Have you gone and seen Million Dollar Arm yet?! This weekend is the perfect time!! It is an excellent family movie, you need to check it out!!
In the movie Aasif Mandvi plays Aash — the trusty partner and friend of JB Bernstein. You may remember Aasif from The Proposal with Sandra Bullock (love that movie!), he played the editor that she fired at the beginning of the movie. He is quite the the character! Very funny guy.
We were given the opportunity to interview him during my press trip to LA a couple weeks ago! Here is what he had to say about Million Dollar Arm.
Q: What was your favorite scene to film in the Film and why?
Aasif Mandvi: It was really actually fun going to India and shooting because you know, having been born there, having family there and having visited India many times, it’s a whole different experience when you go with an American Film Crew to India. It’s actually the best way to see India is to be in the bubble of a big Hollywood Production. You don’t have to deal with any riff-raff going around, you know, in an air conditioned car (joking around). But it was great, it was actually kind of just experientially, it was just an amazing experience to go to India and it was sort of like I got to visit family. I got to see the Taj Mahal, which I’ve always wanted to and never had. And now I got to do it on Disney’s dime so you know, so it was kind of great.
Q: I liked the way your Character was the funny man next to Jon Hamm’s straight man. Was that what attracted you to the Character or what was it that made you want to do this Film?
Aasif Mandvi: I think he’s funny but he’s also the grounding character. He’s the one that sort of is the counter point to Jon Hamm’s sort of Playboy Lothario Character. I like that aspect of it, you know. I also feel like it was an interesting character to see as a South Asian Sports Agent because I don’t know any. I’m sure there are but it was sort of an interesting character to play somebody I never played before so I felt that was kind of fun. And then I got to work with Jon Hamm every day who is dreamy so you know, I got do that, you know.
See what I mean?! This guy was a hoot!
In the movie, his character has twins, and the scenes with them are always with the babies upset/crying, you name it — it was pretty “real life”. Hearing about his adventures in filming with the twins was quite funny too!
Q: What was it like working with the babies?
Aasif Mandvi: So we’ve got two sets of Indian parents who have these two sets of twins and they’re, poor things, sort of hiding off in the corner. The kids would just cry. And the porch scene was not about these kids crying, and Craig Gillespie, the Director, he was like ‘kids cry’! So let him just cry because there’s no way we could stop them from crying. So Craig’s theory was like every time we see Aash and his children, his children are just screaming. And that’s just the reality of his life. So in the bed, they’re crying. They weren’t supposed to be crying. In the kitchen, they’re crying.
And then, finally is that scene on the porch, the kids were again, crying and I’m supposed to be holding them, and the kid is literally screaming for his mother. He’s just like, ‘I don’t care about your stupid movie, I want to be with my mom.’ And finally I said to Craig, ‘Listen, I can’t do this anymore. This kid has snot coming out of him and he’s crying. He’s just a mess, you know.’ And Craig was like, ‘Listen we have to get this shot, OK? We need this shot. I don’t care how much…just let the kid cry. I don’t care. Just grab him, walk out onto the porch, we get the shot, we’re done. We’re out of here.’ So I’m like ‘Fine, OK.’ So they roll Action, I grab this kid – it’s like pulling cheese off a Pizza.
So I grab this kid. He’s holding on to me, the hair, everything, and I grab him like, ‘Come on, come on Sweetie, come on.’ And we go running on to the porch and I’m standing there getting the shot. I’m shaking him and then suddenly he looks at me and just pukes. And it’s just all over my clothes. And twice, he did it twice! It’s in the movie. You can see it. It’s totally real.
I take the kid, I’m holding him out here like — like an Actor who’s suddenly been puked on and the kid is just puking. He’s just, there’s puke everywhere. It’s all in my clothes, in my hair. But we got the shot.
Fun times right?! Just a hint of the fun in the movie 🙂 Like I said, if you haven’t already, get yourself to the theater and see this movie!! You will love it!
(Photo credit: Disney)
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