Alessandro Nivola on Son Sam Leaving College for Acting
Alessandro Nivola knows what it looks like when someone commits to the play. But when his son, Sam Nivola, 22, announced he was leaving Columbia University to pursue acting full-time, the Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale star didn’t exactly cheer from the sidelines.
Initial Reaction at the Downton Abbey Premiere
“I didn’t want him to leave. I tried to talk him out of it and he would have none of it,” the 53-year-old actor admits, speaking at the New York City premiere of the latest Downton Abbey film at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Sept. 8, 2025.
“And I think it was really the moment that I just threw up my hands and said, ‘Sam, you know, I just want you to be happy,’ that we really started to get along,” he continues.
Family Support and Sam’s Commitment
Nivola shares Sam with actress and screenwriter Emily Mortimer, and he remembers the day his son made it crystal clear that this wasn’t a phase. Sam “really announced” to his parents, “I’m in this for good, whether you like it or not” , and from that point, they were all-in on supporting him.
Benefits of Growing Up on Set
“Since then, it’s just been great, and I’ve watched him go from strength to strength,” the proud father says. “And you know if there’s one thing that I think he’s really benefited from from growing up with two actors … it’s just having spent so much time on sets and watching us do stuff like this.”
“So, when it sort of started to come to him, it wasn’t a novel experience. He’d at least had a glimpse of it as a very young guy,” he explains.
Early Credits and a Proud Father’s Perspective
The Brutalist actor jokes that his son , whose résumé already boasts turns in The White Lotus and The Perfect Couple , has become the “only person on the planet whose success I can delight in.”
Public Appearances During Festival Season
The pair has been a fixture on the circuit this fall: father and son took in the U.S. Open on Sept. 2, 2025, and while Alessandro hit the Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale premiere in New York on Sept. 8, Sam stepped out days later at the Sept. 12 premiere of Driver’s Ed during the Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall.
Possibility of a Family Collaboration
They’ve also talked about bringing their family dynamic to the screen. “Definitely. I think so. We’ll need to get my mom to write something that we can both be in,” Sam said previously of teaming up with his parents , with Mortimer potentially penning the script.
A Multi Generational Project with Ethan Hawke
And there’s another tantalizing project on the horizon , one that could turn into a multi-generational showcase. “Ethan Hawke and I have been cooking up this movie called Satan Is Real about a pair of brothers called the Louvin Brothers,” Nivola reveals of a project he’s been developing with his friend Ethan Hawke, 54. “And then we were thinking that now that Sam and [Ethan’s] son, Levon Hawke, are becoming stars, that the best way for us to greenlight the movie will be to write in a section that has us as younger versions.”
“Sign me up,” Sam chimed in. “I’ll do anything for a job, man.”
