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Watch Lillo Brancato in His Post-Prison Vampire Flick

By Eddie Small | October 2, 2015 12:55pm | Updated on October 4, 2015 8:13pm
 Lillo Brancato (foreground) studies lines with Angel Salazar (background).
Lillo Brancato (foreground) studies lines with Angel Salazar (background).
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Martine Emile

Lillo Brancato, the "A Bronx Tale" actor notorious for his role in the murder of an NYPD officer, is now featured in a movie about witches who turn vampires and bikers into slaves.

"Vamp Bikers Dos" stars Brancato as Tony Ramos, who is married to a witch but does not know it. It's a role meant to be redemptive, according to Director Eric Rivas.

"The first thing I thought was, I’d like to give this man a role with some redemption, considering his situation," he said. "I didn't want to turn him into a bad guy."

Brancato shows off his acting chops in a trailer for the film that was recently posted to YouTube, in which he is seen just a few seconds in apologizing to a woman in the hallway of a building.

(WARNING: trailer contains profane language)

"Sir, can you keep it down out here?" she asks. "I have a baby in there sleeping."

"Sorry lady," Brancato responds. "My bad."

His character shows up later to utter a classic expression of confusion right before his wife's true identity his revealed.

"What the f--- is this?" his character asks.

"Tony, your wife is a witch, una bruja!" actor Angel Salazar, who starred in "Scarface" responds.

The movie also features Melle Mel from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and another infamous ex-con, former club promoter Michael Alig.

Brancato starred as Robert De Niro's son in "A Bronx Tale" in 1993 and was charged with murdering a police officer in 2005.

Rivas explained that the role is meant to be a reflection of Brancato's life as a man who made a mistake that he now hopes to atone for.

"What I’ve seen from meeting him and all that is he wants to redeem himself," he said. "I literally wrote something that I thought would parallel his real life and his current journey."

Brancato described his character as "the only normal one" in the movie and agreed that there were some parallels between his journey in the film and his journey in real life.

"I am still to this day trying to redeem myself for past bad decision making and mistakes," he said. "We all make them in life, some worse than others, and in my case I made some pretty bad mistakes and some pretty bad choices."

Although Brancato was described as a protégé of De Niro in the wake of his "Bronx Tale" performance, later landing roles in "Enemy of the State" and "The Sopranos," his life took a drastically different turn in 2005, when he was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Officer Daniel Enchautegui.

Brancato and Steven Armento, his partner in crime, had been trying to break into a Bronx home at night on Dec. 10 when Enchautegui, who lived next door, heard the noise and tried to stop them.

Armento shot the officer in the chest and was convicted of murder, while Brancato was only convicted of attempted burglary. He spent about eight years behind bars before being released in 2013, he said.

"I take full responsibility for how my bad decision making contributed to the death of that heroic police officer," he said, "because if I wasn’t there, that wouldn’t have happened, and that's something that I have to live with for the rest of my life."

His other upcoming film projects include the boxing movie "Back in the Day" and the gangster movie "Monsters of Mulberry Street."

Brancato said he was very grateful for the chance to relaunch his acting career.

"To have my freedom again is a blessing, but you take it to the next level when you start getting opportunities to do what you love again," he said.