After nearly five decades in show business, Tony Danza still finds a way to surprise himself.
His latest comedy, Re-electionstars the legendary actor as Stan, Jimmy’s father, an emotionally retarded, middle-aged man (played by the film’s writer and director, Adam Saunders), who re-enrolls in high school to try to win a long-lost race for class president. A wacky premise? Perhaps, but at the heart of the film is something universal: the pain of unfinished business.
“There’s an old saying that if you’re at war with the past, you have no future. That’s absolutely true, but it’s very hard not to go back,” Danza, 74, exclusively explains. Us every week why he was attracted to the project. “I’ve made some big decisions that I look back on now and say, ‘I’m not sure about that one.’ You can’t help yourself I wonder what could have been. …And that’s what we are [talking about] in this movie.
It was Saunders’ ability to capture that timeless theme of regret, Danza says, that hooked him on the role of Stan.
“It sits somewhere in the lexicon of older movies. It’s a funny movie, but it has a message. It has something to say,” Danza says, adding that the “father-son” dynamic between his character and Jimmy was also relevant as a father of three. “I think it’s really important.”
Off-screen, looking back at what could have been is something Danza admits she’s experienced as well. He tells We that there were a few decisions he would like to be able to redo from his position Who is the boss days. (Danza starred on the hit sitcom for eight seasons from 1984 to 1992, garnering praise from critics and fans for her performance as the adorable housekeeper Tony.)
“I was determined to be the funniest guy on TV. I wanted to do another sitcom [after Boss] and I was offered this role in an hour-long series, and I said, “[No]I’m going to do a sitcom, that’s what I’m doing,'” Danza recalled. “And I look back on it now, and I really think maybe that was a big turning point in what I aspired to, what I want to do, and what I want out of my career. …I think I took a wrong turn there.
Although Danza doesn’t talk about the role he would have liked to say “yes” to – “it’s too much for me!” » he admits that his career is not the only area of life in which he would like to do again. Like Jimmy in Re-electionDanza looks back on his time in high school and would have liked to take advantage more of the educational system available to him.
“I did just enough. I charmed the teachers, [but] I don’t know why I didn’t get an A,” he says. “I finished college and did everything, but again, I look back on it and I’m like, ‘Why didn’t I really take advantage of it more?’
But even if Danza can’t go back in time to her teenage years like Jimmy, Re-election also serves as a reminder that personal growth has no expiration date – something Danza takes to heart. These days, the Taxi alumnus takes his lessons from everywhere and everyone, from movie roles that continue to challenge him to watching his children — son Marc, 54, and daughters Katherine, 38, and Emily, 33 — navigate their own lives.
“I mean, now it’s the funniest thing. I’m so old and all I want to do is be a student,” he says. We with a laugh. “Now I’m studying piano. I have Duolingo. I’m [learning] Spanish. I mean, I have a list. I’m out of control! »
Danza is open to absorbing new knowledge of all ages. His grandson, for example, is a person he turns to when it comes to keeping up with the times. Just this holiday season, the actor was able to learn from the University of Kansas sophomore while traveling around New York for the holidays.
“It’s not about sitting down, ‘I’m going to teach you a lesson,'” Danza says of the duo’s dynamic. “But it’s like, being with him, I’m learning things. I keep my eyes open and I listen to him, and he’s a wonderful child.”
Danza also distributes wisdom. Through his nonprofit, The Stars of Tomorrow Project, the actor works directly with young performers. The New York-based nonprofit currently has 80 students for the upcoming semester, where Danza and his fellow educators teach “acting, voice, movement and wellness” to teens.
“It’s a life program. We teach them well-being. We teach them to [shop] for groceries. Then I rent a kitchen on 57th Street, and we take all the kids there and I make them cook,” he said. We of the non-profit association. “It’s wonderful.”
Danza extends this role of educator to his own children – now adults – whom he calls his “best friends”. Her “wonderful” son Marc is now coaching his own children, and her eldest daughter, Katherine, has just welcomed her “beautiful” granddaughter Rosie. There’s also the youngest child, Emily, who is “starting a business” and is currently moving from Los Angeles to Ohio.
Regardless of their age, Danza says teaching his children is an ongoing conversation and one he loves to have. “They are [all] I’m active and participating in their lives,” he says with a smile. “It couldn’t be better.”
Tony Danza has responded to Valerie Bertinelli’s claims that he ghosted her after she left his number in her glove compartment more than a decade ago. “He never called me!” Bertinelli, 65, claimed during the Tuesday, October 14 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, alleging that she had dropped her number in Danza’s car before — but never […]
For Danza, it’s clear that Dad and Grandpa are her proudest roles. Their happiness, he says We, matters more than any job or award ever could.
“There’s an old saying: ‘You’re only as happy as your least happy child.’ And that’s absolutely true,” says Danza. “And I’m really lucky, I really appreciate the gift of happiness from my children, because they work hard, they strive, and that’s what I and everyone who meets me says: ‘Boy, your children have such good manners. You’ve done something, haven’t you.’ I feel really good [that]. It’s really something.
Re-election is available to stream on demand now.
