like something

that was familiar to me and something

that I possibly would be capable of doing.

It was the bathroom scene when I'm shaving.

In the original script, De Niro's shaving

and I ask him, dad, let me ask you a question

about the interracial dating, you know.

What his thoughts were on that

and the whole thing and that was the audition scene.

And I read it and I just knew what to do.

It just seemed like it came naturally to me

and I told the guy, Marco, I'm ready

and I read it and the guy was blown away.

He was like, wow, that was great.

That was the best anyone's ever read it.

And then he started asking me to do other scenes.

He said, "why don't you try this scene,"

and, "do this scene."

And the character in the movie, his name was Calogero.

My father's Sicilian and so is the character.

My father is from the province of Agrigento

in Sicily in a little town called Naro

and in Italy, you have a lot of these little towns

that have saints that come from that town.

- Right. - The saint from

my father's town was San Calogero

and my father even went to the reform school, San Calo,

when they used to shorten it.

But you know, just for like that part,

that role in that movie was just meant for me.

It was all lined up.

Yeah, all the stars aligned

and I was like, wow, man.

He was like, that was great.

Then we exchanged numbers and he said right

before I left, he said, "call me in

"about a week," you know.

"Call me in about a week or so and I'll tell you