Bobby Cannavale blames HBO for sinking ‘Vinyl’ with poor release strategy: “We really were screwed”

Bobby Cannavale has blamed HBO for sinking Vinyl with a poor release strategy, saying that the series’ cast and crew “really were screwed out by circumstances that we didn’t have any control over”.

• Read More: The wisdom of Martin Scorsese: “I had to go through everything in order to learn”

In an interview with Vanity Fair published Monday (November 25), Cannavale spoke frankly about the series, which only lasted one season in 2016. Cannavale starred as Richie Finestra, a disillusioned record executive attempting to revive his career amidst a tumultuous 1970s music industry in New York City. Vinyl was created by Martin Scorcese and Mick Jagger.

When asked by Vanity Fair writer David Canfield about a movie he’s done that he’s confused why it “didn’t connect” with audiences, he names Vinyl‘s pilot episode, which runs just under two hours at 113minutes.

“That was one of those ones that you go, ‘Well, shit, it really didn’t get put out the right way.'” he said. “We really were screwed out by circumstances that we didn’t have any control over.”

“Whether it was the fact that HBO didn’t promote it as a new Martin Scorsese movie; they didn’t let their audience know it was a two-hour pilot; they didn’t really take advantage of what they had; they premiered us after Girls—didn’t make any sense. We premiered at 10 at night for a two-hour pilot.”

He expands on his relationship with Scorsese prior to Vinyl‘s development: he played a character in season three of Boardwalk Empire, another HBO show that Scorsese was involved in as executive producer.

“He took a big interest in me. So it was years of prepping that show and talking so much about it,” he added. “I felt like the bubble we created resulted in something that was really unique and special, and a different way of storytelling, certainly for television, than I’d ever seen. To just be brushed aside felt really disappointing.”

He also opened up about feeling responsible for “a little smudge” on Scorsese’s career, despite working with him later on in 2019’s The Irishman.

“Marty was like, ‘It’s not your fault, it’s just business.’ But that’s hard to accept because it’s your face that’s on the buses and on the billboards,” he elaborated. “I always described that period as the stinky year. I had a stink on me, and I could feel it.”

In 2022, Cannavale starred in the Netflix series The Watcher alongside Naomi Watts, while he played a supporting role in horror film MaXXXine this year.

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