TEARS OFA CLOWN
Ray Romano takes on yet another dramatic role
HOW does an inherently funny guy get into a dramatic mindset?
“Normally, I have to prepare and, like, put on headphones and listen to sad music and think of bad things to get into that little bubble,” Ray Romano tells The Post. “But I didn’t do that for this. It came very easily. The emotions just poured out of me.”
“This” is the new Netflix movie “Paddleton,” in which the comedian and actor plays Andy, best friend of Michael (Mark Duplass), a middle-aged man who finds out he has terminal cancer. The two are neighbors living in adjacent bachelor-minimalist apartments who hang out every day, playing paddleton (a racket game they’ve invented), eating frozen pizza and watching kung fu movies. That is, until Michael enlists Andy’s assistance with procuring and taking a legal euthanasia drug, for which they embark on a road trip.
There are a few others in the cast, but it’s primarily a finetuned two-man show, with Romano doing much of the heavy lifting as the guy tasked with helping his best friend kill himself. “I liked the idea of these two outsiders who meet each other,” he says. “It’s about finding a connection in your life, no matter who you are.”
The 61-year-old Romano is taking yet another step away from his best-known role, star of the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which ran from 1996 to 2005 on CBS and made him a huge (and hugely well-paid) household name in comedy. Subsequent roles on TNT’s “Men of a Certain Age,” NBC’s “Parenthood” and HBO’s short-lived “Vinyl,” and in the Oscar-nominated 2017 film “The Big Sick,” saw him playing surprisingly dramatic characters (albeit ones who are never too far from a wisecrack), a move he continues with “Paddleton.” At the same time, he’s also getting back to his roots, with his first special in more than 20 years, “Right Here, Around the Corner” on Netflix. It’s composed of drop-in stand-up sets at two comedy clubs in his old stomping ground of downtown New York. (Romano grew up in Forest Hills and honed his act in the city’s clubs.) His wife, Anna, whom he’s been married to since 1987, and their four grown kids make an appearance at the end of the special, which dropped earlier this month, tacitly giving their blessing to his using them for comic material. The Netflix juxtaposition of Romano’s two sides comes as no surprise to Duplass, co-writer of “Paddleton,” who met the comic at the premiere of “The Big Sick” and thought he’d be a perfect match for the gentle, anxiety- riddled Andy. “I was a little late to the Romano-ssance,” says Duplass with a laugh. “But his utter naturalism and comic timing — when you take that and put it into a dramatic realm, that’s one of my favorite things in the world.”
Patricia Heaton, who played Romano’s wife on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” has been delighted to watch her former co-star move into serious roles. “He’s unusual as far as comics who get their own show go,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of them take their career as far as Ray in a dramatic direction.”
Although the “Paddleton” cast worked, as is Duplass’ usual style, by improvising off a short script outline, Romano never coasted on his veteran comic chops. “He was a total Nervous Nelly the whole time,” Duplass says. “That’s the secret of Ray Romano. He’s extremely neurotic, and I think that’s what makes him a good artist.”
Heaton concurs. “When you watch him, it seems very relaxed, and almost unrehearsed — but he really crafts that material. And part of the craft is making it look as natural as he does. I think that serves a dramatic actor well.”
“Ray’s so good at making a mo- ment feel uncomfortable one second, and defusing it with comedic genius the next,” says “Paddleton” director Alex Lehmann. “‘The Big Sick’ was revelatory to me. It’s what excites me most about ‘Paddleton’ coming out — another chance for people to appreciate how much depth this guy has.”
And, as Duplass points out, it’s not as if Romano has to scrape by picking up work in indie movies. “At this point in his life, he doesn’t need any more money,” he says. “The only reason for him to do a movie like ‘Paddleton’ is because he wants to challenge himself.”
Next up, Romano will appear in Martin Scorsese’s Jimmy Hoffa film,“The Irishman.” Due out later this year, it was shot right before “Paddleton.”
“I came from the $150 million budget movie to a movie where my trailer was a chair,” Romano says. “I liked both. It was great to see both sides. And [Duplass] is hip. Any time I can inject ‘hip’ into my career, I try.”
But he claims being on the set of “The Irishman” was truly nerve-wracking. “De Niro, Pacino, Joe Pesci,” he says. “It was a lot of, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ ”