Photo by Nitin Vadukul

Cara Buono is not the sort of girl you’d expect would need a gimmick to get kissed. But when the Bronx native was 13 years old she figured it couldn’t hurt her chances with the boys if she casually let it drop that she was an ACTRESS. So all on her own she bought a trade paper at the local candy store and went to an audition. Although she’d never even been to a play, she snuck into the Equity audition and immediately landed a part (in Harvey Fierstein’s Spook House).

“From there I thought it would be about a week until I was a big movie star,” she told me recently at an East Village coffee house. “It’s taken a little longer...”

With a dizzying number of projects in the works or about to be released, movie star time may finally be here for Cara Buono. She can be seen in the new Fine Line release Man of the Century, the Showtime original In a Class of His Own, opposite Joan Chen, and two new independent features Two Ninas (See article pg. 26—ed.), and Chutney Popcorn, as well as the new Dimension release Take Down. Other credits include Kicking and Screaming, Waterland opposite Jeremy Irons, The Cowboy Way with Woody Harrelson, the Sundance hit Next Stop Wonderland, opposite Alan Gelfant, and River Red, with Tom Everett Scott.

Besides her heavily booked acting card, Buono has shown talent behind the camera, as well. The Columbia grad wrote and directed the short film, Baggage, starring Minnie Driver and Sam Rockwell, which has been on the festival circuit, and along with Lyn Vaus and Brad Anderson (Next Stop Wonderland), she co-wrote When the Cat’s Away, in which she’ll co-star for Miramax this spring. She also co-stars with Vince D’Onofrio and Marisa Tomei in Anderson’s new film, Happy Accidents. And she’ll soon star in Greg Mottola’s (The Daytrippers) latest project.

It’s all indie all the time for Buono, who says unabashedly, “I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I’ve worked really hard, and it’s exciting how all this is playing out.” —T.R. MM