Towering basketball legend-turned-actor Shaquille O’Neal was back in Brooklyn this weekend, filming scenes for mob drama “Gravesend” at the local American Legion.
O’Neal, known as one of the best basketball players of all time, was first spotted on set last June, after the show’s writer, creator, and star, William DeMeo, teased big additions to the cast in Season 3.
The sports legend is set to play a new character, Mustafa, who “does business” with DeMeo’s character, Benny Zerletta, a soldier in the fictional Colezzo crime family.
Between shots inside the American Legion Marlboro Memorial Post 1437 on Avenue X, O’Neal told Brooklyn Paper he was glad to be back on set.
“It feels really good, I want to thank my good friends Will and Cristian DeMeo,” he said.
Outside, O’Neal was swarmed by enthusiastic fans and happily signed a basketball for one young admirer, who grinned as he waited for the ink to dry.
A Gravesend native, DeMeo was introduced to O’Neal by a mutual friend — and was thrilled to find out the athlete loves “a good mob drama.”
“Gravesend,” set in the 1980s, features a stacked cast — including “The Sopranos” stars Tony Darrow and Vincent Pastore; “A Bronx Tale’s” Chazz Palminteri; and Fran Drescher.
And Shaq isn’t the only new addition for Season 3 — young actor Camillo Liberatoscioli is making his big break in the upcoming season, DeMeo said.
Liberatoscioli and his father are both big fans, the burgeoning star told Brooklyn Paper.
“Gravesend,” DeMeo’s brainchild and an homage to the oft-underappreciated southern Brooklyn nabes where he grew up, has amassed a huge following since its 2020 debut on Amazon Prime.
“It’s an independent show, which really is almost impossible to do, because a lot of the shows that people watch, they’re backed by networks or big studios like Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu,” DeMeo’s son Cristian told Brooklyn Paper last fall. “It’s awesome. It’s a smaller team but we’re just grateful and blessed to have all the people that have tuned in and all the people that want more.”
Last month, the “Gravesend” Instagram confirmed that the show’s third season will release this year, but an exact date has not yet been announced.
