Ray Romano on his Departure from 'Raymond' and being Cast in HBO's 'Vinyl'
Speaking with Variety, Ray Romano has discussed the evolution of his career since Everybody Loves Raymond, which saw the actor to stardom but could very well have left him in a rinse and repeat position of playing everybody's dad for the remainder of his career.
On how he landed the role on Vinyl, Romano admitted that "Scorsese had never heard of me before. He'd never seen "Raymond." I put myself on tape and sent in a video. He told his casting director he'd never heard of me - not that he'd never seen "Raymond" before, but he'd never even heard of me. It was the best backhanded compliment I ever got. It helped me get cast. He didn't have to overcome Ray Barone when he watched me."
Getting under the skin of his character was hard. "The hardest thing was getting in the head of a guy this tragic, where he contemplates suicide. It was hard to dig into that and feel what that guy is feeling. … When I was on “Parenthood,” Mae Whitman told me that to play [emotional] scenes, she liked to listen to music to get in the mood.
"She’d be in a bubble under head-phones. I made a playlist, and oddly it worked for me. It can trigger these emotions. I have Coldplay and Jeff Buckley to thank for those scenes."
