Sebastian Maniscalco on Robert De Niro Playing His Father and 'Bookie' Series With Charlie Sheen (Exclusive)

etonline.com:

, with Robert De Niro, comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is reuniting with the two-time Oscar winner in the loosely biographical comedy,.

While speaking to ET's Rachel Smith, Sebastian opened up about teaming up with the screen legend as well as working on his upcoming Max series, .

In the movie, which opens in theaters on Friday, May 26, De Niro portrays a version of Maniscalco's immigrant, hairdresser father, Salvo Maniscalco, who finds himself amid a culture clash with the parents of his son's fiancée (Leslie Bibb) after their two families get together for a summer weekend. «It's a classic situation between the in-laws,» De Niro said of the movie, describing Bibb's onscreen family as «very waspy and just the opposite of Salvo.» And as a result, «there's a lot of humor in it,» he said, adding that «anybody can relate to it.»  But when it came to telling this heightened version of his father, Maniscalco revealed, «My father said, 'You're not going to make this movie unless you get De Niro to play me,'» before joking that Salvo got to approve whoever ended up in the titular role. «It's in his contract that he had to approve it,» the comedian quipped.

Of course, Salvo didn't believe his son had actually landed the actor. «I said I didn't believe him,» Salvo admitted, before agreeing that he was perfect for the part. «Oh, yeah.» And for Maniscalco, casting De Niro as his father was an «unbelievable» opportunity to work and learn from the longtime performer. «I learned so much about acting just spending time with him for the last, you know, nine weeks on that movie.