We chat with Ray Romano about fleshing out the characters in SomewhereinQueens and his first time directing a feature film:
Somewhere in Queens originally had its theatrical release in April 2023 and is now available to watch on Digital and On Demand. After being noticed by a talent scout, Leo Russo is determined that his son will become a college basketball star. But once "Sticks" has a falling out with his girlfriend, his father takes drastic measures to ensure he stays at the top of his game.
Ray Romano chats exclusively with Screen Rant about fleshing out the characters in Somewhere in Queens and his first time directing a feature film. 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.
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.
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 a good kid, and he's going to get that internally just watching his son prosper in whatever way he can. We wanted him to get to that point where he realizes he has a lot in life.
Ray Romano: She breaks my son's heart, and she could easily turn into someone that you dislike, and that's the last thing we wanted. She kind of knows what she wants, and she's driven, and yet she's still a sweet person. The guy doesn't always get the girl at the end, and we wanted that to be okay. We wanted the audience to appreciate that she's doing what she wants, and yes, our hero boy is getting his heart broken, but that's life.
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