 Today's podcast is brought to you by WarbyParker.com. Get a free five-day home try-on at WarbyParkerTrial.com forward slash David Feldman show. Five pairs, five days, 100% free. The David Feldman radio program is made possible by listeners like you. You sad, pathetic humps. Hey everybody, welcome to the David Feldman program. I am not David Feldman. I am Kevin Bartini sitting in for our buddy David who could not be here today. But we have a great episode for you. We have David Proval, a legendary character actor. You guys know him from Mean Streets. You know him from The Sopranos. You know him from just about every TV show and quality movie that's come out over the last 40 years. He's a phenomenal actor. My buddy Adam Lash and I are lucky enough to be able to sit down and do a phone interview with him. You'll be able to hear this interview or parts of it right now. Then you can hear the entire interview at Movie Preview Review, which is our normal podcast. It's also on the show Briss Network and Adam and I co-host with a couple of other people. And the premise of our show is that we review movies based on only watching their previews. So we're going to talk to Mr. Proval about making movies and about television and about The Sopranos and about whatever else he's interested in talking to us. And then on the Movie Preview Review, we will also have a segment where we actually watch a couple of movie previews of David Proval movies and review them. So this is the David Feldman show. Again, I'm Kevin Bartini with Adam Lash. And we are here because David is on assignment and because Liam McNeany has moved away. So they got me to host this show. Anyway, alright, so we'll be back in just a moment after a couple of breaks and you will hear us talking to Mr. David Proval. Okay everybody, well, it is time to get down to our interview. We are very lucky. I'm a little nervous here. I'm a big fan of this man and so much of his work. But we are on the phone with the great Mr. David Proval. You guys know him from so many wonderful movies, films, plays. He is a consummate actor, a consummate professional and someone who as soon as you see his face, you're like, oh my God, I love that guy and I've seen him in everything. He is currently, you can see him in the Brooklyn Banker, which is a film that Adam and I both enjoyed and we've spoken of on our podcast before. So I would like to give a warm welcome to Mr. David Proval. Thank you so much for being on our show, sir. Okay, my pleasure guys. My pleasure. So I thought we would start with just a chat a little bit about the Brooklyn Banker because we have seen it and we enjoyed it. And if you can give us a little background on how you came to that picture and we can go from there. The picture came into my life through my agent, his script. And I was on my way to Hawaii with my wife and my daughter and my mother-in-law and took the script with me. My wife warned me. She said, don't take any screenplays with you on holiday. But I took this one with me. And on the plane, I read and by the time I got to Hawaii, I needed to get Michael Recigliano Jr. or whomever wrote this on the phone. So I thought it was just beautifully written and it's authenticity. Then the writing is what attracted me. It was so authentic. I could easily visualize characters. It's just specific and actors' food is very rich. It takes place in Brooklyn in a time where you grew up in Brooklyn around that time as well. Am I correct in that assumption? I grew up in Brooklyn a couple of years before that. I knew Williamsburg. I lived two neighborhoods away from Williamsburg, three neighborhoods away. But Brooklyn is Brooklyn. Today it's become the Paris of Leeds Coast. Brooklyn is now very popular. It's amazing to see how much it's changed just in the 15 years since I've lived here in New York City to see Brooklyn. Did you also do the short film that this was also started as? Or did you come on later? No, not much later. They did the short film. They got a lot of awards for the short film I heard. They entered at the film festival. It was a great act. Porcelaino was in the short film as well as the feature film. Tony Levy got a great cast in the short film as well. Frederico directed the short film. It won a lot of awards. It did very well. You also teamed up with some of these guys for Queen for a Day, which was a play that you did off-Broadway, which was also recently done on the project, correct? That's right. It's the possibility of a film. Really? That's what Michael was talking about. Maybe he will see what happened. It was off-Broadway. The audience response to the play was enormous. Michael garnered some glory. He noticed that it was Michael Levy's play. It was great to do. The audience response was amazing. People loved the play. The edge of the seat kind of thing. It was sitting and screaming. It was fantastic. You seem to be an actor who... You don't think of as just a movie star. You're a guy who bounces from one thing to the next movies to theater and television. Is that something that is important for you to keep a balance to do the different things? All that is important is that theater and film are too different for the actor. It's just the apples and oranges. It's an amazingly different experience doing film. The part of your instrument you use... When you get on stage for two hours, there's no... Let's start that over and do another take. You're on the edge. People... It's happened. Guys go up on stage. The audience knows it. They love it. But for the most part, for 90 minutes or however long the play runs, you've got to be there. There's no stopping. You're using parts of you and the commitment, a very different kind of experience. In a film where you know, if I mess up right now and the director says, let's do it better than this and you've got another take. I'm not saying that it's an easier thing. Film acting and theater acting are both pretty... They're in part with each other. One is not easier than the other. Film is not easier. It's not that it's easier. It's a whole other thing. That's all. It's just... But it's nice to know that I can do it again right now. On stage. Is there one that you prefer to the other? It depends on the material. There are plays that are just meant to do on stage. And when you attempt to film them or tape them, they lose their power. And there are plays that translate very easily to film. They're wonderful. But it always depends on the material. I mean, the character offers you a challenge and it's theater, whatever it is, whether it be theater, television or film, that's my measure. The character offers you a challenge. At this point in my life, I'd like to do something that's important. Like, after November 8th, when we can breathe again after the election, I can't breathe right now, man. I'm not breathing right now. I don't know where you are. As far as what your choices are, I'm taking a chance right now, guys. But I can't wait until Hollywood gets on how many television shows and how many films are there going to be on this political race. Well, if I can get something in those movies, in those plays, and if it's hard to the right place, I can't wait. I mean, it's stuff like that, you know, that once we're going to do it, yeah, I'd love to be there. Does that make any sense to you? Sure, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Wanted to do something vital. Yeah, you can already sense that HBO was working on some idea of a post-election thing. There's thousands of stories behind the main story right now that people want and need to know about. Right, it's pretty insane. You were just, I mean, we've been over the last couple of days just going through your IMDB and such great memories of different things, of movies and different things that we've watched over the years and have loved. We had a couple of questions about a couple of things you've been a part of. My favorite movie of all time, certainly in my top three, is the Shawshank Redemption. What a wonderful film. I enjoyed you in that. It was one of those movies that seems to have grown in popularity over the years. And I was just wondering if you had any recollections or stories of that movie and that experience. Is it such a wonderful film? Yeah, well, Shawshank was based on a short story. You know, Stephen King's short story. I read the short story. They sent me. And I loved that a lot. The short story. It was very un- very un-kingly. I mean, it was a drama. It's not a horror thing. And then the screenplay and what they did with the screenplay was fantastic. And, you know, it's great to be part of a movie that across the board has had an audience appeal. People loved that movie. It's now one of the 10 best films American films ever. It's one of the 10 best American films ever right now. I think it's on a list. It's great to be part of all that. It's been lucky enough to be asked to do it. But I'm going to be completely honest with you guys. Me and four other character actors what we were hoping for is to flush out more of Ensemble. It's a great movie. Morgan Freeman and Tim Roberts and it's a love story between two men and work the way it was. But I'm going to be honest about this. We sat and I I I always felt that if they had flushed out the Ensemble and each guy had his moment and each character I would have been a happier camper. So here I am in one of the films that everybody loves and I'm going to tell you I had a frustrating experience on it because it wasn't what I thought it would be. What I was promised it would be. But hey, that's all selfish on my part. It's selfish. It's a selfish act of being sour grapes but I'm being straight talking and I wasn't alone with that. Wonderful actors who cast them. When are we going to shoot them? They never got around to it. Anyway, that's it. Just to keep on the theme of being amongst some of a part of one of the 10 greatest films of all time. You're also a part of what are considered two of the greatest TV series of all time. You had one episode of the West Wing and you of course were with the Sopranos. That's always considered in the top three and West Wing somewhere in the top five. And then not to mention everybody loves Raymond as well. It's one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. You really found your way in some of the greatest things out there. It's wonderful. No, I went from Richie Perel and playing a rabbi. I went from Richie to Rabbi and then I'm very loves Raymond which is the number one drama for the number one comedy. Very lucky. It was lucky. Two number one shows. Comedy to drama. Was there at the time a conscious effort after Richie Perel to do something so different with the West Wing and then with Raymond to not end up just being in mobster stuff for the rest of your career to break away from that and to do a rabbi and to do a rabbi on West Wing I said get me and she said Richie Perel you're not going to get it. Get me in. Get me in the office. They said Richie and I said just get me in and they actually got me in and I got the gig. I had to audition because the director Tommy Slamy one of those guys who directed the show had not seen the promos. He hadn't seen the show which was lucky for me because as I was doing the rabbi on the set he finally saw the show he said if I had seen that show I would never had a meeting with him. That's the most flattering thing I've ever heard. Thank you. Thank you. You can't help it if you just combine those two ideas of just having thinking of rabbi glassmen just whispering to Richie that murder is not Jewish. Right. I was at a dodgy game I was at a dodgy game someone turned around and they said wait a second he was a rabbi and the guy next to him said no that's Richie you guys argued about what we're all like it was amazing it was amazing that was fun. That actually leads to a question of what do you most often find yourself recognized as like when people come up to you in the airport or something is it still Richie April? Yeah. It's a lot of Richie and it's a lot of Mean Streets too. Yeah absolutely. When I'm in New York Mean Streets people love that movie. Yeah. Yeah Mean Streets is a great film and it's a lot of Mean Streets but mostly Sopranos of course Sopranos of course. Richie! When you're in LA everybody's a movie star in LA they're all gorgeous and they're all movie stars and I live out of LA I'm an hour out of LA I can't live in LA but I'm at the beach but if you go into LA everybody's a movie star or somebody's got a script so I'm very so cool because nobody says anything to anybody they just walking around with hand mirrors looking at themselves because these guys are doing it so nobody says anything in LA it's very funny, very strange. Yeah they're pretending that they don't recognize you but you know they're just doing their best to hide that's Richie April over there. Exactly! The New Yorker, she a New Yorker they don't care, New Yorker just comes to your face Hey I love you, what are you doing? How are you? They just come up to you and say you were great on our show you making a living? I'm doing alright. New Yorkers have always been the best that way and there's no like look at me, look at me and that's wonderful that way that's exactly what you just said I'm going to pretend I don't know anything exactly, exactly and you can see them pretending you sort of look over every once in a while just to check if you're fat or if you're beautiful Well the flip side of that coin is the New Yorkers will also let you know if you sucked in something they won't hide that either If they didn't like you on the show oh jeez they let you know what would you do that piece of crap for I saw you the other night a guy came up to me one day he was great at New York and I did a show and I've done a lot of shows you've googled me so you know how many I've done a lot of shows and sometimes they're conquerors and you do something bad and then it happens and guys come up in New York what kind of piece of crap did you do the other night I couldn't believe you did that I always apologize for it but I needed the money I told them the truth I said I just need the bucks but then also like the fact that you were playing Richie April who was the antagonist to Tony for a full season were people getting pissed at you for the things Richie was doing or things that he did to Janice or to other people actually like oh how dare you did you have some of that as well I've had a couple of experiences at airports usually where I'm trying to get on a plane one day and a guy running suit he looked like one of those tough guy no neck he comes over to me and he says to me I said no I'm okay he says say hello to Angelo I said who he said Angelo I said I'm sorry I don't know who you're talking about he said oh I got you you don't want to say anything I said what what are the guys I said no no I do not know okay take a picture with my wife I said gee I gotta get on a plane the plane is leaving I have no time and I've had experiences with guys who got confused about realities and they did yeah they do you can tell other people I know who you are it was just it got strange for a while it did people think it's a documentary more in their head people think I know who you are you can fool other people but I know you're from the streets well I'm a big sissy actress hahahaha hahahaha and I'm the biggest queen fuck in the world you know excuse me but I did graduate college I'm sorry about that hahahaha real college I didn't go away to college real college I'm sorry I'm really just pretending you gotta tell Laura she's very strange they confuse realities you know but I haven't had that with a rabbi no not a rabbi hey what you did what you did shalom yeah somebody hit me with a shalom mazel now another of maybe not considered one of the 10 greatest films of all time but 10 favorite films of my own childhood is UHF yes we are huge fans of weird ale and of that movie and what a hahahaha what a strange movie it was back then but how much we loved it and if memory serves it's been a while since I've seen it but you ended up getting the face full of staples in that movie right that's right good job Kevin dude what do you remember of that movie do you get recognized still from that because of the cult like status let me tell you something how often guys come up to me and say you're in one of my favorite movies and I'm ready to say yes short shrink is a great movie and they say UHF right hahahaha it happens really and I'm using college town to get to come up because it's got a great following that movie everybody has an enormous following people love it and what I remember about that movie mostly is that weird ale Yankevich who was genuinely a weird guy hahahaha we and he didn't have that problem I'm not epilepsy or whatever that thing is when people fall asleep he could he could do it though he can himself fall asleep in the middle of lunch I want to remember about that movie yeah you would sit there and suddenly he'd be sleeping and I first said oh Jesus this guy got he said no he can just do that the guy would take him and fall asleep with a piece of meat in his mouth hahahaha it was a I really liked him a lot and his girlfriend would say what I remember about that movie is we shot it in Oklahoma that he was about 110 every day we were near Oral Roberts University so some of the kids that worked on the movie were students at Oral Roberts and I don't know they all wanted to turn the cast into Bible reading and you're dealing with Hollywood guys hahahaha the godless creatures these kids we come on the set they say David I want you to read this part of the Bible today and I said the guy listen it's really hot right now hahahaha that's what I remember about that movie it was a very strange shoot were you surprised at the success that UHSF had when it came out shocked really shocked I could not I never thought that was going to movie going to go anywhere and working with Kevin McCaw he was a great actor and Billy Barty you know the man yeah and I used to hang out with those guys at the shoot and that was great I loved that old Hollywood stories they would tell me that was great and you had Michael Richards as well right as Seinfeld was just starting he was in that movie Pre-Kraner I think that was the first thing he said I think it was yeah well this came out in 1989 and Seinfeld came out just about the same time yeah pretty simultaneous there's a couple of movies projects that you've done that my co-host Adam is particularly interested in so I wanted to turn it over to him for a second so David I was also searching through the old IMDB today and I saw that you were in The Phantom which was the Hollywood's attempt to try to start the comic book movie craze in the mid 90s so I was wondering how because that was one of the first comic book movies that people were making after Batman's success what was it like being in one of the first comic book films and did you ever think that comic book movies would become so popular as they have today no and I didn't understand why Phantom didn't get what it deserved because I think it's a beautiful movie and I thought Billy Jane was fantastic I loved him Catherine today that she's always great in The Phantom and I didn't understand why that movie it's a beautifully shot movie yeah and for me it was a three continent movie yeah we shot in Thailand we shot in Australia we shot here in LA it was one of those great jobs we travel and stay at the best hotels in the world it was a great job from that aspect and you get to hang out with Catherine Zeta that was fun she's a beauty she was a great person and the director oh Jesus his name you got it in front of you I lost it Phantom I can look it up real fast really a fine director really visually shot incredible and editing well I don't know how well it didn't do that well as well as the Batman and the other but that was disappointing I really thought those guys were going to nail it and it was going to be a big box office hit I don't think it was I may be wrong I hope I'm directed by Simon Simon yes of course great guy great guy really nice guy now I don't remember but really very good guy with his shot it was a big movie and it was his shot he was born in Sydney Australia Australia and the other movies you would know the one I worked for was Quigley Down Under with Tom Selleck I believe and most famously Free Willy oh wow either director or assistant director on Free Willy and looks like really a fine director and then you had another question Adam about something else you loved that David has done you were on one of my favorite shows as a kid Quantum Leap I was wondering what was that like working with Scott Bakula and they know that I remember that I remember doing the show and it was a good role and it was in fact the show I did I'm positive of this I voted one of the 10 best of their entire run Quantum Leap run that show I was on was one of the yeah really it was it was Quantum Leap yeah I did a show where they were waiting to find out if they were going to have another season so the set was a little yeah they were a little boisterous they were a little anxious they were waiting for the producer, the crew and the cast were waiting for the producer to announce whether they had another season and me while I was trying to focus you know and do the job but that's what I remember about it I'm a fan of Dean Stockwell over the years I've been a big fan of his and I like working with him I knew him before the show but he's a fine actor so I was good to be around the actor you know that's all I remember about it have you ever gone out specifically had your agent reach out to a show because you're a fan of the show and just want to be a part of it has that ever happened? oh you know that happens like I'm watching a show I don't know if you guys know the Americans, do you know the show? the American Sharks, yeah yeah I'd love to get a shot at doing something on that show and I called the agent a couple weeks ago and I went to find out what the casting director is yeah I'd love to be a part of a show like that the Americans have been watching of course I watch shows and I go you know who's casting this but now it's the Americans and I can't find another show I loved that John Titoro show it's actually John Titoro yeah John Titoro it's the HBO series I love that I love that show it's hard not to love it what was the name of it? the night of I love what they did with that which I if I'm not mistaken I think that John Titoro's role that was originally going to be James Gandolfini I believe that's right and Jimmy produced it too and Jimmy was going to play that role and actually they did they did do it they shot the whole show and then the tragedy happened and they shoot the whole thing and they reshot it with John Titoro Jimmy did play that character and I'd love to see that one too but the one show he only did one show right yeah so alright cool Adam do you have any other questions for him we don't want to take up too much of your time I know that you don't seem to do a lot of interviews so we're really honored to have you on here I enjoy it you see when you get on with guys who know their stuff and do their homework it's easy like you guys have done your homework and movies have been in your look so it makes it easy but when you get talking to people who go and tell me about what what movies have you done I know Soprano they always know Soprano and they know Soprano but they know nothing else oh just a few oh just one or two yeah I do often I do things on the radio where I'll call into different stations and they hire me to do characters or prank phone calls and stuff like that and there's nothing more frustrating then you have to get up at six in the morning and call into some station in Cleveland and then the DJ hasn't bothered to come up with a bit or premise and he just asked well what did you just do in Tampa or something like that so you have to basically it's like they can't even be bothered to do any homework or whatever and then you've got to come up with an idea on the fly for that so I can imagine that's got to be frustrating oh yeah in fact you know when we did Michael's play when I did Michael's play the Queen for a Day we did the morning today show and they didn't know oh you saw that they didn't know we should they did nothing I mean this is a big time show National and they did nothing it was just like it was like a three minute interview with you and the story and by the end of the three minutes they were showing a clip of family feud and talking about Kathy Lee Giffords instead of you guys in your play it was surreal I couldn't believe I stopped it I looked up and I said hey Kathy did well and now let's go to what to play I couldn't believe what they were doing it was like insane to me I'm watching Jeopardy it was really strange what is it like when you have to do like those press junkets where you just have to sit in one hotel room and do it again and again and again is that the worst it depends on the guys if they do their research it makes it easy but when they don't it feels like I'm doing an interview and trying to get a job it feels like I'm being interviewed for a job I stopped those I've been on phones with guys I said listen guys God bless us all God bless America I got it oh I see that you did you did vinyl on HBO which teamed you back up with Martin Scorsese cause he produced that and you guys both got your start with Mean Streets yeah right Marty got put me on the show and I played Bobby Carnivani's dad and if we had a second season Marty said to me second season I'd be around a lot and I said my great and then they go reneged but whatever their option was they pulled the plug yeah but I thought I'd be working on vinyl right now as we speak yeah did you have any that showbiz did you have any interaction with Mick Jagger on that project? no the son was on the show I met his son nice kid but between you and I acting is a whole other thing and some people don't understand that there's a craft involved and you really should know something and the kid is a nice kid and he's fine but they gave him too much to do if he followed the show but he had a lot of heavy stuff to do and he wasn't ready I don't think he was ready as an actor at all Mick Jagger's son they just should have anyway I got a big mouth watch this we almost got a scoop and now you have a film coming out next year called High and Outside let's forget about that what happened was that what happened with High and Outside was a friend of mine asked me to do him a favor well actually I teach over the years and a student of mine had a film for himself and asked me if I would do a day on it and I just saw not the movie, I'm not talking about the movie I don't even know why I'm in there for a blink of the eye just to do the guy a favor and see the movie I don't talk about it I don't like what I did in it I don't like what I did I don't want to talk about it I want to talk about this I just did a movie with in Lisbon last March with Michael Imperioli from the soprano Michael and you know Michael Montesanti of course yeah of course and Michael is a wonderful actor and he asked me to do this movie with him and next month I'll know whether we're in the Berlin Film Festival oh okay yeah if we get in I'm going and it's Michael it's a great film for Michael and it's sort of like a cost a block on me to visit a vase okay you know one of those it's so wild it's a great film and I like my role and I hope it's still there and he directed that no the director Bruno Portuguese actor musician director wonderful guy wonderful madman one of those great madmen and he's very happy right now I'm hearing so I'm excited about that and I did another movie I don't know yet what it looks like but I'm hearing it looks great and I play a brain damaged man who I didn't encounter with his son it's an interesting little drama I don't know what's going to be with that but Michael's movie I'm excited about I think it could be a good movie waiting on two movies the brain damaged man is that father or papa yeah papa yeah yeah yeah very challenging with Paul Sorvino again and Vinny Pastore as well and Vinny's in it too and Paul and I have a great scene and it's a great scene and Paul plays it brain damaged but intensely brain damaged man almost a kind of border on it's a great scene and Paul does great work and Paul and I play his friend it's a wonderful scene and I'm going to throw up a movie on papa we'll see what happens that movie has a hell of a cast what a great cast Michael Madsen Michael Madsen's in it he's had a good scene I've seen with him and Eric Roberts is a great actor he's in it too and the actor so what's her name Daryl Hannah Daryl Hannah right really good nice cast that's impressive that does look exciting before we let you go do you have any memories of working on Raymond were you actually in Italy did you get to go to Italy it was the only time a TV show sitcom ever went on location and we went to Italy I'm very lucky with that with the great time doing that it's hard I mean Darce Roberts sweet lady Michelle Eston-Keith boiled two great actors they had it down but the situation comedy is a whole other kind of theater and I was happy to do the show I mean it was number one comedy but I think I I didn't really I felt very leaded on it I was saying I feel like a piece of lead here I mean I'm not which is could have worked had a good time let me shut my mouth well they didn't get they paid me more they paid me so much money I'm very happy about it great people you know your character was kind of limited I mean he was really there just to intimidate Brad Garrett throughout they didn't flesh it out too much yeah yeah and then you know it's right exactly how many times can you just stare at a guy you know I was I was boring myself when you bore yourself you better get out of there yeah well well sir you have been anything but boring for us we are just so grateful to have had some time to spend with you we are just such fans of your work and want to thank you for your time and just wish you nothing but continued success thank you so much for chatting with us thank you good guys ok take care take care