Christopher Backus and Mira Sorvino Share the Invaluable Parenting Advice They Got from Her Late Dad Paul Sorvino (Exclusive)
Backus and his wife are parents to daughters Mattea, 18, and Lucia, 11, as well as sons Johnny, 17, and Holden, 14
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Paul Sorvino attends the 2008 Venetian Ball; Christopher Backus and Mira Sorvino attend the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild AwardsChristopher Backus and Mira Sorvino are sharing the important parenting advice they once received from her late father Paul Sorvino.
The actor, 43, and the Romy and Michele actress, 57, spoke with PEOPLE about their upcoming film Daft State, and shared some of the great parenting advice he got from Sorvino.
Backus and Mira are parents to daughters Mattea, 18, and Lucia, 11, as well as sons Johnny, 17, and Holden, 14.
"Mira's dad once said to me, 'You imagine that someone took one hair off your kid's head. It's a rage. You can feel it.' If something happens to someone else somewhere far away, you go, 'That's really sad,' but it doesn't really have the same effect as the one piece of hair that's taken from your kid's head," Backus remembers.
"So it's finding the right balance to play that side," he says.
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Mira Sorvino Instagram
Mira Sorvino and Christopher Backus with their kids, Johnny, Holden, and, Mattea.Mira agrees, saying that her dad once did a movie called Surviving about a teen suicide, and made the mistake of drawing from the fantasy of one of his daughters dying to act the scene out.
"And he said he never slept through the night again. He never slept through the night again without nightmares," she shares.
"So he warned me never use your own kids," Mira recalls. "So I try and build in my mind, in this story we have this son, Bryce. And I'm building in my mind who Bryce is and what I love about Bryce and what's special about him."
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Christopher Backus, Johnny Backus, Mira Sorvino, Lucia Backus, Holden Backus, Mattea Backus at the premiere of "Sound of Freedom" in 2022."And I love my own children so much. It's quite easy for me to imagine loving this other pretend child because the love that I have is so big for them," she continues. "But weirdly, while we're shooting this, all of a sudden because my phone is doing this thing now where it's showing me random pictures from my albums as my screensaver because I don't pick screensavers."
"And somehow I press something and it keeps showing me pictures of young Johnny when Johnny was the age of this Bryce character. They come across, I was like, "No, get off!'"
