Mira Sorvino’s Son Just Saw Her Late Dad Paul’s “Goodfellas” for First Time: ‘Can’t Believe That’s My Grandpa’ (Exclusive)

Sorvino's husband, Christopher Backus, said their son is now ‘adult enough to watch’ Martin Scorsese’s 1990 classic film

Mira Sorvino’s son is finally getting to experience one of her father’s iconic performances. 

While discussing their latest film project, Daft State, exclusively with PEOPLE, Sorvino, 57, and her husband, actor Christopher Backus, revealed that their son recently watched Paul Sorvino’s Goodfellas for the first time ever.

“He’s playing baseball at Michigan, so he's adult enough to watch Goodfellas now,” Backus, 43, said of their 18-year-old son, Johnny.

"One of the teammates was going to watch it," the Mindhunter actor continued, "so he went over and watched it with him. And he was like, ‘I can't believe that's my grandpa.’ “

Sorvino's father — who died in 2022 at the age of 83 —  played mobster Paul "Paulie" Cicero in the 1990 Martin Scorsese classic, alongside Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. 

Related: Who Is Mira Sorvino's Husband? All About Christopher Backus

Backus — who also shares kids Mattea, 20, Holden, 15, and Lucia, 12, with Sorvino — also revealed that Goodfellas wasn’t the first Paul Sorvino movie his son had seen.

“One that we used to watch with them — we haven't watched it in a few years — we haven't watched it since he passed, I don't think. But my kids used to love his movie, Santa Baby 2: [Christmas Maybe], in which he plays Santa Claus. They love that movie and we love to watch Grandpa as Santa.”

Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe — an ABC made-for-TV movie — starred Jenna McCarthy as Santa’s grown daughter struggling to figure out if she wants to take over the family business. 

“So grandpa has played Santa and Mira has played Mrs. Claus,” Backus added, referring to the 2012 TV movie Finding Mrs. Claus.

Sorvino then chimed in, revealing to PEOPLE that she chose to do the project after seeing how much her kids loved watching their grandpa play Santa — as well as realizing that they couldn’t watch any of her other films “because they were all rated R.”

“And when I got offered [...] Finding Mrs. Claus, which was really clever and cute, and there were very few projects about Mrs. Claus, and it was a comedy and it was sweet, I went for it so I'd have something that I would make that they could watch," she said.

"And I love it. It's a very sweet Christmas movie. It's on Lifetime every year," she added.

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The couple also opened up to PEOPLE about how they manage to keep the spark alive amid parenting and busy work schedules.

“First of all, as working actors, we try and have the three-week rule,” Sorvino said. “We’re never away from each other for more than three weeks. If a job takes us apart for more than that, one visits the other.”

Backus also stressed the importance of scheduling date nights. 

Related: Mira Sorvino Reacts to Oscars 2023 Omitting Dad Paul Sorvino from In Memoriam: 'Baffling Beyond Belief'

“I think early on, especially when the kids are young, it's hard to find those date nights,” he began. “And so we've really made an effort of ‘tonight is our night.’ "

"And we don't really have a timeframe [for] it," the Black Bird actor continued. "It's not necessarily once a week, but we really try to prioritize those. ‘All right, it's Mira and Chris night tonight, and we're going to go be young, fun, happy, free people, and then come back to our kids.‘ “

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The couple most recently worked together on the psychological thriller Daft State, which Backus stars in and Sorvino executive produced. The movie follows Easton (Backus) as “destruction drives him to the edge of sanity and possible self-harm by those who love him most…his wife and daughter," per the film’s official synopsis.

Daft State is available to watch now on Prime Video and Apple TV.