While actor Alessandro Nivola shared a cramped dressing room with Bradley Cooper in a Williamstown Theater Festival production of “The Elephant Man” back in 2012, he was also wheeling and dealing behind the scenes to sell his first TV series as a producer.
Both projects worked out: He and Cooper will bring their play to Broadway this fall while Nivola’s series — “Doll & Em,” starring his wife, Emily Mortimer — premieres Wednesday on HBO.
“There’s something about producing that has been a relief from acting,” Nivola told us, joking, “Instead of pouring your emotional anguish into a performance, you can channel it into something more practically useful.”
He even set up his own premiere Monday night with director Azazel Jacobs after MoMA offered a screening room. When an after-party at Neuehouse for friends including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mark Ruffalo, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard went longer than expected, neophyte producer Nivola made like Ellen DeGeneres on Oscar night and ordered in pizzas.