Recently I had the chance to particpate on a conference call with Paulo Costanzo who plays Evan Lawson on USA’s Royal Pains. But because I’m a vacationing blogging slacker, I didn’t wind up participating. I did see the transcript of the call though and there wasn’t any mention of the show’s Nielsen ratings!
But Royal Pains has been outperforming Burn Notice and I’m definitely curious if that has led the cast and crew to pop some champagne corks over it. I have to know!
Lucky for me, Paulo’s publicist is cooler than the other side of the pillow, so I will be speaking to him for a few minutes on Monday. I’ll be sure to ask some ratings related questions, but if you have any Royal Pains or other questions for Paulo, post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to ask them and I’ll post his responses.
Obvious question But What Drew you to the show?
In the wackiest coincidence I’ve experienced in a very long time, my maternal grandfather was born Paulo DiCostanzo in 1897, near Naples. That is just flat, out, freaky. Even though I’d watched every episode of the show, Evan’s name had escaped me.
Ask him where in Italy his family is from!
Ask him if he ever reminisces about his time on the old Animorphs TV show. Loved that show and book series as a kid.
But seriously, ask him if he thought the show would be this big of a hit so quickly.
I LOVE Royal Pains!
Ask him what his favorite part of the show is. Thanks!
Ask him for Jill Flint’s number for me. His thoughts on the week-over-week upticks could be interesting, too. But mainly Jill’s digits.
Ask him if I’m just imagining it, or are the writers heading toward a possible Evan/Divvya romantic pairing? (I realize he might not answer this because it heads into spoiler territory but could you ask anyway?)
On an actor note, I’m always curious to know what tv actors themselves watch on tv. What are his favorite shows?
I think its awesome that Paulo wants to see a Burn Notice/Royal Pains crossover (per my last blog. shameless self promotion right there
If its done right, it could be an awesome thing. I’m not sure I’d want it affecting the overall storylines of either program, but if they did some sort of standalone episode it could be a lot of fun.
And because I’ve met the guy I have to say — Paulo is one of the funniest people I’ve ever had a chance to talk to. If he wasn’t an actor he could make a living doing improv and stand-up comedy, no doubt.
Ask him what has Joey been up to lately.
Are you picky about the roles your play or who might be casted along side?
Who did you pattern the character of Evan after or is he purely the product of the writers and your own design?
Will we “meet” Hank and Evan’s long lost father by season’s end?
Love the show! The only distraction is that Paulo’s character can be annoying at times. I know the character is supposed to be a counter-point to the doc but maybe the writers can work on making Evan is little less irritating in the future.
I have two sets of questions that might interest him, because they might tie him personally to his character on the show:
1. In the Royal Pains episode “TB or Not TB,” his character has to serve as a (poor) Italian translator. Since he is half-Italian, is he fluent in Italian? If so, did the writers use that when creating this portion of the story? Also, is it harder to play a character that speaks a broken version of a second language that you know fluently as opposed to a language that you don’t know at all? I’ve been told by other actors that it is.
2. In the Royal Pains episode “No Man is an Island,” his character is in a truck wreck. My understanding is that he was injured in a serious car wreck when he was a child. If so, how did he feel about doing that scene? Even though he wasn’t injured in that scene, was it another (possible) example of the writers bringing the real-life background of the actors into the story?
ask him if he has banged the Hot indian
Off camera, do you enjoy playing chess and have you done any kind of writing (i.e. Poetry, TV or movie scripts)?
Is it possible to show the Hampton word of the day when it appears on the show?
Example: Evan’s attempts to pick up girls while stuck in traffic were met only with highway snobbery.