THOMAS: I’m playing Sinatra Jr. during his ’63 kidnapping and I did a lot of research on him. In fact, my grandfather used to open for Sinatra Jr. as a standup comedian.
When I met Frank Jr. at a show after I’d finished the film, he recited some of my grandfather’s stand-up routine. As far as playing a good Sinatra, I got to sing a couple of tunes that all of my friends, at first when they hear it, if I don’t mention that it’s me singing, they don’t know. I get their opinion on it, like, “Hey, let me play you some music. Are you into big band stuff?” And they’re like, “I’ll take a listen.” Then they’re like, “Oh, I know that song. It’s cool.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s me singing.” “No way.” I’ve been singing since I was about 14. It’s definitely hard to get a syncopated vocal of that style of music. It’s definitely a very different style. As far as the character, it was really cool to play because even though it was a quirky comedy, it was more of a dramatic role because I think the history of Frank Jr. is very tragic in the sense of how he felt about himself when he was that age, when he was 19.
Was Frank Jr. involved in the film?
THOMAS: He was not involved in the film per se, but after the film was done, I went to a Vegas show and my publicist called his publicist and he gave us tickets. Like I said, when I met him, I mentioned about my grandfather. His name was Bobby Sergeant and he’d had TV shows in the ‘50s and stuff. One of my things was I wanted to make sure that he knew that I was trying to portray him the best way that I could in a positive light, that we weren’t making him seem like an idiot for being kidnapped, which I think he was worried about. It was a scary situation. There are some moments in the film where we show the gun right to his throat. He was kidnapped.
Does the film address speculation that Frank set it up himself?
THOMAS: No, because that’s not true. It’s not, according to the court transcripts. All of those things were people coming in and trying to claim that to get publicity for themselves. I think that’s why the event is such a scar on his emotional history. Like I said, the main reason that I wanted to meet him was to tell him that no, that’s not the way that it is. It’s not implied in the film at all.
