Sebastian Maniscalco: Didn’t enjoy filming “About My Father” with De Niro

So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about acting. And first, kind of interestingly, you know, you star in this big movie with Robert De Niro, like your film, but you didn't even have fun filming it, from what I understand. Why not? So, a variety of reasons. Number one, I was in Alabama for 10 weeks away from my family. Number two, can I even pull this off? I haven't acted in a movie from soup to nuts ever. Now I'm acting with arguably one of the best that's ever done it. Can I pull this off? Am I good enough? Do I know enough about movie making to make this work? Am I gonna be comfortable enough in my instincts to trust my instincts that this is funny? So, that was another big factor. And it's something that I, you know, number three, that's something that I've never done before. To star in a movie and, you know, a lot of pressure to perform and make this funny. And I just didn't, I didn't, remembering the lines, at this age, remembering lines. I'm not telling you. I mean, it's not like when I was 30, I could look at it, but boom, boom, boom, now I gotta sit there and go over and over and over. And I'm sitting there going, do I have a learning disability? I mean, like, I don't, I can't remember lines, like, fast. What was the deal with the crying scene with De Niro? Yeah, so I had to cry at the end of the movie. That's another thing I was pining over. Can I cry? Never cried before. Do I even have a method to cry? Or am I hoping that this just happens? So, I went with, let's just see if I, if it happens. So, I'm in the scene, De Niro's crying, and I'm going, in my head, I'm going, I'm not even in the scene. I'm looking at this guy crying. This guy's crying already? It's unbelievable. Like, I'm looking at this as like an audience member. And of course, I don't cry. Cut, we're gonna do it again. Is this the airplane? Yeah, this is the airplane scene. But he came into that day like I've never seen him in any other day. He's like, he's very vocal about getting the scene up on his feet. Come on, let's go, let's go. I'm like, oh, this is a different De Niro than I've seen in the past. And I was wondering why. So, we did it again, no crying. And he starts to get kind of like, come on, let's, now I'm seeing that. He's gotten himself into a place where it's an emotional state and he wants to use that emotion. And the longer this goes on, maybe the longer that dissipates. So, I tell him, I said, listen, I'm having a problem, I need to talk to you. So, there was an airplane there. So, we went on the airplane, him and I. And he goes, what's the problem? I said, I can't cry, I'm having a tough time with the scene. I go, I need your help. He goes, well, I was gonna tell you, I didn't know if you wanted to hear any advice. I go, I need to hear it, I got no plan. He goes, I didn't want to get in the way of your process. I go, there's no process. I go, I need you to help me. And he was very, very gracious. He said, I want you to think about your father. I want you to think about all the stuff that he's went through in his entire life to get you to this point, the fact that he came from a different country, didn't know the language. I want you to think about all that stuff. And he goes, I think about my son, who's your age. He starts crying in the airplane, talking about his son. And I start crying, just watching him cry. And I run out of the airplane. I go, I gotta use this. Now, I had to be out of breath during the scene. So they wanted me to run around the airport and then run into the scene out of breath. Now, I got sciatic pain ripping down my right leg. I'm in like Giorgio Brutini slip-ons with no socks. My feet are bleeding. I'm running around the airport in a lot of pain. I come into the scene. I start to cry, but I start to cry at the wrong time, but it still worked for the scene. Cut, let's do it again. Do it again, okay. That's all I got. You know, like, we're gonna do this again? But he gave me an acting lesson, you know? And I've taken that and I've built upon what I learned in that movie to other projects that I've done. And I feel I have a confidence now that like I've worked kind of with the best and everything else now is, I kind of come in with a, not a chip on my shoulder, but like I've done this before. So even though you didn't have as much fun filming it, do you think you will continue to do more and more of it? I have to be honest with you. I generally don't like the process of it. It's taken me a while to figure out how to get the same joy I get out of standup. Because there's not the immediate gratification. Yeah, it's not there. It's just not there. It's not exciting. When I wake up and I'm going to Milwaukee tomorrow, can't wait, because I got a couple bits that I want to try out that are new. I want to see where they go. Even if they fail, that's fine, but I'm excited. You tell me that I got to get up at six o'clock to get up in a makeup chair and hair and then recite lines for nine to 10 hours. I'm not necessarily over the moon, like looking forward to that. But it's more of a business move for me. Not that I completely hate it, because I completely hate it. I wouldn't do it. There is some enjoyment out of it. It's just, I guess I'm equating it to standup and there's nothing in this world that's going to equate to it.