‘Vinyl’ HBO Ray Romano Talks Going From Sitcoms To Serious Drama And Crying On Camera

Ray Romano's role on HBO's "Vinyl" is a dramatic departure, emphasis on dramatic, from his sitcom days.

Romano grew to fame during the '90s sitcom loosely based on his own life, "Everybody Loves Raymond." The show ended in 2005 and since then Romano has been wanting to do something different.

"And when I say different, I mean something a bit dramatic," he said in an interview with NPR.

And his role as Zak Yankovich, head of promotions at American Century, is just that. His character has contemplated suicide, snorted coke and had a three-way with two babes. This is all stuff you would never see on "Everybody Loves Raymond."

Romano sat down with NPR's Terry Gross to talk about his role and how he is adjusting to more dramatic acting.

Romano's agent reached out to Martin Scorsese's casting woman Ellen Lewis and told her that he thought Romano would be good for the role. Scorsese asked him to send in a tape and he liked what he saw.

 Gross then asked Romano about how "Vinyl" compares to his previous work.

"It's much darker, there's more depth to it, there's more angst, of course. In the very second episode of 'Vinyl,' my character kind of contemplates killing himself - not kind of, he does," he said.

He went on to say that the role was intimidating for him. When he did the pilot, his character was in a happy place. They were about to sell the company, he was not aware that his character was married with children. A year later when they got the script for the second episode he realized how much more dramatic his character was going to have to be.

He was especially nervous about crying on camera.

"Just from an acting standpoint, that was frightening to me and scary. And I was talking to my agent, like, "This is such a test for me. It's the second episode and I want to make sure I can deliver what they think they're writing for this character," he explained. "By the way, I do [cry] in real life. I'm at an age where crying is easier for me now. I like it. I can cry at a poignant commercial; I can cry at a - this is a running joke in my house, but ... a good ' Star-Spangled Banner' can make me cry. I'm not kidding. Ilook them up on YouTube and I find the most emotional ones."

Well, everybody loves a good cry ... and everybody seems to be loving Raymond ...in "Vinyl."

There are only three episodes left. Watch "Vinyl" Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.