He was joking--at least I think he was--but Costanzo, who starred in the 2000 film "Road Trip" and on the ill-fated "Friends" spin-off "Joey," is riding high with his new gig.
The series premiered last Thursday on USA Network after the popular "Burn Notice" and drew 5.56 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, a big launch for a new show. It returns at 9 p.m. Thursday.
"I'm genuinely happy about the project," he said. "As far as TV goes, I couldn't be happier with being on this show."
Costanzo had been filming for a couple of months when we chatted on the phone a few weeks ago. He claims that each episode is getting better and better.
So far, Evan has persuaded Hank, who was fired from his last hospital job, to become a doctor-on-demand for rich folks living in the Hamptons. Hank reluctantly agreed, and now he, a doctor's assistant named Divya (Reshma Shetty) and Hank have gone into business together.
Filming in the Hamptons, Manhattan and other parts of wealthy New York has given Costanzo and the cast a chance to see how the other half--that would be the super-rich half--lives. One home had four 10-foot in-diameter wide, floor-to-ceiling aquarium tank "pillars" while another one had a state-of-the-art theater. Costanzo found out the owner of one mansion where the production filmed had invented bar-code technology.
"Basically when he walks into a room, every step he takes, there's just gold hunks of the floor that appear," he joked about the man's Midas touch. "So there's a guy behind him that just cuts out those hunks and they just live on the gold. And they drink gold. When he pisses, it's gold pee; he pees gold. I actually met him and when I shook his hand he had this look in his eye like, 'I could own you in a heartbeat.' "
If you can't tell, Costanzo doesn't need a script to be funny. Keep reading below for more from our interview, in which he talked about his own run-in with a concierge doctor, working on "Joey" and playing in mansions.
Mark Feuerstein and Paulo Costanzo play brothers in "Royal Pains." USA photos
Give me your take on Evan Lawson and the show.
I think he's a very opportunistic guy who's never had a true shot at shining in any field. He's an accountant. He's like the least likely accountant you've ever met. He loves excitement and adventure and pushing the envelope and girls and everything. So he's kind of unhappy in New York and he's fallen into the endeavor with his brother, which has allowed him to flourish. He's really, really on it; he wants this business to work. And a couple of the perks are that he's around a whole shitload of--I bet you can't print shitload?
Yeah we can.
OK, then I'll retract it. He's around a huge [bleep]load of beautiful girls. But at the end of the day he's this colorful, charming, adorable guy who is usually just a tad over eager but his heart's always in the right place, which is to get his brother a successful business and become part of it himself. And just have sex as much as he can on the side.
How much of you is in Evan?
There are elements, but not a lot. I'm fairly business oriented but I'm not that crazy, eager guy. I don't know; I'm so bad at answering that question. I have no idea who I am my friend. That's why I become other people. I'm a blank slate.
You seem to be as quick-witted and smart-alecky ...
[Whispers.] That keeps attention away from the demons.
How are you liking the show?
The pilot's not bad. I've seen so many pilots that sucked so hard. Did you see the pilot for "Friends"? That was one of the worst shows I've ever seen in my entire life. It feels like a high school drama night skit. It was so bad.
I'll be very honest with you. I'm not a big TV guy. I'm more of a movie guy myself. I'm kind of hard-wired to do movies. I like how intense it is and how I can just leave the universe for a couple months and then come back when it's done.
But this show, as I've entered into it, it's gotten better and better. And this last episode (Episode 4), when I read it, I was whoa, this is leaps and bounds better than the pilot. I think it's really getting good.
Why do you think that is?
Michael Roush is showrunner. He came on board and he's really, really good. I trust very few people creatively because I've had projects where I was surrounded by people I did not love as much--that I'll never mention the names of.
I was going to ask about "Joey" later ...
Uhhh, never mention that show. But Michael Roush, just instantly there was something in his eyes that I was like whoa, this guy's kind of a badass. And as I observed him [I saw that] he's just slightly nudged the direction of the show and suddenly it's ... turning into a deeper show, which is what I was begging for.
Do you shoot everything in the Hamptons?
It's very expensive to bring the entire crew up to the Hamptons. So what we do is we shoot all over Queens and surrounding Manhattan which doubles as the Hamptons. We shoot in the studio a couple days a week, then a couple days we'll go up to the Hamptons and shoot there.
Evan Lawson (Paulo Costanzo) can't keep his shirt on in "Royal Pains."
Every other day I'm in like a different gigantic [home]. The last place I went there was like this indoor hot tub ... The entire basement of this man's house is this huge indoor pool with, and I kid you not, 10-foot diameter, floor-to-ceiling aquarium tanks. Pillars. Aquarium pillars. They're aquarium pillars and there are four of them. And there are the most exotic fish in them. And there's a giant room just dedicated to the pumps and filters that you need to keep this thing running. It's just, literally, ludicrous.
And I was like, 'Whoa,' and someone's like, 'Yeah man, hey, let's go wait in the area where everybody is.' And there's like the most immaculate, privately owned movie theater I've ever seen. Like better than some actual movie theaters I've been in ...
I thought if I could go back in time and show the 15-year-old me what I'd be doing in 15 years that kid would be pretty freaked out and happy.
Evan gets belittled by the babes quite often. How is that for you?
It's kind of one of the ongoing themes in Evan's life, is that he's being constantly belittled by women because he comes on too strong. Which usually leads to hilarious antics, I say in mock quotations. It's an ongoing thing, but in the coming episodes there's been some actual kind of romantic things going on.
Evan will find romance?
I can't speak in definitive terms because I can't get away what happens, but yeah there are a lot of relationship things going on in the dynamic of the four main characters and some of the characters that come and go. In the episode I'm shooting now, it goes past the surface kind of Evan, "La la la, chicks and money!" It goes to another place where he actually has real feelings for this one person that I'm not going to talk anymore about.
But I was so ecstatic when I read the script, I was like "This shows actually going to be really fun to do, and it's so much fun."
Well you really ...
Actually ... sorry, you talk.
No, go ahead.
No you talk. I'm actually writing down what you say too.
Yeah, OK. I was just saying that you are really good at the goofy stuff, but I bet it is fun for you to do more in-depth stuff.
The goofy stuff, what the hell does that mean?
Well, Evan's kind of a goof, right?
He's a little goofy? I like to think he's quirky. I'd say the Three Stooges are goofy. I think Evan's just sexy, that's what I think.
Oh do you? OK. Is he going to be spending all his time with his shirt off, like he does in the pilot?
It's amazing. We shot three episodes, and out of those three I've had my shirt off in every single one. And one of them [I was] in a hot tub, so there you go.
Paolo Costanzo and Mark Feuerstein in "Royal Pains."
I auditioned. I went in the first time and I read. I left and didn't really think about it. I got called back and they said it was going to be a chemistry read with the guy who got the lead. At the point I was reading for the best friend role--Evan was the best friend. And I walked in and it was Mark [Feuerstein] looking at me and I said, "Wow, it's amazing that you've cast an older version of me." And he was, "Yeah we look exactly the same." And I said, "Yeah, I feel like our Jew 'fros, if we get too close, we're just going to gravitate together and stick together like Velcro and we won't be able to shoot the show."
Then we mimed that happening, and thus began our relationship.
I walked out of that rooming thinking I would never get that role, because you can't cast someone as the best friend who looks exactly like the person who is cast as the lead.
And then they decided to network test me. When I walked out I felt pretty confident, but I thought the only way I'd get the role it if they rewrote and I was the brother. So later in the day they called and said, "Guess what, man? We decided to rewrite it." ... So they rewrote the role as the brother, which really has opened up so many more storytelling opportunities for the series. It's like so much better. It deepens it so much more. We have our dad coming in soon. We have a past that we share so there's constantly stuff coming up. ... And not all of it's happy. It's like you said, the tone is kind of slick and cool but there are some dark secrets and skeletons--that of course will probably be portrayed with techno music and in amazingly rich locations.
You had never met Mark before?
No, never met.
You guys do have an easiness on screen--that must be the acting, huh?
It's all the acting. I had known him for like three days [before filming].
You're from Canada. How did you land in LA?
I dropped out of theater school after a year because I didn't like it. And then I was kind of out of work for about eight months and the casting directors were kind of not wanting to see me anymore. I just had this style of acting that I refused to change, which was kind of going against the grain of what Toronto casting directors felt [was good]. And then this nationwide talent search came for this silly teen comedy ... I put myself on tape for it and I thought it sucked and the next week I got this call and it was my agent saying, "What have you bee doing? Why haven't you answered your phone? ... You're flying to New York; they're going to test you for 'Road Trip.'" ... That kind of started everything.
And you eventually ended up in "Joey"?
[Long pause] And I eventually ended up in "Joey." Yep.
And we can skip the rest?
All I will say about "Joey" is that it was a dysfunctional set and I was aware of that from the get-go. There were good times, but most of it for me was kind of discomfort and looking forward to the end of that project.
Had you ever heard of concierge doctors before doing "Royal Pains"?
It's funny, ironically enough, about "Joey." I had this horrible while I was shooting that show in L.A. I'd heard that Drea de Matteo had this ... doctor who would make house calls. ... So I called him and asked "Is this Doctor .." and he said "No, no, no, just call me Bill." ...
Within 20 minutes he was at my door. He came in and gave me a full check-up. He wrote me a perscription and I was like OK, cool. Then he ripped it off, put a copy in his pocket and gave one to me. Then he opened another bag and gave me the pills and was like, "Take three of these and call me in the morning." That was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
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