By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
Perhaps you know his father better than you know him. Nick Celozzi Jr. is the son of Nick Celozzi of the Celozzi-Ettleson car dealership best known for the slogan, “Where you always save more money.”
Nick Jr. did not follow his father into the car business, but rather found his calling to be in Los Angeles as an actor, and later, as a writer and producer. His successes have been ongoing and have led him to a path back to Elmhurst to produce a movie on the campus of Elmhurst University, which will star veteran actor Anthony Michael Hall.
Living in L.A., Celozzi has now been married for 20 years and has two children.
“I always say if you keep your eyes open and you follow a path, opportunity opens up,” he told the Elmhurst Independent in an exclusive interview. “I started writing and that made things come together a lot quicker for me. That’s where I found success. I have written or produced a total of 26 movies.”
The upcoming movie, The Class, was written by Celozzi and is being filmed right now on location at Elmhurst University. The movie is a coming-of-age story set at a school, but Celozzi assures it is not a remake of The Breakfast Club, another teen saga also starring Anthony Michael Hall, which was produced by John Hughes.
“I wanted the film to take place at a school,” he said. “I didn’t want a studio; I wanted to have real young people, I wanted them to feel fluid. I wanted real classrooms, real hallways, real lockers.
“I always loved youth coming-of-age films. The thing about it is, we all pass down the same idiosyncrasies, we all go through adolescence. Today it’s more intense; we didn’t have social media when I was growing up and now it’s a whole new set of rules.”
While assuring the movie is not a remake, Celozzi admits he always liked how John Hughes shows allow movie-goers to experience the issues of the day.
“There are a lot of parallels to John Hughes’ movies,” he said. “I like something that has a ‘window of passage’ and this movie does. It all takes place in the same day, and students are going through all these issues.”
More about the movie
In The Class, the students are not in detention, as those in The Breakfast Club were, but rather are there because they missed a test and have to take a make-up exam.
“They all have these obstacles to go through because the make-up exam is something they all have to do together, to call on their own experiences,” Celozzi said. “I was watching my own children and their friends when they were in the house and they are repeating and going through a lot of the same things we did, but in a different way. They are trying to mitigate fears, there’s some paranoia, they also have a culture of ‘don’t tell the parents.’ That was going on in our day, but we weren’t surrounded by this cloud of social media. Kids as young as 12 and 13 are aware enough of day-to-day issues about what’s going on the world today. They are seeing everything in their own time. They are being opinion-taught; that is, they are forming opinions based on opinions.”
Eventually in the movie, Celozzi said, the students start knocking down barriers and begin to learn things from each other. Eventually—as different as they were when they walked in, all with their pre-conceived notions—they realize they are all actually very much the same.
What makes Celozzi proud
When the Independent asked Celozzi what he is most proud of, he asked if that meant in the movies or in life in general. How about both?!
“What I’m most proud of in my life are my two children,” he said. “In the film, I’m just happy to see how the actors come together to bring forth the vision. When you talk to a group of actors and you look at everybody and see that they’re nodding, they’re ‘getting it,’ getting those people to move forward and grow with their art, grow with their character. It’s not always easy, but the actors are so open. I always enjoy when I get something out of an actor that I didn’t expect.”
What’s next on the horizon for Nick Celozzi
Celozzi is working on another movie called The Legitimate Wise Guy, based on a true story of an Oak Park gangster by the name of Anthony Spilotro.
“It’s similar to ‘A Bronx Tale,’” he said. “It’s the real story behind the movie ‘Casino’—this was the sub-story, it’s the point of view of a young kid.
“It’s also more about Anthony Spilotro back in the day when [gangsters] moved around like movie stars, people knew who they were, it was a different world, a different culture. The movie reflects the culture of its time.”
How does it feel to be back in the good-ole home town?
“I can’t believe downtown Elmhurst!” Celozzi said. “I was driving around and I can’t believe how much it has built up, all the restaurants and so forth. It’s really looking good.”
Celozzi ended by saying how much he has enjoyed working at Elmhurst University and how supportive the school has been.
“I’m very happy to be here,” he said. “I’m very excited about this movie and that it’s being shot right here in Elmhurst. I can’t say enough about how great it is to work with Elmhurst University.”
