MLB

Yankees’ Girardi, daughter lend voices to film

The look in Joe Girardi’s eyes said it all as he sat in a recording studio in Manhattan this past week, watching and listening intently as his daughter Serena read her lines for the part she plays in the upcoming animated feature film “Henry & Me.”

This was a proud parent seeing his seventh-grade daughter accomplish a goal. This is the side of Girardi you don’t see when he is perched along the rail of the dugout at Yankee Stadium, but in many ways this is the Girardi the Yankees know so well behind clubhouse doors, the one who is pushing his players to be the best they can be on the field.

This question is posed to Serena’s character Sissy, an angel: “Do you miss your parents?”

“Every day,’’ Serena responds soulfully.

A few minutes later Serena excitedly cheers on the main character of the film, Jack. As the director tries to get the most out of her for the scene, he wants to make sure she yells with emotion.

“Remember, Jack, we’re all rooting for you!” Girardi says with a smile, “Oh, she can yell.’’

Girardi then offers a father’s tip to bring a bit more emotion to the scene: “Just tell her she’s got tickets to Justin Bieber.’’

Girardi wears many caps as manager of the Yankees, as they transition from an older club to a younger one while still trying to make it to the pinstripe goal of winning a World Series, like they did in 2009 under Girardi. But clearly, being a parent to Serena, Dante and Lena is one of the complete joys in his life.

After the film work is done for the day, Girardi tells the Post, “This is her passion. This has been a great experience for my daughter.’’

The film has been promoted on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard, including one of Serena’s scenes.

“It gave me a little tear in my eye, hearing her voice,’’ Girardi says in a quiet voice.

Notables in the film, which is based on Ray Negron’s children’s book series, include Richard Gere, Chazz Palminteri, Danny Aiello, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Hank Steinbrenner, Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera. The story is about a youngster who is battling cancer and his journey through a baseball dream world as he meets different Yankees legends. The film will make its premier in May.

Girardi has some lines in the film, too.

“I had to do my lines a lot more times than Serena did, and I’ve been on TV,” he says. “But she was comfortable right from the get-go.’’

This is not just a father-daughter outing. Serena has serious aspirations to become an actress.

“This is really fun. This is what I really want to do,’’ she says.

“I really believe Serena is a natural,” director Barrett Esposito says. “This scene is emotional, it’s a pivotal point in the film, and I wanted to make sure I had a bunch of things covered. She gets it. You work with a lot of actors, but you want the actors to understand what you are trying to do, and she gets it.’’

“Serena is a ray of sunshine and Joe has fully supported this project,’’ producer Joe Castellano says. “Here he is dealing with all these big-time baseball personalities and then seeing him deal with his daughter, it’s good to see him in both roles. I guess the players are all big kids, too.’’

“When I brought Serena here, they thought it was going to be as a favor,’’ Negron says. “But she has blown them away.’’

“He did us a favor,’’ Castellano adds. “She was able to get the weight of so much into those two words: ‘Every day.’ ’’

Girardi is quick to credit his wife Kim when it comes to raising the kids.

“They always support what we do,” Serena says of her parents. “They don’t make us do stuff we don’t want — well, sometimes they do — but they always support us.

“If Dante wants to play a different sport than baseball like my dad, he always supports it. My mom loves tennis and she supports my acting and she helps me get into fun classes. She lets me do what I want to do instead of making me do what she rather would have done. I’m the only one in my family that likes to act.’’

“I’m OK with that,’’ Joe says. “I want them to do what they want to do, what they love because I’ve found you work a lot harder in something that you really love to do. If you have a passion for it, it’s not work.’’

A few years ago Girardi donned braces because Serena needed to wear braces.

“It meant a lot,’’ Serena said of that experience, “because he promised me that when I was like 5. He kept his promise, he didn’t say, ‘Oh I was just kidding.’ He’s always going to keep his word and be there for me.’’

Ask what her favorite thing about her father is, Serena smiles.

“That he’s always on our side” she says. “That he’s always rooting for us.’’

“It’s not that Dad’s easy,” Joe adds, “you can always get Dad … ’’

Before he finishes the sentence Serena smiles and adds, “That too.’’

As for Girardi’s “other’’ kids, the Yankees, who were knocked out in five games by the Tigers, he offered this glimpse into the near future.

“I am extremely proud how our young kids stepped up, and I have a feeling there are going to be more kids that step up, and we need that influx of youth because we have players who have some age,’’ he says. “They are not going to be there forever, so somebody has to step up.’’

It’s all about watching the kids grow, on and off the field.