Actor, Co-Writer and Director Ray Romano Talks 'Somewhere in Queens'
Moviefone speaks with Ray Romano about 'Somewhere in Queens.' "When talk of directing came up, that was a beast to tackle because I had never done that.'
Opening in theaters on April 21st is the new family comedy ‘Somewhere in Queens,’ which was co-written, directed by and stars Ray Romano (‘Ice Age,’ ‘The Irishman’).
What is the plot of 'Somewhere in Queens?’
'Somewhere in Queens' centers on Leo Russo (Ray Romano) who lives a simple life in Queens, New York with his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their shy but talented son “Sticks” (Jacob Ward), and Leo’s close-knit network of Italian-American relatives and neighborhood friends. Happy enough working at the family construction business alongside his father (Tony Lo Bianco) and younger brother (Sebastian Maniscalco), Leo lives each week for Sticks’ high-school basketball games, never missing a chance to cheer on his only child as he rules the court as a star athlete.
When the high-school senior gets a surprising and life-changing opportunity to play basketball in college, Leo jumps at the chance to provide a plan for his future, away from the family construction business. But when sudden heartbreak threatens to derail Sticks, Leo goes to unexpected lengths to keep his son on this new path.
Who is in the cast of 'Somewhere in Queens?’
'Somewhere in Queens' stars Ray Romano as Leo Russo, Laurie Metcalf ('Lady Bird') as Angela Russo, Tony Lo Bianco ('The French Connection') as Dominic Russo, Sebastian Maniscalco ('Green Book') as Frank Russo, Jennifer Esposito ('Summer Of Sam') as Pamela Carmelo, Jacob Ward ('Gutted') as Sticks, Sadie Stanley ('Let Us In') as Dani Brooks, and Dierdre Friel ('Here Today') as Rosa, and P.J. Byrne ('Babylon') as Ben Parson.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer, director and actor Ray Romano about his work on 'Somewhere in Queens,’ his writing process, how he ended up directing for the first time, his character’s marriage, and working with legendary actress Laurie Metcalf.
Writer and director Ray Romano stars in 'Somewhere in Queens.'
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Romano, as well as Dani Brook and Jacob Ward.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about what the process of writing and directing this film has been like for you, and what were some of the themes you were excited to explore with this project?
Ray Romano: So that process, it's rewarding, but it's also torture in a good way. When we took on the idea of writing a screenplay, my writing partner and I, neither one of us had done it. I had written TV episodes and he had written TV episodes before, but here we were having to write a whole film, a whole story from beginning to end, and it took a long time. Now he went and got work, and I got work. We put it down, we picked it up again, but it took years and the process was laborious. But also at the end of the day, when we came up with a great little scene, you get a little high from it also. Now, when we finally had a script, it was 186 pages long, and they need to be 120. So we still had a lot of work to do, and we did it, and we finally got it into shape. Then when we decided to make a movie, that's when the talk of me directing came up. That was a whole other beast for me to try to tackle, because I had never done that either. That ended up being nerve wracking, but very enjoyable, after it was said and done. Leading up to it was so stressful, but when we started doing it, it became something that I was very excited that I made that decision to do. The second part of your question was the themes we wanted. I just wanted to write about this world that I grew up in. It's always been about family, and it's always been about writing what you know. I took elements of things that I was going through in my life or I have gone through. We knew we wanted to write a dramedy, but we did not concentrate on the comedy. We concentrated on the drama of it because we knew coming from a world of writing comedy, we were going to put in joke every other two pages anyway, so just worry about the drama and our natural instincts. We can't finish a scene without putting a little zing in there, a little bit of humor in there. So the humor came pretty effortlessly. The writing, the dramatic part was a new experience for both of us, and it took years, but we slowly found a way to do it.
(L to R) Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalf in 'Somewhere in Queens.' Photo Credit: Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
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Finally, can you talk about Leo and Angela’s marriage and what it was like working on that relationship with Laurie Metcalf?
RR: Well, again, I drew on my real life. I've been married for 35 years, and I married a woman from Queens. That's my recommendation by the way, if you want to know what makes a marriage last, especially if you're in show business, marry a woman from Queens because they keep it real, as the kids say. But I knew we didn't need to show so much of the love because just like in ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ which was again, broader and bigger, and there's a lot of yelling and screaming underneath it, but you know there's a love there. There's a strong relationship there. With Laurie Metcalf, my directing job became very easy when she was in the scene because she was such a pro. It became very easy to do a scene with her, and she fell right into it. But I think one of the best things I ever did, to quote Martin Scorsese, "The most important thing you do as a director is casting." I got a great cast, so they brought the writing to life, and they made every relationship believable.
The cast of 'Somewhere in Queens.' Photo Credit: Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Somewhere in Queens:’
- 'The Godfather' (1972)
- 'The Godfather Part II' (1974)
- ‘GoodFellas' (1990)
- 'The Godfather Part III' (1990)
- 'It Runs in the Family' (2003)
- 'Rob the Mob' (2014)
- 'This Is Where I Leave You' (2014)
- 'The Only Living Boy in New York' (2017)
- 'The Big Sick' (2017)
- 'The Irishman' (2019)
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