Acting Up: Ray Romano
Welcome to ACTING UP, the place where we celebrate standout performances in TV, streaming and film. Other than spotlighting exceptional work from recent projects, this feature also shines a light on how certain actors got where they are today. Have a peek and then check out these notable performances to help hone your craft.
The Snapshot:
Ray Romano plays a widowed father dating a sex doll when his estranged daughter arrives home in the HBO Max series, Made for Love. (Premiered April 1st.)
The Performance:
When you lose your wife to cancer and your daughter runs off with a tech billionaire to live in a virtual reality “hub” for a decade, it’s understandable that your sanity could take a hit.
That’s how we meet Herb (Ray Romano) in his bed, on top of his “synthetic partner” Diane when daughter Hazel (the enormously talented Cristin Milioti) barges in to see her dad for the first time in forever. Having just toggled her way out of the tech hub where she’s been kept relative prisoner in a suffocating, micromanaged marriage to powerful tech titan Byron (Billy Magnussen) – a place where she literally has to rate her orgasms on a five-star scale – seeing her father mid-coitus with a sex doll barely tracks in a world already filled with a large dose of cray.
Even still, she faints given the confluence of events.
Naturally, Herb is surprised to see Hazel because it’s been, well, ten years. What starts out as a bitter reunion eventually morphs into something sweeter starring two immensely gifted actors. But Hazel’s got problems and Herb will try to help because, well, that’s what dads do. For one, there’s a revolutionary monitoring microchip implanted in her head, which allows her husband to see and hear everything she does.
Naturally, once Hazel comes to with her childhood teddy bear tucked in next to her, Herb seems happy to have his daughter home, even if she is running around frantically looking for things she needs (i.e., a plane, shotgun, etc.). He hopes she’ll hang around before resuming life on the lam. Hence, this repartee while she anxiously replaces a hair extension over her microchip.
Hazel: I’m not gonna stay the night. I have to leave right now… Oh, and if the news says that I’m dead, demand to see my body.
Herbert: Have some spaghetti first.
In a comically sad but loving way that only Romano could pull off, Herb follows Hazel from room to room, wheeling Diane around on a dolly standing up so she can be part of this dad/daughter reunion. All the while, Romano’s portrayal of Herb has a sweet sincerity that slowly works to melt Hazel’s icy reception given their past. Luckily, as Made for Love’s episodes play out, this thawing leads us to a relationship that alone makes the series worth watching. That is, Hazel eventually comes around on Diane in one brilliant instance, getting her dressed up for a date with her dad, putting makeup on her along with some of her late mom’s clothes. It’s a priceless moment that has Herb dining out with Diane in a restaurant full of judgment. It could easily seem forced and done for laughs, but thanks to Romano (and a great script by Alissa Nutting and Patrick Somerville) it’s a sentimental scene that makes you wish you could be the third wheel.
Testament to a great actor – and performance.
The Career:
When the Queens-born Romano finished his 10-year-run on the successful CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), he could’ve easily retired a very rich man. After all, he was making something like $1.8 million per episode at the end of the show’s run.
But like many artists who genuinely love the pursuit, the 63-year-old Emmy-winner kept working and figured out how to diversify into more dramatic roles in order to stay busy.
After playing the stumbling but well-intentioned Ray Barone on literally every sitcom that would have the character (The Nanny, King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond), not only did Romano keep working, but he has kept evolving as an actor. Impressive, given the former NYC-based standup comic got his break in the mid-90s after several late-night appearances including CBS’ Late Night With David Letterman, the same network that would eventually run Raymond.
In addition to a block of Ice Age movies starring Romano’s voice as the mammoth Manny, Romano has taken on several dramatic TV and film projects worthy of note. These efforts include a recurring role as Hank Rizzoli on Parenthood (2012-2015), the Elmore Leonard Epix adaptation Get Shorty (2017-2019) and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (2019), where he played a lawyer for the mob. Also notable, Romano had standout roles in The Big Sick (2017) as a struggling dad whose daughter was in a medically induced coma and played opposite Mark Duplass as a man caring for his best friend as he dies of cancer in the indie film Paddleton (2019).
With HBO’s Made for Love seemingly tailor-made for a second season, it feels like we may see Romano return to a world where virtual reality and painful reality unite. But only time will tell.
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Gregg Rosenzweig has been a writer, creative director and managing editor for various entertainment clients, ad agencies and digital media companies over the past 20 years. He is also a partner in the talent management/production company, The Rosenzweig Group.
