Mira Sorvino’s Son Just Saw Her Late Dad Paul’sGoodfellasfor First Time: ‘Can’t Believe That’s My Grandpa’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Araya Doheny/Getty; Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock

Mira Sorvino’sson is finally getting to experience one of her father’s iconic performances.

While discussing their latest film project,Daft State, exclusively with PEOPLE, Sorvino, 57, and her husband, actorChristopher Backus, revealed that their son recently watchedPaul Sorvino’sGoodfellasfor the first time ever.

“He’s playing baseball at Michigan, so he’s adult enough to watchGoodfellasnow,” Backus, 43, said of their18-year-old son, Johnny.

“One of the teammates was going to watch it,” theMindhunteractor continued, “so he went over and watched it with him. And he was like, ‘I can’t believe that’s my grandpa.’ “

Sorvino’s father — who died in 2022 at the age of 83 —  played mobster Paul “Paulie” Cicero in the 1990 Martin Scorsese classic, alongsideRobert DeNiro,Joe PesciandRay Liotta.

Backus — who also shares kids Mattea, 20, Holden, 15, and Lucia, 12, with Sorvino — also revealed thatGoodfellaswasn’t the first Paul Sorvino movie his son had seen.

Paul Sorvino and Mina Sorvino in 2007.Nancy Ostertag/Getty

Sorvino then chimed in, revealing to PEOPLE that she chose to do the project after seeing how much her kids loved watching their grandpa play Santa — as well as realizing that they couldn’t watch any of her other films “because they were all rated R.”

“And when I got offered […]Finding Mrs. Claus,which was really clever and cute, and there were very few projects about Mrs. Claus, and it was a comedy and it was sweet, I went for it so I’d have something that I would make that they could watch,” she said.

“And I love it. It’s a very sweet Christmas movie. It’s on Lifetime every year,” she added.

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The couple also opened up to PEOPLE about how they manage to keep the spark alive amid parenting and busy work schedules.

“First of all, as working actors, we try and have the three-week rule,” Sorvino said. “We’re never away from each other for more than three weeks. If a job takes us apart for more than that, one visits the other.”

Backus also stressed the importance of scheduling date nights.

Christopher Backus and Mira Sorvino in 2022.Amy Sussman/WireImage

Amy Sussman/WireImage

“I think early on, especially when the kids are young, it’s hard to find those date nights,” he began. “And so we’ve really made an effort of ‘tonight is our night.’ "

“And we don’t really have a timeframe [for] it,” theBlack Birdactor continued. “It’s not necessarily once a week, but we really try to prioritize those. ‘All right, it’s Mira and Chris night tonight, and we’re going to go be young, fun, happy, free people, and then come back to our kids.‘ “

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source: people.com