Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Ray Liotta (2021)

Episode Date: May 29, 2022

Ray Liotta may be best known for his breakout performance as real-life gangster Henry Hill in the iconic movie Goodfellas, a role that had the former soap opera star sharing famous scenes with Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro and Lorraine Bracco. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist re-visits a favorite conversation with the actor, who died this week at the age of 67. In one of Liotta's last interviews, they talk about that indelible movie and a career that took him from Field of Dreams to the Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark.  (Original broadcast date: September 26, 2021) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Very excited to bring you this conversation today with Ray Leota. Ray is one of the stars of the highly anticipated new movie, The Many Saints of Newark, which is a prequel to the iconic HBO series of The Sopranos. What the movie does is explain the rise of Tony Soprano from his childhood in the 1960s and 70s up through his teenage years so you understand. how he became who he became in that series.

Ray Leota plays in the film, a character named Hollywood Dick Maltesanti. He is Christopher Maltesanti's grandfather. Christopher Maltesanti, of course, played in the series by Michael Imperioli. Talk a lot about that movie. Also, of course, have to talk about Goodfellas. That was Leota's breakout role as real-life gangster Henry Hill in the 1990 Oscar-winning movie, the iconic Martin Scorsese film. great stories about a couple of the most famous scenes, including the tracking shot scene where he walks into the Copa with Karen, how that scene, they almost missed it a couple of times. He tells those stories. He's got a great personal story, too. He was adopted, born in Newark, Newark,

adopted as an infant grew up in Union, New Jersey, not terribly far from Newark. Just kind of an unlikely Hollywood guy. And I think you'll hear all about that. He also talks to me, I don't know that he's talked about it before. but he talks at some length about tracking down his biological mother all these years later. After he'd become a well-known actor, he decided that he wanted to figure out who she was, a little nudging from his wife at the time, and he did track her down. It's kind of an incredible story. So tons to talk about with Ray Leota. He's lived a lot of life. He's had a fascinating career, almost an actor by accident.

He founded in a drama class in college. And now here he is, starring in the new movie, The Many. Saints of Newark. Here now is Ray Leota on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Great. Thanks for doing this. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you. We can talk a little Jersey high school sports later if we want to back in the day. A little union versus Ridgewood. But I want to talk about this movie, The Many Saints of Newark. Man, I saw it yesterday for people who don't know the backstory. It's a prequel, sort of the making of Tony Soprano and the making of all the characters that we came to know from the series.

When you first heard they were doing this kind of project, was it something that was on your radar? I want to be a part of that. Yeah, in my mind, I had met David Chase when I was shooting Hannibal in Virginia. He came up because he wanted to talk to me about a part that he had that, I forgot the name. Ralphie, I think it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just didn't feel right.

Right. And so Tony Pento, how did it work Tony? Joe Pentaly, no. Yeah, Joey Pants. Yeah. He'll fix that for me. Yeah, yeah, we got you. He got it won an Emmy, so it was perfect. Yeah.

My decision was good for him. So, David, this is going back during the series, and he comes in off to see the park, we're in the middle of doing other stuff. It just didn't work. Yeah, it just didn't feel like. I think I'd already done Goodfellas by that time. Yeah.

And I didn't want to repeat, something like that. but so then I'm hearing about it and I'm saying why aren't they seeing me he's not even offering me anything. So they were doing everything in New York so I talked to my agent it was just the one part that I was looking at was just a few days but I wanted to work with him

and so my agent called him and David said yeah I'll sit with him but you know it doesn't mean he's going to get anything, whatever. Fine. I flew out here to New York,

met with him and the director, talked for like two or three hours, and by the end of it, they said, you want to play this part. Wow, wow, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then when they offered me the other part in that, I don't know if they wanted to talk about it or not, but

it's out there now. Yeah. I was just like, whoa, this is going to be interesting. So we just kind of throw the dice. Yeah, that's amazing. So basically you took this upon yourself, came out to New York, got in room with David

Chase and talked her way into the job, it sounds like. Yeah, to a degree, I guess. I knew the scripts. I was, like, leaning towards that kind of character when you're talking to somebody. But it was it worked out. So Hollywood Dick is the character. There's a name, first of all.

First of it was Hanson Dick. Was it really? Yeah. And they changed it. Why? I have no idea. I think maybe There was a guy already. Oh, there was already a handsome dick. So what did you like about that character? Oh, Hollywood. Hollywood, yeah.

Let's see how many times we could say it. When David told you about the character, what did you like about him? I had read it. The thing that I liked, there was somebody who was kind of out of the life, but still had the life in him. I go off on a cruise. I come back with a 20-year-old. I'm, like, in my 50s or 60s in it.

or now. And I come back with this beautiful girl from Rome, and she's my girlfriend. I'm talking to everybody about it. There's a loud mouth that you want to punch. Yeah. And that appealed to you. Yeah, because I was used to doing the punching.

Right. So it was nice to be on the other side. And I took a movie once before, and the only reason why I took it so they could beat me up, because I was always slapping somebody hitting. Right. And just to play that kind of innocence, or not someone who has ever been in a fight? Sure.

You haven't been in many, you've said. Never. Never, yeah. Which is funny. Except in seventh grade, it was me and this kid. And for some reason, he wanted to challenge me that the food in his grammar school was better than the food in my grammar school. And that developed into a fight.

Really? I've never heard of a fight starting over grammar. school cafeteria food. And then I didn't want to do it. I came down. Everybody's going down. I see at the, there's the soccer fields and baseball field, and there's a little house.

I see at the house after school. Oh. Fine. Go down. Kids are coming because everybody heard about it. And I never was really, it never was in a fight. So somebody put a stick on his, or maybe it was my, yeah, it was my shoulder.

and he hit it off and he caught me in the nose and it really bothered me so I just beat each other like a couple girls and how'd you make out? I won.

So you're 1 and 0 in your career? I want to know. You're smart to walk away undefeated. You got it totally, but look at the sloppy Joe's that I defended. That is a bizarre reason to fight that's for sure.

That kind of gets it something interesting though because a lot of this obviously is good fellas and it will be now this film but there's like this public perception of you is like the tough guy and the fighter and it's not really even close to the truth of who you are. Not even close. Right? Yeah, but sometimes it works. I play it.

When you need something? No, it's just fun and it really not the ultimate in acting but to do something that's not you is fun especially you know if you learn I had great acting teachers down at the University of Miami, believe it or not.

Robert Buckets-Lowry. And then when I moved to, I got a soap opera for three years when I was in my 20s, moved to L.A. and started studying with this guy, Harry Master of George. He was just great. He's great.

So how did you get, I want to come back to the movie in a second, but how did you get from kid born in Newark, raised in Union, probably love sports, probably didn't really think of himself as an artist in any way, right?

I'm close. So how do you get into acting from where you came? Different time. One was like, I went away for a summer camp when I was in like fifth or sixth grade.

My friends were going. I went, and I did a play Oliver. There's a bunch of kids doing this stuff. Then in high school, last time I saw him, he gave me a dirty look, but the basketball teacher, we had a fight.

about something or soccer extended because we were getting into the county play or whatever it was and uh i said f-th-th i said i'm i'm done and the drama i had a drama class with my best friend jean and we were just goofy doing doing children's theater and just being silly right i didn't want to do it and and that my quit basketball the director who was a drama teacher asked me if i wanted to be in the play So I got to be in the play you go You guys will audition. He said, don't worry about that. I was so used to doing something after school.

Were you always something after school? Yeah, always. Three o'clock, and then you're going to practice. Where was I? Oh, oh, oh, you didn't know either. So I didn't know you're... So I didn't play, and I hated it. Yeah.

I just didn't like it. I memorized all these words. There were pictures of me with like a, had just a towel, you know, that the play's coming. It was just horrible. Yeah. And then, so I had no idea what I wanted to do for my life. Came time to go to college.

Well, there's a whole other story. Like how I got started. No, I think it's fascinating because, you know, if you look at your childhood in the way you came up, there aren't a lot of signs that you were going to become this great actor that you've become. But then when you get to Miami, that's when it shows up. Is that fair to say? Honestly, I think it started, I was adopted.

So born in Newark, went home with my birth mom. My birth mom, they just financially couldn't handle it because there's a sister, a full sister out there. And so I don't think, I think that probably plays into it as well as making my relationships horrible. But now I got a great one. That's interesting. So why do you think having been adopted as a baby turns you into an actor?

Is that some kind of outlet? I don't know if it does. I mean, everybody's got a different reason. For me, really, I didn't want to take math in history. I mean, I'm being a little jockey about the adoption. I don't think it affected it at all. So I'm in line for, didn't want to go to college, walked out of my SATs, go, take the test.

This is ridiculous. I don't know these answers. And I just signed it and left. You know, whatever I'll do this, that or the other. thing. My dad said, you really should go to college, take whatever you want. Really? Yes, I got into the University of Miami. But at that time, you just needed a pulse to get in there. So, look, my pulse was going. And I got to the head of the line for general stuff. I said, I take math and history. I said, forget that, I'm going to take math

and history. I don't even like in school. I don't even want to be here. Right next to there was a drama teacher. I said, all right, I mean, I'm a drama. drama school theater stuff. I said, I'll do that. I had it in high school. It was fun. Not very challenging. I'm not proud of this, but...

And then I went over to the drama line, just cross over. Typical actor story, Pretty Girl says, you're gonna do the play tonight? I didn't even know there was. What are you, it's all about doing the play? You gotta do the play. Why are you even in this? All right, so I went and got in the play,

the play and the first year all I do were musicals but it's not something I don't think has anything to do with being adopted I don't think unless you're for it. You must have been pretty good at it if you kept getting cast in the musical so it sort of happened by mistake but it turns out you found something

when you got there and you were good at it. I had fun doing it and the teachers that I had were so good and they just, you know, they're just playing make believe. Sometimes you hear actors going all hoity to-to-to-y about what they Dude, you put out a sore, whatever.

It's just like you played pretend. Relax. What are you being so jerky for? Well, you mentioned the soap opera, another world. A little bit. The metal chair, I know. I'm getting low. I'm getting low.

Oh, yeah, is that one? It's a fun ride, though. Fighting to stay upright over here. It's hard. It is. I got up that knee, too, so this is easy. Oh, all right. won't keep you too long. I'll lock you up.

No, I want to stay. You mentioned the soap opera, another world. Yeah. So you get that pretty quickly out of college, a few months, I think, as a matter of fact. And I love the way you talk about it because you say that soap opera was like a training ground. Great actors who worked on Broadway and off Broadway come in. That's basically how you learned how to become an actor.

You did your homework, didn't you? A little bit, yeah. But I mean, some people go, ah, soap opera. You go, no, no, no, no. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't want to do it at first. I was like that because I stayed the four years and got into college. I mean, I did the college graduated and said, you know, I'm going to really try doing this.

You know, so I moved to New York and things happened. Like you said, the soap within six months, it happened. And I didn't have soap opera because it was in the 70s. So that's the kind of movies I was relating to, which was a great period of movies, man. So I want to get to a movie like that. And soap opera, you know, can get past the cheese. so many ways you could say is there any salt

so I but the actors were so good and like you said the producer wanted Broadway houses felt like this person would be right for to grow guaranteed that get out whenever they watch or they'd have time to do the preparation

or whatever for the shows so it was a really really good group of actors they're just making some money and you know all of a sudden we're doing a scene and I was thinking and if Mr. Fixed or something like that, the guy had a ball,

and he started just throwing a ball to me. In the middle of the scene, just came like out of the blue. So, oh, I get it. And it was just, as it was, it was great training. I don't care what anybody says. What you're saying is kind of silly.

I mean, so how many times can you say pass this all? Right. And there's a lot of it. But you're learning. You're young, and this is how. Well, after my dad's, I said, I don't want to go do this. And he says, really,

how many times have you been in front of a camera? None. There you have it. Yeah. All right. Okay. I'll do it for a few years. And I did, and it was, thank God, that he went to college and this one.

Good calls. You're a young guy in New York City during that time. Do you have the actors' stories of your bartending or working, doing this and that, to keep the ball in the air? No. Like I said, I got the soap within six months. Yeah. I was a bartender at the Broadway houses.

Okay. So, you come in, give me a wine, give me this, give me that, give me the car, give me the cookies. So that's what I did. And I was free during the day because I didn't have to be to the shows at night and living like a, you know, struggling actors and making lots of money. And it was great because I got to watch these plays every night. And some of them, these people were great. Don't ask me their names for the play, but I just know I was affected by it. But they inspired you, right? Yeah, it was just, wow, these people were really good. While they're doing it like they did yesterday. It was just, because I was really hungry to find out more about it, because I just knew there was more than four years in Miami.

Right, right. And then a few years after that, you hop into something wild, which turns out to be great for you. You get a Golden Globe nomination. People go, wow, who's this guy? He's really good. Was that a significant moment for you in your life and career to have your first big role, really, in a movie to go that well? That was my first movie. That was the first one I ever did.

Yeah, yeah, and it was another thing that I went after. Still to this day, getting this thing in The Sopranos. They weren't sure they wanted me in it. I said, well, no, let me go to New York and let me have lunch with them. David Chase and I said, all right, well, he can come, but there's no guarantee he's going to get anything. I didn't care. Got on a plane, boom, in New York, have lunch, leave, and hopefully I get it, and I did.

when you're talking about this movie the many saints of newark um james gandolphini's son michael is playing his father's care young version of his father's character i know you didn't have a ton of scenes with him but you've seen the film what did you think as someone who's obviously seen the soprano show watching james gandolphini's son do what he did in this movie first i wanted i didn't have any scenes with him and would have like to talk to him just to see what It was like emotionally to, you know, you're 16, 17 years old. You were there when it happened. Like, what did you go through?

What happened? Him as a human being, I just was curious about. And in the movie, he did a really, really good job. And it was more like a kid who was surrounded by people who did bad things, but he was just like a kid. He wanted to play a sport. He just said, so he's got an innocence about him that was probably traveling. I think he was like throwing people through windows in third grade.

So he was just like a nice kid, and then he had the bad influences around me, around him. And then he did what he did. You start to see the beginning of the turn of young Anthony Soprano, from this innocent kid to what he became. There is so much excitement and anticipation around this movie. Is it fun to be at the center of it of this thing that so many people can't wait to see?

You know, I don't know. feed into it. I don't, I don't talk about it. I don't, I just like staying home with my fiance watching TV and chilling, like going to a club or a bar where people say stuff. So I have no idea. Like, I don't look at reviews or barely look at the movies. And I mean, it's nice to hear, don't get me wrong. And if I wasn't hearing it, that's, oh, man. But the proof would be in the pudding. It feels like for you, just listen to you talk. You go in. you do a good job, you give a good performance, and you kind of walk away from it.

You're not the guy, we were talking before we start here, who's flipping around looking for Field of Dreams and Goodfellas on cable. Not at all. And you've never seen Field of Dreams, and you've seen Goodfellows a couple of times maybe in your life. Is there a reason for that, or you just feel like, I did it, it's in the past?

No, one, I'm not the kind of actor who, like, wants to watch or see what I did, or see what it looks like with some some directors you know you're like you could tell you're really in hands of somebody knew what they were doing and i wanted to see what they did and how they put it together not analyze it just just to see how it went wait i forgot i don't why we got into this conversation no you don't like to watch yourself you don't need to watch yourself yeah yeah no and i think some actors who do watch themselves there's some actors now that you're doing you're doing the scene they're usually younger, as soon as the scene is over, they run to the director's tent,

they, you know, want to see the scene, play it back for me. They just shot it like 30 seconds ago, and don't remember what you did or what. I think it's for some people. I think it gets in their way, and there's a technicality that comes around, oh, I'll look better with my cheek on this side than that. And you could see it with some. Some are very conscious, which makes them self-conscious about what they're doing. That's just me.

Some people, it works. they're great in it and you know, just for me personally, no. Yeah, I mean, when you played Shoeless Joe in Field of Dreams, we were talking about the game that was this summer which was, I thought, and you were saying, too, they did a great job.

Great job. Do you, I know you kind of block out all the outside stuff, but are you amazed in some ways that the legs that that film has had, Field of Dreams that here 30 years later the whole country is glued and so touched still by the story and more generations

are watching that movie? Am I sorry? Am I shocked by it? Yeah, are you surprised at how long that the legacy has been? I never thought about it, but someone's, like a week or so ago, came up to me and said, you know, that Humphi Bogart would say, if you're in one movie that stands a test of time, that's a great thing, too unbelievable. And talk about him, he's got a bunch of movies that still go.

Yeah. And I thought about it, and in a cocky kind of way, I was saying, The Field of Dreams has been sticking around. When it first came out, every newspaper, good, you know, politicians do this, politicians, that, that. It was field of theft, field of whatever. Right, right. It came out a lot.

Yeah, yeah. And Goodfellet just took on, it wasn't come out as like a big hit. It came out like, like, like, good, I'm still too close to it. I remember seeing it watching it. And I was sitting next to Joe Pesci, who saw it. I said, I'm not even in this movie. This is, like, ridiculous. Because I just couldn't look at it objectively.

I was 34 years old. I still didn't know what was going on. Right. Well, yeah, I didn't even realize that just reading through the box office wasn't crazy on that, which you'd be surprised because it's such an iconic film, and it's, I was saying, it's the movie that you always stop on if you see it. Did you sense when you were making it with that incredible cast with Martin Scorsese that you were on to something special while you were making it?

You never could have imagined 30 years later, people are still watching it every night. Yeah, no, I had no idea. The Field of Dreams having come out. I had something wild, and Dominic and Eugene. I liked, you know, those movies are different. But no, I had no. And it was like, see Field of Dream. My mom was sick with cancer during the filming of Goodfellas,

and she passed away in the middle of it. So it was more like, I wasn't like, oh, gosh, like, I'm with this person or that person. It's kind of like, why would I want to be nervous when stuff like that happens? It put things in perspective in a really deep way. I didn't realize that. That's an incredible layer to the story of that movie that you were going through all that while you're shooting this movie that... In the middle of it. I was doing the scene.

Friday they told me my knees buckled. It does happen. But you realize, you know, you got to go back and finish the scene. and I did, and then I went back that night, and luckily I was there once you passed. I was laying my arms. I'm sorry, that was an incredibly difficult. I've never really talked about that,

but I figured you'd give me 25 minutes. Might as well. Might feel it good. A little comedy, a little serious. Yeah, we're getting something heavy. Oh, this poor guy. We're getting the full show here. Exactly.

Did the guys... Good luck editing this. Did the guys on set know that, or did you keep it, keep it here? here during the shooting in the movie no they kind of knew but but i don't get emotional about i'm trying not to uh joe pesci and some of the teamsters drove to where they i live 45 minutes of union outside of uh new york and they came on the weekend and there were flowers that that that they sent and joe shows up with about seven or eight teamster that i was working with so i was just flipped out

and overwhelmed by what, you know, like what life really is and what happens eventually, which I, do you ever get those? Those Sunday night, like, oh, my God, one day I'm going to be in a box or burn. Mortality sneaks up. Yeah. Really does. So her doing that and being sick put a perspective about who I was working with and, you're kidding me at the end of the day.

And I'm not going to say, God bless you when you sneeze. I hope I ever kind of seem like that, but that's what I meant. What a nice gesture, though, by Joe and those guys. Well, no, that's nice, too. Opening doors. Yeah, but for Joe and those Teamsters to come out. Oh, it was unbelievable. It was really so touching and moving.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Ray Leota right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Ray Leota. I promise I'm not going to walk you through every good fellow scene. You have my word.

But since you mentioned Joe, the, am I funny? Am I a clown scene? You guys, it sounds like. What you are? You're funny and a nod. You got a little clown in you. You guys sort of improvved that out ahead of time based on a story that Joe actually had experience. And then

Marty Scorsese says, okay, go put that on film? Yeah. Well, he was telling the story and Joe's a great storyteller and he said the story that he was at a restaurant and said something to a guy like, well, that's really funny what you say. And the

guy just turns on him. And Joe knew who he was sitting with and the people were in the restaurant and said he got now. At least this is the way I remember from what he told me if you're watching this show or you won't watch it. uh the guy did that what do you mean you think i'm funny like what am i clown to you and the guy went deep on him joe tells the story and marty really liked that that uh you know i have no idea what

my keys are but i can remember something 30 years ago that i filmed uh and and so he and i improved it and you know but marty started shaping it and uh and uh The script supervisor wrote it down and said, like, this is the scene that we're going to put this in the front of this scene. When Joe goes to, he hits the guy in the head because the guy wants money from him at the bar. Yeah, pulls him by the tie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it went in front of that scene because that's what the other scene would have been, there was no real entrance into it.

And it really showed, you know, who these people are and what they do. How many times a week if you're walking down the street, people yell at you about that scene? Or what do they yell at you? Yeah, they used to. Luckily, I've been doing this for a while now, so it's not just that. In the beginning, I mean, when it does, though, it's great.

You know, you want to be in a movie that's a dud and nobody sees. I've definitely had those, and it's much better when they watch it and like it. You also have a great story about the COPA scene, the famous tracking shot, which is just a marvel of filmmaking if you watch it again all the way through the back through the kitchen all that and you almost nailed it the first time except for one time you know this story huh so uh oh god bless him may the rest of peace uh so we're going to do in the copacin we came in the afternoon lorraine and i uh she played karen um they set it up they set up and they were doing it all morning this is what's going to happen if the chair's going to come and we're just going to do it in one shot Marty said just just go this way go that way and this is going to happen so he went we did it we were like just on it you go down the steps I always try to put it like a hello to my friend Gene in a movie so there was a guy that hey jean how you do it um uh then we had the like go

so we go through the kitchen then we come out and the cope is filled and they you know they see me and get some money put us right in front of the you know it was a big big thing uh so we rehearsed it and okay then we did this whole this whole thing again and we sit down and henny youngman was as a comedian in it and you know this was a pretty complicated scene and he forgot his joke i'm sorry mr yaw it's not that i'm not being mean it's just here's really his funny this was his joke right but he's been telling for 50 years for well Oh, yeah, but not in front of mobsters, I guess. Scorsese's going, oh, my God, we got it, we got it, we got it.

No, you know, you can always improve on something. So. It's quite a legacy. Do you ever stop and look back on your career? How could he forget his jokes? No, no, no, no, on your career, I mean, as we walk through these movies, and by the way, you talked about typecasting and all that. There's so much else there.

You were in a Muppets movie, and you were in Operation Dumbos. drop like you've done you've shown all these different facets to your to your talent it doesn't seem to me that you're the kind of guy who sits and like looks back at his legacy and his career do you do any of that no no to me i'm just as hungry just as angry as i was when i first graduated college things didn't happen or things didn't happen some did and when they don't it's like i think it's the sports yeah did that i that i that i did that i that you're not that you're going to beat him, I'm going to win. I'm going to make this shot deep people going down.

That's sometimes in my head. At this stage, I'm 66, 67 in a few months, and I just still have that burn. Really? Yeah. And what does that do for you professionally? Well, the work part of it, it's tough to remember things as you're older. If something's written well, it's really easy.

Sometimes you forget, and then, you know, it's age to it. what, I don't know if you had it. You're telling it, you little poise. 46. 46. I'm coming up behind you. You are. So, I think some of that fire comes from Jersey that we were talking about.

Yeah, or what I said before about being, you know. Sports, competitiveness. And that, because I remember my mom telling me that when I was a little kid, that the food would be there when I was doing this all the time. So I think they knew something was happening. And you think you traced that back to having been adopted? You know what? I'm playing child.

I'm playing psychiatrist. Yeah, it's interesting, though. Yeah, but I wonder like, wow, why wouldn't it be, it seems logical that that's where one would behave or where that attitude might come from. Do that change for you at all when you track down your biological mother? Because you talked about almost the gratitude you felt that. she had the foresight to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to play it like I was giving up.

Not that, oh my gosh, it was so great. I was in a bad situation. She wanted me to be in a good situation. It was always about how the hell do you give up a kid? It blows my mind. But she did, but it was for altruistic ways because I was married. I was getting ready to have a kid.

my uh michelle my ex-wife she said uh maybe it's good if we find out your your birth you know what what's about what who knows what we're going to have there could be a lot of different things and that makes sense uh at that time there were a lot of shows uh about finding things like Oprah was doing this one and morey was doing it and it was find this find this find this person uh that was even before the ancestry stuff which is an extension of that So I went and Michelle saw the name of the guy who specializes in that at the end of the show. She writes it down, calls him on, I didn't know any of this. And this guy can find your mother.

He's got, he's got Ruth's number. So I called her and then it was just, I. No, no, no. The guy asked her, my birth mother, not my mom, my mother, not my mommy. This was my birth mother. And she said, yeah. And she had six kids. I thought I had five half sisters, a full sister, and a half brother. Wow. Whose name is Ray. Come on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's incredible. They don't know any of this. Did she have any sense that Ray Leota from the movies was her son? Or was this all news to her? I don't know. I called, and I didn't want to let that out yet. And so she said, what do you do? I said, oh, I'm just living in L.A.

She had a voice for a little rest because he smoked a lot. So she said, well, hey, how you doing? Good. Cal, what do you do? Nothing, you know, just things here and there. I said, you want to talk next week? Yeah, sure. I call her the next week.

Ask her questions. I kind of like that answers for it, but really didn't. And she's so, tell me, tell me what you do in California. So I tell her, and I know it, I knew it. Denise, one of my half-sisters, knew that they sensed it, they read something, we had similar characteristics. I don't really know how they knew it. And then I said, can I come out and visit you?

She said, yeah, and I went to, the only reason why I'm talking about this stuff, because like hearing myself talk, there goes an active talking, is for people to, there's people out there that said, you know what, I should find out something. So I really come from that point, because I'm talking motor mouth and I really know. No, no, this is, you're right, it's important.

We just had something over there, it was a round table with all the other actors, and they can talk. And now here I am. Now it's your turn. Now here I am doing. No, but I think you're right. I think that's important because there are people who say,

I don't know if I want to know. Yeah, no, no, no. Somebody asked, are you glad you did it? Yeah, it would have to be, yeah. Yeah. Did it change the way you saw your own life? Yeah, by that time I started releasing it, just letting it go, not carrying it. You know, every time I met somebody, hey, how you doing?

I'm adopted. You know, I used it and not for good reasons. It's just, you know, I did at times, or maybe it felt like I really had to tell stuff. Where are we? Well, no, I appreciate you sharing that. I know it's not easy, but I do think people will hear this. And they go, all right, maybe I make that phone call.

It might be tough. So I go out there to visit her to meet her. Me, my best friend, Gene, and Michelle, my wife at that time. We come. It was on Route 22, you know that, right? And she was living her like right on 22, back away. or one of her kids was Denise, I think, there was gravel, and it wasn't like a paved or gravel in this parking lot

that were the house, you know, where they kept woods and train tracks. And this is all within that. I went and I'm always early, so we were early and we were just sitting there waiting because nobody was home. And sitting there, I told this story, once it. What they called me? Anyhow about telling.

It turns out so a car comes around and had a dead deer on it. Like it was like tied and turns out my half-brother likes to hunt. They eat the food, but it was just like, oh my God.

Welcome home. How do you feel about being adopted now? And I really liked everybody, but I don't, you know, I don't want to have to buy some Christmas presents every Christmas. So I'm getting better for some reason. It's just, I realize it's not going to really change me.

I'm not going to like, well, a sudden wake up and be whatever. Yeah. No, I thank you for sharing that. That's really, it's an amazing story and one that's going to inspire people, I think, to maybe make the call that they were hesitant about. I don't have the personality where, you know,

it's going to be shtick, where it's going to be this, it's going to be that. So you ask me something. Yeah. I'm serious about it, but then sometimes that third eye comes in. No, no, no, that was great. That's not for me. Well, before I let you go, did you bring any of that New Jersey upbringing to this character, to this movie?

Because it is tied into Newark. Of course I did. Right? No, no, no, you didn't bring the Jersey roots? I was six months from her house for one home. No, no, I don't mean the adoption. I just mean you grew up. Jersey and Union.

No, none of that. Do you know Jersey? Yeah, but I was just a jock. Yeah. I had great acting teacher, buckets in college, and Harry. I would do, I did my first movie,

go back to acting class. Second movie, back to acting class. Field of Dreams, back to acting. It's good, fellow, back to act. I just liked it and looked at it, like being in the gym, you're just, you know, making your imagination stronger.

What you should ask me again? No, that's it. I would just ask it if you sort of tapped into any of your jersey roots for this character for this movie no no i didn't know people you know there were the you know the high rolls yeah and the socks that was like ribbed did see through the oh yeah so there was a few of those guys right but i didn't know what they you know went on to do right right so but i i did no i i don't i didn't think of that better well maybe it was in there uh Oh, Freud, what do you think?

I don't know. I think there's some of them. I think there's a little, at least like the mannerisms and the way we talk in New Jersey. You know, I think you can at least bring some of that to it. You know what I mean?

I'm from New Jersey. I'm telling you. I was doing a little. I was doing the seat a little. Gotcha. Well, thanks for the time. This was a lot of fun. And congratulations on the movie.

People are going to love it. Thanks. And maybe we'll see you in a sequel. I don't want to give away too much. Who knows? Who knows? Next time, better to share.

Yeah, I know. I know. I know. Crazy. Although I feel like I did it like a core. We're going to be ripped after this. We said it at the same time. My big thanks to Ray for a great conversation. Beautiful restaurant down in Tribeca in New York City, but they were metal chairs.

And they did slide down to the chair. We had to fight and keep our cores flexed to sit upright through the course of that interview. So big thanks to Ray for a great conversation. you can catch his new movie, The Many Saints of Newark in theaters, October 1st. And also on HBO Max, if that's the way you like to get your stuff. My thanks to all of you for tuning in. If you want to hear more of my conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode.

And don't forget to tune into Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.