Actor Ray Iannicelli. Photo Credit: King PDT/ www.kimatherapy.com.

Actor Ray Iannicelli. Photo Credit: King PDT.

RI: You’re getting close to the bone with this one! That was something that affected everyone in their right mind, and the world too. But it was something different for those of us in New York. There were actually papers which were blown out of one of the Trade Centers onto my front lawn. That still stings. That’s still something that people have a hard time with, even now. There were people in my neighborhood who were lost — a couple of firemen from this neighborhood, a couple of cops from this neighborhood… They were gone. It’s a horrendous part of history.

GALO: Let’s go back to St. Vincent, since it’s a comedy and a bit of a lighter subject.

RI: No kidding! I loved the movie. I really think it’s going to be a monumental hit.

GALO: Critics have loved it. Were you heavily involved in the comedic aspects of it? Will we get to see you and Murray cracking jokes with one another?

RI: No, not at all, actually. Our characters have a struggle in the movie. His character is out of sorts, he breaks a glass on the bar, I run over and try to stop him, we tussle a little bit…and then I shoot him in the head. [Laughter] No, no, just kidding.

GALO: Don’t give away the ending! We’re all looking forward to seeing it when it comes out on DVD in February, especially in light of the recent Golden Globe nominations for Murray and the movie.

RI: You should! It really is a wonderful movie, and don’t worry, I won’t ruin the ending! It’s got a good story; it’s very well-shot and directed, and very well-edited. But most importantly, it’s a real story — a relatable story. It’s the kind of story where chances are that someone we know went through the struggles it depicts, or we all know the kind of people it depicts. And it really has a bunch of great actors in it: Melissa McCarthy plays the boy’s mother; Naomi Watts is Bill Murray’s girlfriend; Chris O’Dowd is in it; Terrence Howard is in it.

It’s kind of old-fashioned in terms of the elements it relies on. It’s heavy on story, and really just heavy on good acting. And if you’ve got any kids, you bring them… It’s R-rated actually, now that I think of it [laughter].

GALO: Whose acting were you most impressed by?

RI: Oh boy, it would have to be Jaeden Lieberher, who plays the young boy, Oliver. Wonderful actor! My goodness gracious, he’s got a good head on his shoulders for a young kid, and he’s very down to earth in his acting. He’s going to do well in this industry, knock on wood. [Laughter] It’s gonna be a hit, a great movie.

GALO: You’re in the new version of Annie now too, which came out on December 19th.

RI: That’s right! I sing and dance and wear a dress!

GALO: What?!

RI: [Laughs] No, I’m lying.

GALO: What do you do in Annie then, if not singing and dancing? Can you talk a little bit about your role?

RI: I’m a restaurant owner, and I have some scenes with Quvenzhané Wallis, who plays the young lady Annie. Say that name five times!

[Laughter]

She was in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Twelve Years a Slave.

GALO: Wow! She certainly is gathering quite a list of accomplishments for a young person.

RI: Yeah, I know! She was nominated for an Academy Award for Beasts, too, and she stars in that movie — phenomenal young lady.

GALO: Clearly.

GALO: Annie is a musically-oriented film, is it not? And it’s produced by Jay-Z and Will Smith, who’ve both had forays in the music industry, to say the least.

RI: I actually don’t know yet, since I haven’t seen the movie yet! I’m looking forward to finding out. Either way, though, it’s another comedy-drama type film. But Will Gluck directed it, and it’s a big, big production. It opens around Christmas, but I still haven’t seen it! I’m anxious to see it.

GALO: Are these the only two movies you’ve been working on recently?

RI: I actually have another movie coming out called The Challenger. I don’t know when that’s coming out. It’s in post-production right now, so I hope it comes out real soon.

A sad note about it is that it stars Michael Clarke Duncan, who passed within the last couple of years, and I think it might be his last movie.

GALO: That’s such a shame. He was wonderful in The Green Mile.

RI: Yeah, truly wonderful. So that’s the sad note. But on the bright side for Challenger, Rodrigo Lopresti is in it too, and he’s an old friend of mine.

GALO: He directed a movie you were in — I’m Not Me, a crime-thriller.

RI: Yeah! That’s right. You did your homework!

[Laughter]

GALO: Looking at your TV credits, your most recurrent roles have been on Oz and Law and Order. Is the crime genre something you gravitate toward?

RI: Well, when you work with a guy like Tom Fontana, one of the creators and writers of Oz, it’s an extra plus. You feel really good about it, because you know he does quality work. Oz was a groundbreaking show for cable, it got a lot of attention, and all of the actors and everybody who worked on it was worthwhile.

One thing in this business is that everybody goes to work, and everybody has a common purpose. Sometimes you go for a day, sometimes a couple of hours, and sometimes two weeks or two months, but everything is geared toward the same thing. For example, there’s a lot of money involved. So everyone – 99 percent of the people there — comes prepared.

But things happen; a light blows, rain comes, a prop isn’t there…there’s a million things that happen besides the acting, directing, and the set-ups that influence things. The whole production can change, for instance, if you’re set to shoot outside, and all of a sudden it starts to rain. There was a truck that crashed on the sidewalk during shooting a few years ago. So when that happens, everything shuts down. It’s kind of weird, actually. The gist of what I’m trying to say is that in this business people know that you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta do it, and you’ve gotta get it right. They’re all geared toward the same thing. So, in that sense, one of the reasons is that I love being on the set. It’s my favorite thing, even better than my house in Jamaica!

[Laughter]

The gist of what I’m saying, though, is that everybody goes to work to make things happen, and it’s not like a bureaucracy where you sit down and wait, and nothing happens. It’s not like that. You go, and you do.

GALO: You were raised Roman Catholic, and you called Brooklyn “God’s country,” because of all the big, beautiful churches around. I was reading an interview that was done with Pierce Brosnan, the former James Bond actor, where he said that his main inspiration to become an actor as a child was watching the Catholic mass, and the performance that it constitutes. What was your inspiration for acting?

RI: As a boy in school, I went to a Roman Catholic grammar school called Our Lady of Guadalupe — we mispronounced it, but we did a lot of that in Brooklyn. And I remember they didn’t have a drama club there. I remember reading about a theater group, and wanting to do it, but I never did it. And I never did it in high school, and I never did it in college, either. But in my late 20s, I started taking acting lessons, later in life. Funny story how I got there, but we can talk about that next time! I gotta go to an audition now, though. Thank you so much!

GALO: Thank you, Ray, and good luck!

St. Vincent is expected to come out on DVD in February.