After spending nine seasons on a popular namesake sitcom that experienced heavy syndication, it’s fair to say that Ray Romano doesn’t quite need to be working these days. As an active creative in such a position, he’s now able to explore new avenues. No, not the fabled Everybody Loves Raymond revival (which probably won't happen), but rather his feature film directorial debut, Somewhere In Queens. With multiple decades in the industry, Romano likely had plenty of directors to take inspiration from, and in the case of Somewhere In Queens, he spoke to me of one particular piece of advice he learned from the legendary Martin Scorsese.
Ray Romano plays Italian-American family man Leo in the film, and his wife is played by none other than Laurie Metcalf of Roseanne, The Conners and Ladybird fame. She is fantastic in the film and does a lot of heavy lifting. When I told Romano how much I admired her performance, he mentioned that some advice he took from Martin Scorsese is what led him to an actor of that calibre:
I mean, thank God. That's part of directing is - Scorsese said it, the most important part of directing is casting. You know, and if you have one of them, a couple of those actors that can make everything believable and everything truthful and just have a gravitas to it, you're going to look like a good director, you know? She was great. She was great. She was awesome. Unbelievable. I couldn't have been happier with her.
Romano is being humble, of course, implying that the cast simply made him “look” like a good director. Romano played Bill Bufalino in 2019’s The Irishmen, Martin Scorsese’s 3.5 hour-long epic, and one can only assume that he picked up a thing or two being around the legend himself. The filmmaker is known for getting rather close to his actors, and they often become close friends and frequent collaborators. Last year, after the passing of Ray Liotta, Scorsese shared an emotional tribute to the late actor, stating that he regrets not working with Liotta again. It would be easy to see how his relationship with his actors would rub off on Romano.
As for Laurie Metcalf, it’s no secret that the Oscar nominee has chops, and she’s still crushing it on the regular with The Conners Season 5, which is currently airing on ABC. In addition to his directional debut, Romano will be in Peacock’s new show Bupkis, which will be streaming May 4 and allegedly saw Pete Davidson having a meltdown during production.
You can see both Laurie Metcalf and Ray Romano in the latter’s directorial debut, Somewhere In Queens, which is in theaters right now! You can also check out our 2023 new movie release schedule to see what else is coming up.
