Mum or dad chat! Robert De Niro requested Sebastian Maniscalco‘s dad for suggestions earlier than taking part in him within the upcoming film About My Father.
The comic, 49, mentioned that his dad, Salvo, didn’t completely consider the Oscar winner, 79, can be taking over the function till he acquired a telephone name from the person himself. “Robert referred to as my father and mentioned, ‘I’d such as you to come back to Oklahoma the place I’m filming a film, as a result of I need you to assist me and analyze this script and perhaps educate me some Italian and the way you behave,’” Maniscalco completely advised Us Weekly forward of the movie’s launch. “Then I believe my dad began to actually sense that this was really occurring.”
The Warmth actor stars as a fictionalized model of Salvatore in About My Father, during which Maniscalco performs himself. The comedy follows the Chicago native as he makes an attempt to inform his traditional-minded father about his plans to suggest to his girlfriend, Ellie (Leslie Bibb).
The stand-up comedian had beforehand met De Niro once they starred in 2019’s The Irishman, however that didn’t make his involvement within the film a certain factor. The Godfather Half II actor joined the undertaking after a producer despatched him the script.
“It’s not like I had Robert De Niro’s quantity,” Maniscalco quipped. “He loved [the screenplay], and subsequent factor you understand, we had been in Alabama taking pictures it. I believe we wrote it about six or seven years in the past, and right here we’re speaking a few film [where] my father’s being performed by Robert De Niro. One thing I by no means thought can be within the playing cards for me.”
Sebastian Maniscalco, Salvo Maniscalco and Robert De Niro Gregory Tempo/Shutterstock
The Taxi Driver star is himself a dad of seven, so he had some recommendation for his costar about tapping into the father-son relationship depicted within the movie. In a single scene, Maniscalco wanted to “get emotional,” however the emotions weren’t coming.
“I talked to De Niro and I inform him, ‘Hear, I would like your assist right here. I ain’t getting there,’” the Spinning Gold star advised Us. “And what he advised me was to consider my dad, take into consideration how he got here [to the United States] when he was 15 years outdated not understanding the language and began a life for himself. And have a look at the place you’re at, who you at the moment are.”
Maniscalco took his costar’s phrases to coronary heart — and the tip paid off. “I began to get emotional and I began to make use of that coming into the scene,” the Cruise star defined. “I haven’t performed sufficient appearing the place I used to be in a position to get there alone, and he undoubtedly helped me and guided me via that scene.”
Earlier this month, De Niro revealed that he and girlfriend Tiffany Chen lately welcomed their first little one collectively, daughter Gia — his seventh. The Raging Bull star first turned a father in 1976, welcoming son Raphael, now 46, with then-wife Diahnne Abbott. The Meet the Dad and mom actor additionally adopted Abbott’s daughter from a earlier relationship, Drena, now 51. De Niro later welcomed twins Julian and Aaron, now 27, with ex Toukie Smith, in addition to son Elliot, 25, and daughter Helen, 11, with ex-wife Grace Hightower.
Maniscalco, for his half, shares daughter Serafina, 6, and son Caruso, 3, with spouse Lana Gomez, whom he wed in 2013. The Tag star advised Us that his visits to North Carolina with Gomez’s facet of the household partially impressed About My Father.
“I felt like a fish out of water,” the Inexperienced Guide actor advised Us. “Nation membership residing [was] not how I grew up. I believed there was morsels of comedy inside this expertise that I exploit in a film. … I come from a working-class, middle-class household. She comes from an upper-class household, and we’ve all the time had these variations in how we reside our life, and in the end, in the long run, we love one another, however there’s this completely different method of maneuvering via life that we’ve and that they’ve.”
Whereas Maniscalco is worked up for About My Father‘s premiere, he has no plans to surrender his bread and butter: stand-up comedy. “Stand-up is the perfect,” the Someplace in Queens star defined. “You may’t beat it. I’ll all the time do stand-up comedy, and the moviemaking and the TV-making got here out of desirous to take a break from stand-up, as a result of you may’t tour yr after yr after yr.”
About My Father hits theaters on Friday, Might 26.
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With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton
