And after you've done the acting, there's a lot of places you can put your input - in the editing, in the production of it, in the rewriting of it and so on.
And in all the years I started writing it, in that time I lost my dad. I got married. I had kids of my own and that absolutely changes your entire world. I think most significantly having kids of my own. It's hard to write a movie about fathers and sons when you only know half the story.
And in that time, I lost my dad and had kids of my own. It was like, OK, I get it now. I know what fatherhood is all about. And you look at your parents differently.
And Olympia Dukakis, she totally grounds that movie, even before she gets there.
But at the same time that the experience is pulling you apart, it's also bonding you. You have this joint venture! You both made this baby. And that's the thing I still can't get over.
But I really felt that, something about the lights going down, and the sense of community. I saw this movie at one festival, and there were 1700 people.
But the two of them together, broke my heart. Olympia and Peter, those scenes... When they're kissing in their 20s and then kissing in their 70s, that's what it is. And they had never met five minutes before they shot those scenes.
But you get past that and realize you have to let go of what you think you want. There'll be plenty of time for that later. Right now, go and be with that baby. Just play with this beautiful little boy.
Every time I see Peter Falk in the movie I think that would be great. We'd be fun together.
Field of Dreams is the only movie - and I saw it in the theater - on an afternoon when I was on location somewhere, and there were like 12 people in the theater. I was just so devastated; I couldn't get out of my seat. And I sat and watched it a second time.
Guys need a little help in knowing how to care for a kid. It's not that I think: Gee, parenting is beneath me. It's just that I wouldn't think of it.
Guys showing emotion, and guys being ok showing emotion, because it's dad, and it's not some precious dad, it's Peter Falk, for god's sake. This guy is as close to the salt of the earth as they come, everybody's comfortable with Peter. So I think that's a huge reason as to why this is working.
Having a baby dragged me, kicking and screaming, from the world of self - absorption.
He was born early. But he was born within a safe range of premature.
I don't know a lot of road movies.
I guess it's certainly a road movie, but again you weren't watching the road part, you were watching the relationship.
I remember my wife and I used to get on plane and see everybody else with their babies. They'd be putting strollers and car seats up above, and we'd think: Oh, please Lord, don't make us go through that.
I'd distract myself until finally it was a combination of things. The show was over and I had time on my hands. I had taken time and played and just relaxed.
I'd never directed before and this movie's too important to me to put in the hands of some guy who has never directed. Even if it's me.
In fact, I had the idea because of Peter Falk. I saw my dad watching a Peter Falk movie and something clicked in my head. I gotta go make a movie for Peter Falk and me.
In the original draft I was 27 and Peter was 55 in the script. That's not the same as a guy in his 40s and a dad in the end of his 70s. It's a different point in both our lives.
It was funny to write for Peter Falk.
It's not like some movies where you're following a bunch of different stories you can cut around. There was nowhere to cut to. It's these guys. We're not cutting back to anybody else.
Not only do I sing to him, I sing entire conversations. You become Jerry Lewis.
Nothing would make me happier if Peter Falk would finally win his Oscar for this. Not just as the writer but as a fan and a friend. It would be so great.
Peter and I are both getting older and you want to make this movie, make it now.
She kind of reminds one of Helen. There's something very similar about Elizabeth Perkins.
The biggest thing I remember is that there was just no transition. You hit the ground diapering.
There's something that happens in that delivery room, when a woman becomes ten times more a woman, and a guy becomes six times less a man. You feel really dopey and useless and like a spectator. I did, anyway.
They're not the sharpest people - babies. So, you must be everything to them.
This is not the most right I've ever been.
Upstate New York in the middle of October. You can't get more beautiful than that.
We had the boy's name picked out, but we didn't have a girl's. When he turned out to be a boy, we were so relieved. Literally, in the middle of contracting and pushing, and with my wife being drugged - out and half - lucid, we were still coming up with names.
We have such a long, familiar history with Peter Falk. The minute his mug is on that screen people smile.
We made this movie for $17, and nobody got anything. So it never dawned on me that we would get real people.
In 1994/1998, Paul was nominated for a Q Award for his performance in "Mad About You."
He was nominated 4 times for a Screen Actors Guild Award, for starring in a comedy show "Mad About You."
Paul was nominated for three BMI TV Music Awards for his performance in a comedy show "Mad About You."
Paul was in a TV commercial for TV Land's Family Table.
Paul worked on a music video for "The Muppets" titled "She Drives Me Crazy."
As of 2006, Paul lives in Los Angeles with his family.
Paul co-wrote the "Mad About You" theme song "The Final Frontier" with Don Was.
Paul made his theatrical debut in Woody Allen's play "Writer's Block."
Besides starring in "Mad About You," Paul also created the show, wrote 17 episodes and was the executive producer of the show.
He plays a mean Rachmaninoff.
Started out doing stand-up comedy.
You can share a link to this page with your friend!