Ray Romano Recalls Getting Cast By Martin Scorsese Who Had ‘No Clue’ Who He Was: ‘He Liked What He Saw’

etcanada.com:

Ray Romano feels “blessed” that his relationship with Martin Scorsese began by the famed director having no idea who he was, despite having been the star of the wildly successful “Everybody Loves Raymond”.

When Romano, who played the titular character for a total of nine seasons and 210 episodes, auditioned for Scorsese’s 2016 HBO series “Vinyl”, the screenwriter and producer had never heard of the actor. READ MORE: Ray Romano Reveals He Underwent Heart Surgery After Doctors Found A 90 Per Cent Blocked Artery “Scorsese did the pilot and I had to go on tape for him,” Romano, 65, recalled on a recent episode of Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast. “The cool thing was, I went on tape and the response we got back was, ‘Yeah, Marty likes it.

He’s in the running. And Marty wants to know who he is. He’s never seen him,’ And my agent was like, ‘So he’s never seen the show?’ And they go, ‘No, no, no, he doesn’t know who the guy is,’ which was a blessing because he didn’t have to erase the sitcom character from his mind.” “I can buy that,” Romano continued,” that Martin Scorsese doesn’t watch television.

So when he hired me, he liked what he saw.” Throughout its 1996 to 2005 run, “Everybody Loves Raymond” won 15 Emmy awards and was named one of the top 10 most-watched shows on television for five seasons. READ MORE: Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Sets Fall Release Date In “Vinyl”, about a troubled music studio in the 1970s, Romano starred as one of the company executives.