Christopher Meloni attends the ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ 25th anniversary celebration at New York’s Edge at Hudson Yards on Jan. 16, 2024, in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) Christopher Meloni is keeping it all in the family for his next film project.
The veteran star teamed with his daughter, Sophia Meloni, for a role in her feature directorial debut called Chop Cheese, alongside a cast that includes Michael Gandolfini, Luca Rickman, Anki Alvarez and Dylan Frankel. The film is described as a coming-of-age story set in New York’s bodega culture. It follows a 16-year-old boy as he reckons with manhood while vying for “boss” status from the grill master at the local bodega, only to learn that respect has a price and must be earned.
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Sophia Meloni wrote and directed the film, which was produced by Lisa Rudin. Nailing the family focus, Chop Cheese was inspired by a short story the fledgling filmmaker wrote in college while observing the teenage years of her younger brother, Dante, as he was living out a phase of “radical self-discovery” in New York City. It’s also informed by her own history, having a successful actor for a father and a production designer mother, meaning she grew up on sets and around artists and other creative professionals. She recruited some — like her mother, Sherman Williams, longtime friend Gandolfini and cousins — to pitch in and help get the film across the finish line by filling in wherever possible.
Christopher Meloni and Michael Gandolfini appear in a scene from Chop Cheese. Courtesy of Sophia Meloni “I became fascinated by the mystery of the teenage boy, so certain, so fragile and completely consumed by the urgency of becoming someone. One small anecdote from that time — a summer job taken to repay a debt — kept resurfacing, not because it was dramatic but because it felt true. That’s the New York story I wanted to tell,” Sophia Meloni says via an official director’s statement. “New York is a city defined by excess — noise, people, ambition and motion. There is always something happening somewhere else. But growing up here, I learned that the moments that shape you most often happen in the margins: in waiting, in loitering, in the small rituals that repeat until they quietly become your life. Chop Cheese is my attempt to capture one of those moments, a seemingly trivial encounter that, for a sixteen-year-old, carries the weight of destiny.
“Sophia Meloni is the kind of filmmaker you hope to meet early in their career,” praised Rudin. “Her writing is thoughtful and deeply felt, and she brought that same care and determination to every aspect of the production. She created a set that was collaborative, energized, and genuinely joyful to be part of.”
Sophia Meloni is represented by Untitled Entertainment.
Sophia Meloni Courtesy of subject THR Newsletters
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