Drama Queens - BONUS: Mira Sorvino

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Bonus time with Mira Sorvino as she shares exclusive insights into her most beloved work—from the improvisation and wild fan devotion surrounding "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" to the complex, unfiltered character she created in her latest film, "Signing Tony Raymond."It’s a lively, insider look at the instincts, risks, and unexpected moments that turn a performance into something audiences never forget.   Stream Mira's new movie "Signing Tony Raymond" here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, everyone. It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Welcome back to Part 2 with the incredible Mira Sorvino friends. You know, while I wait for her to get here, I'm a little early, shocker to no one who knows me. I really was thinking after the beginning portion of our conversation hearing her story, how cool it is that so many of us who wind up doing this,

know, crazy job being performers in the circuits, if you will, wind up finding our way to telling other people's stories by experiencing people's lives, you know, by being impacted by a historical event or a place, you know, where you get to know a whole new reality like she did studying in China. I think about how following my passion for history and world events led me into doing the play that changed my life as a senior in high school. Denial, a play centering on rights of people's free speech and some of the historical atrocities from World War II and the modern day ACLU and all of these. things that kind of came to a head in such a complicated fashion and made every character in the play have to examine what they believe and why and who they were going to stand up for. And

it's crazy to think about this as an adult who spends so much of my time in advocacy because I realize how early in my exploration of what I wanted my career to be, the advocacy and the storytelling were so intertwined. And to hear that from her in her own way, I don't know. It gives me some sort of a of a kismet or a shared something even deeper than, well, we both tell stories or we're both actors. You know, it really reminds me of, I guess, the specialness under all of it. And yeah, I realized how cool that was. She made me think about some things I hadn't thought about in a while. So I wanted to share that with you all just for a little bit deeper context on, yeah, on why I love and feel so lucky to be a storyteller. So cool that someone I've literally looked up to for my whole career has a version of that story too.

Okay, I'm going to stop geeking out about this and bring her back into the interview room because I think I'm too bashful to tell this part of the story to her face. but she'll hear the episode one of these days. All right, let's dive back in with Mira. We talked about this a little bit in the last episode, but when you won your Academy Award for Mighty Aphrodite, you said something that really sticks with me, that you wanted to be an actor to make people see something about the human spirit.

You know, my dad did do a movie called Dummy when I was a kid that was really my inspiration for wanting to be an actor, so he played a deaf lawyer who was defending a deaf, mute young man, played by LeVar Burton, who had been accused of rape and murder. And it was based on a real person. And dad did so much research on deaf speech.

And he worked with these kids at the Lexington School for the death for three weeks. And he developed three different stages of death speech. And then he had the opportunity to go and interview the real Lowell Myers, the real lawyer. And he realized he had a different voice than he would have imagined. Like the tone of his voice was lower. So he brought his voice down like an octave. And then, you know, the movie is very heartbreaking because it's sort of how the social justice, how the justice system treats marginalized people, the criminal justice system.

And LeVar Burton just does an incredible job as this young man who is really abused by the system. And dad gave such a performance that was so moving. And as the story progressed 20 years into it, he could barely, speak understandably because he had gone profoundly deaf at 12 and over the years lost all the consonants and the plosives and it just sounded more and more distorted and yet he gives this like stunning summation speech in the courtroom and and I was just so in awe of it and I was like there's something noble about this craft there's something when it's at its best it can combine art and truth telling in a way that is meaningful to a larger society it can always be meaningful

on the human level, like you can see yourself in the characters being portrayed or in the story, but sometimes when it has bigger themes and it's really beautifully articulated and executed, you can have an effect that might go beyond that moment when people are watching. Yeah. And it takes these stories, you know, these people and their journeys out of the bucket of ideas and it makes them real to us in such a way. you know, someone who watches that film is going to be affected in a way that just reading an article about how marginalized people are mistreated in the justice system, it isn't going to affect them.

Yeah, their heart's not going to break. Yeah, their hearts not going to break. And I think both Dad and Lovar put their hearts out there for everybody to see. And I think when you're authentically acting, you know, I know that there is a British philosophy that if you cry, the audience won't. But I kind of feel the opposite is true, that when you're really feeling something true, truly inside yourself and you're living truthfully under imaginary circumstances, but your own heart is really broken or vulnerable or whatever, that the instinct and people for empathy clicks in, and they are autonomously, like, moved by you because they're seeing another being in pain, you know, and they connect that it's real. And I think when you're using the artifice of like a certain hand gesture

and a certain, you know, way of saying a line and faking tears and using like, you know, the blowers of the glycerin tears, which I have never done because my father was like, the day I use the glycerin tears is the day I walk out of the business. And he was so adamant about it that I cannot. Your character, Sandra, you know, you lovingly call her Sandy in your latest movie signing Tony Raymond has a lot of spirit, I'd say a lot of gumption. How much of her was on the page? and made you immediately want to say yes.

And what did you decide to bring into her as you were workshopping your prep for this movie? Yeah, I mean, I think Sandy is... A lot of it was on the page, but I think I turned it up to 11. You know, I saw an opportunity in her to be very mercurial to go from, you know, extreme defiance to sort of contemplative talk with the coach when she's saying,

I just want what's best for my boy. And then fueled by the extra vodka that she goes to get in the kitchen. Then all of a sudden she's trying to seduce him on the kitchen table in this wild way as though she's like in an 80s hair metal car video, like climbing on the table and coming, you know, sprinkling herself with like season song. It's like white snake. It's crazy, right? And so I just had so much fun with that.

I really love playing these characters that have. both heart and like a little bit of insanity to their behavior. Like they're just a little bit of like whatever they think comes out. There's no socialization that stops them. No filter. Yeah, yeah. I mean, later there is a moment where she's like, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have tried to steece you.

That really would have ruined our friendship, wouldn't it have? And then she's like also, you know, like I love Otis. You know, I couldn't really be with anybody else. So after the fact, after she's come down out of her sort of, you know, impulse-driven moment. Then she can think about it, but at the time, she's like, she is not regulated. She is not someone who's been through therapy and brings herself down and takes some time out and takes some deep breaths and recognizes and speaks in, you know, like eye phrases.

Now, she's just, you know, out for blood, you know, because she gets triggered, I think, into feeling like she's being judged or thought stupid, like because these coaches come out here and they're trying to flip some dollars in front of them and be like, we're going to take care of your boy, but they're just playing them. And so she and Otis start playing the coaches instead, you know, and she's just like, we're not stupid and don't you think we are? But, you know, so when she gets that sort of judgment from them, like they don't matter, like they're like, we're not real, you know, to that. We're insignificant. Only our son is important because of his talent. You know, it's just something ignites and she's just very, you know, and I think some of what

happens, once I've done the prep, once I worked on the accent, obviously I'm not from the south, so I worked very hard, and the director would correct me when I would make little mistakes and we'd do it again and do it again. But, you know, he found me some women to base the voice off of, and I picked the one that I felt as closest to the character. But half of it is unconscious. I feel like in comedy like that where you're also improvving and I love improvving. That was going to be my question. Yeah, some of it is

improvved, yeah. As was some of my Aphrodite as is some of Rame and Michelle, as is a lot of comedy stuff that I've done. I did this wonderful movie by Nancy Savoca called Union Square that no one has seen and I really hope it gets like a life on streaming at some point but

it was very improv-y. All my best comedy has improv in it. And I think those improv moments, like your subconscious is blurting out whatever is the character in that moment. And if you've made the character intrinsically funny, then that's going to be funny. You know, she's going to say something bizarre or like, you're like, what? Yeah. So, but, but it's not like I'm planning it. Like, once in a while, like the night before, like I'll be like, this is missing something here. And so I'll write some lines and then I'll

show them to the director next day. It's like, is it okay if I actually ask. this here or if swap this out here. I promise I won't make the scene too long, but could I just try this? And, you know, usually they'll say yes. And then usually some part of that, not all of it, but some part of it ends up in a cut. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so much fun. I was wondering, because someone who is so, as you said, mercurial or reactive screams an improv opportunity to me. So I was wondering how much of that you got to do. Yeah. You know, you brought up Romium Michelle, which if I was not on a Zoom screen, I'd be bowing down. It's such a cultural touchstone. It's, I know what it is for me sentimentally and in my memories with my friends,

it is a version of that for so many people. I'm really curious for you. It looked like the most fun movie to make. And I know recently you went to a fan screening and a Q&A. Was it such a trip to watch all these people, watch it, and get to re-experience it from this stage of your life? Yeah, I mean, it's evergreen, you know? Robin Schiff and I did a screening of it a couple years ago. I think it was Hollywood forever. I think it was it. No, where was it?

It was syneph. Yes, Senebia. Yes, Senespia, yes. Yeah. And this part, though, was in a theater. This was not outside. So it was in a theater. and we walk on the stage and we got like a five minutes standing ovation like Robin the writer and myself

and I was like this is what it feels like to be a rock star like what is happening like I am not Eddie Vedder I'm not you know what is happening and it was like I did not you know I'm continuously amazed at how much this movie has meant to people in their lives and you know I was in like a a comic con and somebody had me sign their arm as Romi and then they came back half an hour later with it, with it like bleeding. Yeah. Oh my God.

They had tattooed. And I was like, oh my gosh. Oh, my God. A lot of people have Remy and Michelle tattoos. And it's pretty crazy. Yeah. And a lot of people do the dance in their wedding. Like they literally, weirdly, at their own wedding.

They have a third party. They just put the Allen coming or the Romey or the Michelle. And they all do the dance. Like it's so great. Yeah. Yeah. You are such a joy and, and, oh, I just am so thrilled about this. For our friends at home, obviously, I know you'll be rewatching Romeo and Michelle this week,

but make sure you also tune in to see signing Tony Raymond. It's available now on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. So you have multiple avenues upon which you can watch Mirra's brilliance. The movie's just so fantastic. And as are you, thank you for coming today. Thank you, Sophia. this was a joy. Thank you so much. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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