Call it box office magic.
Actor Michael Imperioli has said that he “resorted to tapping into otherworldly means” in order to get the 1999 thriller “Summer of Sam” made.
Making the spellbinding revelation as a part of Chip Baker’s new documentary “Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (and Other Rock & Roll Stories),” Imperioli, 57, claimed that the ritual happened while he was staying in the famously haunted hotel.
“I had just begun writing ‘Summer of Sam’ with Victor Colicchio – we wrote that script together,” said the “Sopranos” star, according to Variety’s exclusive report on the doc’s trailer. “I really wanted to get it made. So I met somebody who was living here who was a witch, who said she could help me get it made.”
According to the “White Lotus” alum, the “witch” claimed the film would indeed be made though it “wasn’t going to happen the way I thought it would.”
“I was very ambitious at the time and wanted to get that made, so [I] resorted to tapping into otherworldly means to get it through the studio system,” continued Imperioli.
While Imperioli did not elaborate on what kind of magic was used, “Summer of Sam” went on to be directed and co-written by the legendary Spike Lee.
The thriller tells the story of Vinny (played by John Leguizamo) as he and his wife (Mira Sorvino), punk-rocker friend (Adrien Brody), and aspiring adult film star (Jennifer Esposito) all team up to uncover the identity of a serial killer terrorizing New Yorkers during the summer of 1977.
Elsewhere in the clip, Imperioli recalled how “mythical” the hotel seemed to him, “especially if you’re an artist in New York, it looms very large, and the idea of living here seemed not really possible.”
The “Goodfellas” star also claimed to be the victim of his own haunting whilst staying at the hotel.
“I saw a ghost here,” swore Imperioli. “Some people may think that I’m insane and it’s bulls – – t or whatever. But I’m not the only person who has seen this apparition of a woman, apparently from the late 19th century, whose soon-to-be husband died on the Titanic.”
According to the actor, “She came from upstate or something and was waiting for him here, and when she found out what happened to him, she killed herself.”
“Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (and Other Rock & Roll Stories),” premiered Tuesday at New York’s Joe’s Pub and will be shown again next Monday before the documentary is released across the US.