You guys know that it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to funny. Always pushing that envelope between hilarious and inappropriate is where the best humor resides for this girl. That’s why when Aasif Mandvi walked into his interview with 25 mom bloggers and exclaimed “Mom bloggers? How about MILF bloggers?” I knew that this was going to be my kind of interview.
Disclosure: I did receive an all expenses paid trip to attend the Million Dollar Arm premiere in Los Angeles, but all opinions and wise cracks are my own. Post Contains Affiliate Links.
Aasif Mandvi, known for his recurring appearances on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, plays Ash in Disney’s summer hit Million Dollar Arm. His role on the Daily Show is always pushing the envelope in the land of slightly inappropriate, so it was intriguing what “edge” he could bring to his role in this family friendly summer flick.
Mandvi’s roots even began with Disney when his first job out of college was working as a street performer at the newly opened Disney/MGM studios. He shared “it was a great place to learn Comedy and learn Improv.” It was his first taste of comedy, and from there he’s had nothing but love for the art of making people laugh.
After his stint at MGM, he developed a one man show which later lead him to roles like the one in Million Dollar Arm. Million Dollar Arm presented Mandvi with so many deep experiences such as visiting his homeland, India. We asked him what was his favorite part of filming the movie, and he reminisced
It was really actually fun going to India and shooting because having been born there and have family there and have 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 and stuff. But it was great, it was like that was actually kind of just experientially, it was just like an amazing experience to go to India.
Normally the funny guy, Aasif really enjoyed playing Ash because he was not only the “funny guy to Hamm’s straight laced character,” but “he’s also the grounding character, you know. He’s the one that sort of is the counter point to Jon Hamm’s sort of Playboy Lothario Character.”
We get to see just how grounded Aasif’s character in a particular scene on the porch with his toddler children during the film. Being moms of course we wanted to know what it was like working with children, especially young children. Mandvi had some particularly funny outtakes about how they had two sets of twins working on the set, and both sets really liked to cry a lot. As they say the show must go on, and they learned to film the crying takes into the script of the film. Then there was the porch scene. Aasif shares,
Then, the piece de resistance is that on the porch. The kids were crying, and I’m supposed to be holding them. The
kid is literally screaming for his mother. So, they roll Action, I grab this kid, it’s like pulling cheese off a pizza. He’s holding on to me, the hair, the thing, and I grab him like come on Sweetie, come on. 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 puked. It’s just all over my clothes. You see me go from being a character in the movie to being an actor that somebody just puked on.
I think being puked on by a child is something that a lot of parents can relate to, and that’s what makes Aasif’s character so great. He brings us back to the reality that life is going to be filled with crying kids and puke no matter how big your dreams are, BUT the important part is to not let the bodily functions stand in the way of being a part of something life changing.
One of my favorite films of the summer, Million Dollar Arm is coming soon to you on DVD on October 7th. You can pre-order the Million Dollar Arm DVD here on Amazon!. Make sure to grab your copy of Million Dollar Arm on DVD or Blu-Ray. It’s an amazing film for the whole family, and will make an awesome addition to your family collection.
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