Robert Montano, a freshman at Belmont, played teenage Artie Bucco in the newly released film “Many Saints of Newark.”
The film is a prequel to “The Sopranos,” an HBO hit television series that aired for six seasons from 1999-2007 and is one of the network’s most successful shows.
Montano began acting at 14-years-old when he was featured in the Radio City Musical Hall Christmas Spectacular. From there he says he, “caught the bug for acting.” From his involvement in the Christmas Spectacular, Montano secured a manager and agent who supported the launch of his acting career.
The new film was set to be released in the Fall of 2020, but the timeline was pushed back to the Fall of 2021 primarily as a result of COVID. Thinking back to his audition process, Montano recalls the ongoing call backs–“I was super excited to be getting called back,” he said. “I had no idea what role they wanted me for at the time since all of them were under secret, alternate names.”
Montano began filming for the movie when he was a freshman in high school. He recalled the wait thinking it felt like a long time until the film’s release. Montano laughed, “I didn’t think I would be watching it in theaters in Nashville with my roommates and suite mates.”
In addition to acting, Montano is pursuing a music career. He started playing piano and singing as a young child and fell in love with songwriting. Throughout his acting career, Montano says he has continued to write music and released his first EP, “Tearing Through The Deep,” earlier this year.
The college process brought Montano to a fork in his journey: should he pursue music or acting? Although Montano chose to study commercial voice in pursuit of his dream to be a recording artist, he hopes to continue music performance, songwriting and acting in his journey at Belmont.
