It is finally happening that Mira Sorvino’s son will get the opportunity to see one of her father’s most famous performances.
As Sorvino, 57, and her husband, actor Christopher Backus, were talking about their most recent film production, Daft State, exclusively with PEOPLE, they disclosed that their son had just seen Paul Sorvino’s Goodfellas for the very first time in his whole life.
Backus, who is 43 years old, said that their son, Johnny, who is 18 years old, is now an adult enough to watch Goodfellas since he is playing baseball at the University of Michigan.
The actor from Mindhunter proceeded by saying, “He went over and watched it with him because one of the teammates was going to watch it.” And his reaction was something along the lines of, “I can’t believe that’s my grandpa.”
In the famous film directed by Martin Scorsese and released in 1990, Sorvino’s father, who passed away in 2022 at the age of 83, played the role of gangster Paul “Paulie” Cicero. Other actors in the film were Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta.
Goodfellas was not the first Paul Sorvino film that Backus’s son had watched, according to Backus, who also has three children with Sorvino: Mattea, who is twenty years old, Holden, who is fifteen years old, and Lucia, who is twelve years old.
“One that we used to watch with them: we haven’t watched it in a few years; I don’t think we have watched it since he passed away. We haven’t watched it since he passed away.” However, his film Santa Baby 2: [Christmas Maybe], in which he portrays the role of Santa Claus, was used to be a favorite among my children. They adore the film, and we can’t get enough of Grandpa in his role as Santa Claus.
Jenna McCarthy played the role of Santa’s adult daughter in the made-for-television film Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe, which was produced by ABC. McCarthy was tasked with determining whether or not she would want to take over the family company.
Backus continued by saying, “So grandpa has played Santa, and Mira has played Mrs. Claus,” alluding to the television show Finding Mrs. Claus, which was released in 2012.
After that, Sorvino stepped in and revealed to PEOPLE that she made the decision to participate in the movie after seeing how much her children enjoyed watching their grandfather portray Santa Claus. She also said that she was aware that her children were unable to watch any of her earlier films “because they were all rated R.”
She said, “And when I got offered […] Finding Mrs. Claus, which was really clever and cute, and there were very few projects about Mrs. Claus, and it was a comedy and it was sweet, I went for it so that I would have something that I would make that they could watch,” and she went on to explain why she had made the decision to accept the offer.
I adore it, as well. It is an extremely heartwarming film about Christmas. Every year, it is shown on Lifetime,” she went on to say.
During an interview with People, the pair also discussed how they are able to maintain their relationship despite the demands of parenthood and their hectic work schedules.
With that being said, Sorvino said, “First and foremost, as working actors, we try to have the three-week rule.” When we are together, we never spend more than three weeks apart from one another. If we are apart for a longer period of time than that, one of us will go see the other.
Additionally, Backus emphasized the need of setting aside time for date evenings.
“In the beginning, especially when the children are young, I believe it is difficult to find those date nights,” he started off by saying. “For this reason, we have made a concerted effort to ensure that tonight is our night.”
“And we don’t really have a timeframe [for] it,” the actor from Black Bird continued speaking. There is no guarantee that it will be once a week, but we make every effort to make those a priority. The conversation continued, “All right, tonight is Mira and Chris night, and we are going to go be young, fun, happy, and free people, and then we are going to come back to our kids.”
Most recently, the pair collaborated on the production of the psychological thriller Daft State, in which Backus makes a starring appearance and Sorvino serves as an executive producer. Easton (Backus) is the protagonist of the film, which follows him as “destruction drives him to the edge of sanity and possible self-harm by those who love him most…his wife and daughter,” according to the official summary of the film.
Currently, Prime Video and Apple TV are both offering the opportunity to view Daft State.
