TikToker Shares Their Hilariously Awful Audition Reel for Ray Romano’s ‘Somewhere in Queens’

Lying on your resume is a rite of passage. Stretching the date range a little, taking some creative liberties with your job title, saying that you’re proficient at Excel — we’ve all done it. Sometimes it helps you land that coveted job, and sometimes you get caught in the lie. 

Actors are no different, at least according to New York-based singer/songwriter Homeschool. They recently took to TikTok to describe their experience auditioning for Ray Romano’s 2022 film Somewhere in Queens. The Everybody Loves Raymond star’s directorial debut follows the life of a blue-collar, Italian-American couple whose son receives a life-changing basketball scholarship. Homeschool shared that after reading for the role of Matthew “Sticks” Russo, they were one of ten hopefuls to get a callback that asked them to share a video of them playing basketball, a crucial component of the role. 

To prepare for the submission, Homeschool took a two-hour Masterclass from Steph Curry before sharing their reel with Romano and his team. While the role ultimately went to Jacob Ward, Homeschool shared their submission with their TikTok following anyway. Their lackluster display of athleticism speaks for itself and explains why someone like Ward landed the gig instead. 

One commenter noted that it “looked like (they) were auditioning to play basketball in a musical,” while others continued the musical theme by saying that his performance “was giving Troy Bolton.” In fairness, some people did commend Homeschool, with another commenter writing, “I’m so bad at sports I really thought you killed it.”

The anecdote comes on the heels of an April episode of WTF with Marc Maron, which is also spliced into the TikTok, where Romano details his end of the audition process. In particular, Romano mentioned the struggles of finding an actor who could also play basketball. Initially written as 6-foot-5, the character was shortened to an even 6-feet in an effort to broaden the search. About the callback process, Romano explained, “They all said they could play, yeah, and they would send a tape, and within five seconds, we could see this kid’s never played basketball in his life.” 

Welp, as Homeschool can certainly attest, Romano certainly wasn’t telling a (literally) tall tale there.