Million Dollar Arm Interview – Aasif Mandvi #MillionDollarArmEvent

I have been invited as media to attend these events. Expenses have been paid in exchange for my coverage. All opinions are my own.

During my coverage of Million Dollar Arm in LA a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to interview several members of the cast, including Jon Hamm. The final interview I am sharing with you today is with Aasif Mandvi, an Indian-American actor and comedian. 

Aasif has slew of television roles from Miami Vice to Sopranos. He also worked alongside Robert De Niro in “Analyze This” and Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in “The Internship.”

In Million Dollar Arm Aasif plays the role of Jon Hamm’s “right hand man” who holds down the fort at home while Jon takes on this journey to India to find the next great baseball player.


Aasif Mandvi interview:

Blogger Q: What was your favorite scene to film in the Film and why?

AM: It was really actually fun going to India and shooting because you know, having been born there and have family there and have visited India many times, it’s a whole different experience when you go with an American Film Crew to India. It’s actually the best way to see India is to be in the bubble of a big Hollywood Production. You don’t have to deal with any riff raff. I got to see the Taj Mahal, which I’ve always wanted to and never had. And now I got to do it on Disney’s dime so you know, so it was kind of great.

Blogger Q: I liked the way your character was the funny man next to Jon Hamm’s straight man. Was that what attracted you to the character or what was it that made you want to do this Film?

AM: He’s the one that is the counter point to Jon Hamm’s sort of playboy lothario character. I like that aspect of it. I also feel like it was an interesting character — a South Asian Sports Agent because I don’t know any, you know. I’m sure there are but it an interesting character to play somebody I never played before. And then I got to work with Jon Hamm every day who is dreamy so…

We had a good laugh with that last line and then went on to ask him about filming with the twin babies who played his children in the movie. Aasif mentioned that the babies literally cried all the time and so they just decided to role with it. When one of the babies pukes all over him during the porch scene, that was a real moment and not part of the script.

He also goes on to mention that he personally knew Ash, who he coincidentally plays the role of in Million Dollar Arm. Through mutual friends Aasif had met AshVasudevan years before and enjoyed playing that role in the film.

Blogger Q: Now that the story is being told, how do you think it will impact those in India?

AM: I don’t know how it’ll impact people in India. I’ll be curious to see. I mean, I think the stuff has an emotional element to it. You know, there’s a — there’s a sort of an Indian kind of pride thing about it. But I think this movie actually takes a really great sort of realistic approach. Like that scene with Vivek and JB where he’s talking about like where the posters, that is so the experience of the average Indian person in India. It’s a Middle Class Indian person’s life in India, which is like dealing with the bureaucracy and the sort of red tape of like the system. So I think there’s interesting sort of observations about India that are very true in this film. So I’ll be curious to see how it plays to the masses over there.

Aasif was fun to speak with in person, which is very clear in our group picture below. 🙂

Million Dollar Arm is rated PG and comes highly recommended by me. The movie is based on a true story and is quite inspirational. It’s a great film for the entire family and in theaters now!

Want to see a a clip of the movie? Head to this Million Dollar Arm movie review to check it out.