Bobby Cannavale has four movies coming out in the next few months, each representing a different facet of the actor's sensibility. He's appearing in the Nick Kroll-penned dramady Adult Beginners in April, Paul Feig's comedy Spy in May, and opposite Paul Rudd in Marvel's Ant-Man this summer. But Cannavale's most recent effort is Danny Collins, out today, the story of an aging rock star played by Al Pacino who tries to reconnect with his estranged son (Cannavale). In the film, Cannavale taps into his more serious acting side, much like the one we saw from him during the third season of Boardwalk Empire. It's the sort of performance that makes you think "Why isn't this guy in everything?" At least, until you realize that he sort of is in everything. We spoke with Cannavale recently in Los Angeles about his relationship with Pacino, what to expect from Ant-Man, and whether he regrets appearing in Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

When you were younger and daydreaming about your acting career, did you ever imagine you'd play Al Pacino's son in a movie?

Not specifically, but I did always daydream that I would one day meet him and get him to come to a play of mine. I've done a lot of plays in New York and that was always sort of my version of the athlete who puts on the headphones and listens to music to psyche himself up. For me, it was walking into the theater and going "Pacino is coming tonight. Pacino is coming tonight." My friends all know this and they've been making fun of me for years about it because he never showed up. And then I met him at the Tony Awards—we were both nominated for the same category and they sat us next to each other and that was the first time I met him. I introduced myself and I said, "I would love it if you can come and see my play. I'm the biggest fan." He said "I'm coming" and showed up the next week and stayed in my dressing room for over an hour with me. Everybody had left and we were the only people in the theater. We talked for over an hour. He asked me so many questions. He was like the antithesis of what I thought a movie star would be—he just asked so many questions, about my family, about my work, about what I like to read, about how I got started. He asked me all the questions I wanted to ask him, but of course I knew all those answers because I knew so much about him. I just got the sense that he liked me. And then about a month later, after the played closed, I got a call asking me if I'd be interested in doing Glengarry Glen Ross with him on Broadway.

And you did it?

Yeah, I hadn't heard from him, I'd just heard from people who worked with him. So we did this play together and then we got really close. We became really good friends. And then after the play closed, about a month later, he called me himself and said, "You want to play my son?" I was like, "Yeah, whatever you want. I'll do whatever you want." I didn't know at the time what it was, whether it was a movie—or as he calls it "a picture." Al is notorious because he'll workshop something for years and never put it out, just because he wants to work on something. I was down for that. But it was a movie and it was this movie. I read it and thought "What a great role for him." And I got to play his son. It's just beyond.

They say you should never meet your heroes. Clearly that wasn't true in this case.

That's true in a lot of cases. I've met people I wished I hadn't met. But Al was not one of them. For a guy who's old enough to be my father I feel like we're kindred spirits. We have a lot in common. Our families and our history with our families is very similar. Our relationships with our families is very similar. We had a lot more in common than I thought. And that helped a lot for this movie. We spent a lot of time talking about our families and our fathers. We had rehearsals at his house. I'd go over and drink 12 cups of espresso with him and read over the scenes and improvise the scenes and take a pause and talk about how interesting the scene is. It was definitely lived up to and more.

So you're friends with Al Pacino. Now what's the goal?

I mean, there's plenty of people that I'd like to work with. I'd like to work with Robert De Niro very much.

Have you met De Niro?

Funny enough when we were doing Glengerry Glen Ross, Al and I took part in a reading for [Martin] Scorsese. So it was Marty, me, Al, Robert, and Joe Pesci. We did a reading of a script by Steve Zaillian that was intense. It was crazy. I was like "What am I doing here?" I still ask myself that every single day, though. I don't really know what I'm doing here. But once I'm in the room I'm just really relaxed and I don't think about it until afterwards. Literally when it's over I'm like, "What was that?" I don't know what's going to happen with that script. I worked with [Scorsese] over the summer, so I checked that off.

You worked with Scorsese on his new HBO show Rock 'N' Roll, right?

Yeah. We finished the pilot and now we're going to start shooting the series in May. I've been attached to it since 2012 so by the time it airs in January 2016 it will be a long time coming. I've had this script for years. No one is anticipating it more than I am, believe me. It's pretty great.

There's a lot going on for you this year.

I guess so. I'm spending most of the year shooting Rock 'N' Roll, but I have a lot of stuff coming out. This movie and Spy and Ant-Man.

Is it true that you and Paul Rudd, who's playing Ant-Man, are actually friends?

Yeah, we're friends. He's the one who called me and said, "They're going to call you, dude. You should do it. We'd have a lot of scenes together."

You seem to have a lot of famous people calling you a lot.

That's the great thing about being a New Yorker! It's doesn't feel so much like a company town as Los Angeles does. I'm kind of never here [in LA]. Back home I don't feel like I'm living in a town in which the business is so prevalent. Most of my friends are writers and directors and actors, but it's a different vibe there. And so that's how a lot of things happen for me. I'm friends with people. I've done a lot of workshops and readings and things nobody's ever seen. That have never come out, but me working with someone on something will lead to them calling me later and saying "Hey man, I really want you to play this role in this thing." With Ant-Man, that went through a major change when it lost Edgar [Wright], and Paul and Adam McKay, who is also a friend of mine, got to work on rewriting the script. They sort of pumped the part up a bit in the new version and they both called me and said, "You've got to do this." They called me before Marvel called. I really went on good faith because they're so secretive over there about the script. I just trusted Paul.

Was it fun to shoot?

We had a great time. We went down to Atlanta and shot it over a few months. I've never been a part of something like that before. It's pretty funny because Paul's one of my best friends and we've been friends a long time—kind of before either of us really hit—and it was funny to watch him in that suit and keep a straight face. There was a lot of laughing.

Have you seen any of the movie yet?

I don't think there's anything to see yet. There's so much visual effects in it that I'd imagine that's taking a long time.

How does it feel to be part of a big Marvel movie?

You know, look, I'm not playing the guy in the suit. So I don't have that kind of pressure. But if you know Paul, you know he's a pretty down-to-earth guy. I have to say, the whole thing, for as big as it was, felt like an indie film. With the exception of all the blue screen and the ridiculous suit that he's in. And the fact that I've got to look at something that's not there and react to something like an explosion when there's no explosion. Aside from that, the actual scenes themselves were really fun and funny and we improvised a lot. It almost felt like an Adam McKay film. Since Guardians of the Galaxy, I think Marvel's sort of taken a different approach to their films and have injected them with a lot of levity. It's a great choice to have Paul play that role, sort of in the same vein as having Chris Pratt do Guardians. It still has the totemic idea of the hero, but the sense of humor is what's different in comparison to something like Thor.

So it's funny?

Yeah, it is funny. Judy Greer is in it and she plays my wife. She's always fun. Michael Peña is very funny in it. T.I. is in it. I worked with Tip!

What do you call T.I. when you address him in person?



You call him Tip. Who knew?

Do you have a preference between funny roles like that or more dramatic roles like Boardwalk Empire?

It just depends on the role being good. Boardwalk Empire was such a good role. What's nice is to play a role that the person who's writing it is really excited about writing. Terence Winter is a great writer and he'd already done two seasons of Boardwalk. I loved the show as it was, but he was really excited about this character. So when he called me in to ask me about playing it I didn't read anything. I just went off of his enthusiasm for the character. He had a really clear idea of who he was and he said, "I promise you you'll never be bored on set." And he was right. I don't have a single scene in that season that's not exciting for me. I'm never standing in the back and watching something happening. That character drove all the scenes he was in. And at the same time I thought that character was really funny. It's not a comedy, but he's one of the funniest characters I've ever played, I think. I haven't done that much traditional comedy, in which I have a really prominent role. I know that's really difficult. My girlfriend [Rose Byrne] does a lot of those and it's hard. But I don't know which one I prefer. I try to have all my characters have a sense of humor. To me the most interesting thing is a desperate character. I think desperation is funny.

Looking at your IMDb page, for every Blue Jasmine there's also a Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Do you feel any necessity to lean more highbrow at this point?

I don't. I can't speak for other actors. I think there are probably some other actors out there who are "Well, this thing really brought me some success. I'm going to ride this train now." But for me, I just don't want to play the same thing twice. I want to do this forever so I want to try to do as many things as possible. I have to keep people off the scent. I might not make as much money as the guy who rides that train, but I'm doing okay.

Emily Zemler Emily Zemler is a freelance writer based in London.

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