Ramsey Actor in New Film Alongside Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer

This September, residents going to the movies will be able to watch an actor from the borough working alongside A-List celebrities like Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, and Glee’s Dianna Agron.

In the new film The Family, De Niro and Pfeiffer play a snitch mafia couple that relocates with their kids from Brooklyn to Normandy, France under the witness protection program. Ramsey resident Jimmy Palumbo plays DiCicco, an FBI agent in charge of watching the family and keeping them safe while they are in France.

“For me, this movie was a big deal,” Palumbo told Patch. “Filming it was a mind-blowing experience.”

For filming last year, Palumbo traveled from his home in Ramsey - where he has lived with his wife and daughter for the past seven years - to Paris and Normandy, France. The cast and crew were there for about six weeks to shoot the movie, he said.

“It was really surreal,” Palumbo said of meeting and working with his co-stars, and director Luc Besson, on the film. “Everybody was so cool. It was really nice getting to play in the big leagues for six weeks.”

Though Palumbo considers The Family one of the most important projects of his career, he is no stranger to working in show business, on both the big and small screens.

In his over 20-year acting career, the 48-year-old has racked up a bunch of TV, movie, theater, and commercial credits.

Palumbo has had recurring and guest starring roles on Fringe, 30 Rock, Entourage, Desperate Housewives, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Rescue Me. You also might recognize the actor from his role in the Friends episode, “The One Where Rachel Has a Baby,” or as William the Doorman in Sex and the City 2.

He’s done a lot of voiceover work, too. He’s been the voice behind radio and TV commercials for the NY Lotto, Burger King, McDonald’s, Mercedes Benz, the Home Depot, Sprint, Pizza Hut, and many others.

One of his first big breaks came in the 2006 cult film, Beer League, in which Palumbo had a starring role. It’s a part that the actor said he’s still recognized for playing.

“I play softball in Ramsey and in Colonia [where I am from],” Palumbo said. “Every once in a while, I’ll get a guy on the field come up to me and ask, ‘Aren’t you Johnny Trinno from Beer League?’”

Palumbo started acting soon after he graduated from Rutgers in 1990. The journalism major was working for Microsoft in Edison when he saw an ad in the paper for an open casting call for a local theater production of ‘Play It Again, Sam.’

“I went on a fluke, and the director took a chance on me,” he said of his decision to audition for one of the lead roles in the show. “After that, I got the bug.”

Paulmbo called working on The Family a “milestone” in his career.

“Filming it was intense, I really learned so much from all of the people I was working with,” he said. “And, I think it’s a really good movie. I hope people like it.”

The Family is set to hit theaters nationwide September 13.