NEW YORK, Feb. 6 (UPI) — King of Queens, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Grown-Ups icon Kevin James says he loved showing off his dramatic side in the new rom-com, Solo Mio, in theaters Friday.
“It’s the thing I am most proud of in my career. I’ll be honest,” James, 60, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“It happened just to come together and we worked really hard on it,” he said. “It became the thing I am most proud of, for sure.”
James plays Matt, a hopeless romantic who gets left at the altar by Heather (Julie Emery) at their destination wedding in Italy.
“It’s the pressure of being the age he is and feeling like my options are running out and that’s a claustrophobic feeling for a lot of people where they think, ‘Alright, maybe I should do it now because I don’t know how many more shots I’m going to get,'” James said about why his character might have overlooked how he and his partner weren’t on the same page about spending the rest of their lives together.
James said it was important to him and the filmmakers that the Heather character not be painted as a villain.
“She’s not just this woman who leaves and it’s clearly like, ‘Oh, he shouldn’t be with her anyway.’ Because that’s not how real life is,” the actor added.
“Sometimes people just don’t feel that connection and they can still love the other person and that’s what I think we have here. I love the Heather character in this movie. I do. At the end, you see them struggling and they see they want the best for each other. That’s a beautiful thing to me.”
Unable to get a refund, Matt goes ahead and tries to enjoy his honeymoon alone, but it isn’t long before Matt is befriended by two newlywed couples — Meghan (Alyson Hannigan) and Julian (Kim Coates), and Donna (Julee Cerda) and Neil (Jonathan Roumie) — who are determined to cheer him up.
“They don’t know who I am,” James explained.
“They’re on their honeymoon, as well, and they see a fellow brother who’s down, and they put out their hands and they pick me up and they carry me and we go through this journey together in a funny, sweet way,” he added. “It’s just unlike any part I’ve played before.”
James said his real-life friendships with Sons of Anarchy icon Coates and The Chosen actor Roumie made for an easy, credible chemistry on screen.
“Kim, I’ve known for 35 years, and Jonathan, I’ve known for a few years now,” James said.
“We were bonded before this and I love those guys. That’s the key to a movie when you see it and you see the couples that are more side characters that come into the movie and take over the movie,” he added.
“And, at the end of the movie, you still want to spend time with their characters and see what’s going on in their lives. That’s when you know they’ve done such a great job.”
James said he is eager for people to see these actors, known primarily for their dramatic work, get the chance to be hilarious.
“Kim, I’ve known how funny he is from Day 1 and this shows him in a different light. It was the perfect storm,” he added. “And, same thing with Jonathan. Jonathan, obviously, [is famous for] playing Jesus in The Chosen and he’s such a funny guy and he does such a great job. I was thrilled because people just ate those guys up. They loved them and they love their characters.”
The movie was directed by Chuck and Dan Kinnane, and written by James, and Patrick and John Kinnane.
Asked what makes the Kinnane family such good collaborators, James replied: “Just the shorthand that they have.
“They’re just good family people. They love each other so much. It’s love. It’s love that they have for each other, that they have for their work,” he added. “They take time with everything. It’s like they can do it like nobody I’ve ever been with before. They’re just incredible, incredible guys. They made this magic, for me, and I’m so happy to be part of it.”
Working in Italy was another advantage to telling this story.
“It’s a cliche to say, but [the country] became a character in the movie,” James said, praising the beautiful locations and the hard-working, resourceful Italian crew.
“We could tell we all bonded by the fact that we would go out to dinner after shooting a long, 15-hour-day. We’d go out and have a couple drinks of wine and have food and play music and sing songs,” he added. “Nobody wanted to leave. We just had a great time together. So, it was just an incredible dream come true for me.”
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