Ray Romano Reflects on Directorial Debut in Queens

Ray Romano: He’s a writer who wrote on Men of a Certain Age, a show that I did after Everybody Loves Raymond, and, this is how long ago it was, when that show got canceled, I wanted to [write a screenplay], and I asked him if he wanted to. The only story I had in mind was I wanted to make it about an Italian family from Queens. I wanted to write what I know. I grew up in an Italian family, but not the traditional family that you see in the movie. That was more like my wife. I married into that family.

So for 35 years I’ve been to all those parties, and the weddings, and all the traditional stuff, and I wanted to do a story about that world. I didn’t know exactly what it was going to be about. At the time, as we were writing it, it was my son who was graduating high school, who played on the basketball team, and I got such a thrill going to the games. And being proud of him, and also basking in the attention, if I’m being honest, as pathetic as that is. I don’t get enough attention in my real life. I have to get it there.

When it ended, I was sad. I knew he wasn’t going to play in college, and it was a sad moment that I had to accept. I knew I’d be okay, but I just thought, “Well, this should be a story about a guy who—this is all he has.” He feels very small in his real life, and is not quite visible in his family, and how does he deal with the fact that this is going to come to an end? So that was the starting point, and then we went from there, and it expanded into what it turned into.

Ray Romano: Somewhat. I talked to Judd Apatow a little. I talked to a couple of directors that I worked with—Alex Lehmann, who directed me in a movie called Paddleton. And not to name-drop, but when I was interviewing with a couple of producers, one of them was the producer of A Star is Born with Lady Gaga, and when I told him about my fear about directing and acting, he brought up Bradley Cooper, and he connected me with Bradley Cooper. So I actually got to talk to him a little bit about, not only directing, but also acting in the movie that you’re directing and how that works. So, yeah, I got some advice. And everything else just scared the hell out of me.

Ray Romano: We tried to show that, on the surface, it looks like he’s doing what a good father should do, and that’s trying to help his son have more in life than what he had. And someone could look at that and say, “Well, that’s why he goes to the extent that he does to try to get this kid a college education or whatever.” But also, that wasn’t his only motive. We wanted to make sure that there was a bit of selfishness in there, also. He was doing it for himself as well.

The arc for his character was just to get to a point where he realizes, he may not be hearing cheers for his son and receiving the glory that comes with that, but he still has raised this kid to be…

Ray Romano: If and when the writers strike ends, hopefully, we’re looking at a show—I probably shouldn’t get into it because we’re still negotiating and talking about it. But another project we’re working on is a biopic for Jimmy Valvano. He gave a very famous speech the first year of the ESPY Awards. He was a basketball coach in the 80s, and he won the championship in a spectacular style. They were underdogs. Unfortunately, 10 years later, he passed from cancer. He gave a very emotional speech a couple of months before he died, and we’re working on his story, with me playing Jimmy V.