Bobby Cannavale Reveals His Newborn Son’s Name

During the premiere of the animated movie, Ferdinand, on Sunday, Bobby Cannavale spoke with ET’s Deidre Behar about the effects of having a newborn baby at home, alongside his 2-year-old son, Rocco.

“It’s going great. We’re a… little bit of lack of sleep in the house, but we’re doing well,” Cannavale said, who recently welcomed a son with longtime love, Rose Byrne.

The 47-year old actor also revealed the name of their baby and the family inspiration behind it.

“Rafa,” Cannavale said. “I hadn’t given one of my children a Latin name yet, so I wanted to honor my mom’s side of the family,” he explained. “And, you know, Rafael Nadal had such a great year and we were constantly keeping up with him and watching all his matches so we were like, ‘How about Rafa? That goes well with Rocco.’ And that was it.”

The proud father said Rocco is being a good big brother as well as his 22-year-old son, Jake, from his previous marriage to Jenny Lumet.

“He’s a terrific big brother,” Cannavale gushed. “He’s wonderful with him, and really gentle with him, and my oldest is great with both of them. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”

In Ferdinand, Cannavale voices Valiente, the bull. It also stars John Cena (as Ferdinand), Kate McKinnon (as Lupe, an old goat), David Tennant (as Angus, a Scottish bull), Gina Rodriguez (as Una, a hedgehog) and many more.

The animated film is about a fighting bull who prefers smelling the flowers and non-violence rather than chasing red cloths held by matadors in arenas. But when he was taken to a fighting stadium, Ferdinand must decide whether he is a fighting bull or a flower-smelling bull, in order to get his freedom.

“It was my favorite book!” Cannavale shared. “And now I have a 22-year-old, I used to read it to him, and now I have a 22-month-old and I have a 4-week-old…we read it every night before we go to bed.”

“I’ve always loved the story,” he continued. “I always felt different as a kid and that book sort of always validated my feeling different, and made me feel like, comfortable. It was a great bedtime story to read. It’s a really nice story to read to your kids before they go to bed, because it makes them feel like they can be who they want to be. It’s a little great book about non-conformity that I love.”

The film will hit theatres on Dec. 15.