'Gotti' starring John Travolta and Kelly Preston has a fan in Victoria Gotti who admits "I just sat there and cried"
The Gotti family has been a subject of public interest for many years, thanks to the late patriarch John Gotti Sr.'s reputation as one of the country's most infamous criminals. It does not come as a surprise to anyone that his story has been told and retold many times over, with A&E recently releasing a docuseries 'Gotti: Father & Son' centred on Gotti Sr. and his son John Gotti Jr.
Kevin Connolly also helmed a film on biographical crime drama film titled 'Gotti,' which chronicles the three-decade reign of the crime boss' rise as the head of the Gambino Crime Family. The movie, which released in the US on June 15, saw John Travolta playing the eponymous Gotti and his real-life wife Kelly Preston playing reel wife Victoria Gotti.
Victoria, whose reputation as the loyal and dependable matron of the Gotti family precedes her, recently spoke about her opinions regarding Kelly's portrayal of her and the docuseries about her son's decision to leave the life of organized crime during her interview with Frank Morano on 'AM 970 THE ANSWER'.
"I think she did a wonderful job. She is a beautiful person," she says but relates how strange it was for her watch someone else emulate her. "A very, very strange feeling," she says.
Her opinions about Travolta's Gotti Sr. echoes similar sentiments, claiming she thinks the actor did "very well," but that she would not be able to pick a better Gotti Sr. decide between him and Armand Assante, who had portrayed the mafia lord in the in 1996 film 'Gotti.' However, Travolta may get extra points for sporting Gotti Sr.'s clothes while in character.
The intimate details of her life were shared on the big screen and it is not something a lot of people can reconcile with, especially when it narrates one heart-breaking incident from her life after another. 'Gotti' dealt with the death of her husband, seemingly unending number of trails eldest son and the death of her younger one.
"It was surreal," she admits, but she "loved it" and "enjoyed it." Victoria also says that of all the movies and series made about her husband and her family, 'Gotti' was the one to get closest to reality. "There have been many films about Johnny, but this was the closest," she says.
"I love Kelly and John. They're wonderful people," she gushes about the actors who embodied her and her husband on screen, adding that it was very emotional for her to watch their story unfold in the big screen, and could not help herself but to sit there and cry. "I went through three hankies... I just sat there and cried," she admits.
Victoria seems to have a similar level of appreciation of "Gotti: Father and Son,' and says how proud she is of her son. The A&E docuseries explores Gotti Jr.'s decision to leave the mafia life and live as an upstanding citizen of the US.
In the interview, she also speaks about the confrontation she initiated with the man who accidentally killed her son Frankie and how her husband was mistreated in the prison and so on. It is among the rare interactions Victoria had had with the media.