James Gandolfini. Anthony Neste/Getty Images
James Gandolfini was memorialized by his former forged members in The Sopranos documentary as they revisited the HBO show’s success in a two-part documentary titled Smart Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos.
Released via HBO on Saturday, September 7, the film shows director Alex Gibney sitting face-to-face with the show’s creator, David Chase, on a set that appears awfully just like Dr. Jennifer Melfi’s (Lorraine Bracco) office. The pair discussed how the show, which premiered in 1999 and aired for six seasons until the controversial series finale in 2007, became a cultural phenomenon.
Amid scenes from the series and Chase’s anecdotes, those involved with The Sopranos spoke about their fearless leader, Gandolfini, who played mob boss Tony Soprano. The actor died from a heart attack in June 2013, six years after The Sopranos ended. Gandolfini was featured within the documentary through archived interview footage.
“He was very different than Tony Soprano, he was very laid back,” Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) said of the late star. “He wore Birkenstocks and liked Green Day and AC/DC. What’s funny is that loads of fans take a look at Tony Soprano as form of a job model — which may be very scary in loads of ways. He probably felt that: people pondering he’s Tony Soprano and he’s not.”
While the forged and crew had fond memories of working with whom Chase, 79, known as a “really complicated” but “good guy,” they recalled the low points of Gandolfini’s profession as well.
During its six-season run, The Sopranos transformed television as we understand it, earning its title as certainly one of the best shows of all time. The HBO crime drama began in January 1999 with Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) reluctantly walking into the office of his recent psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), after having a panic attack. […]
“You would possibly say, and I’m unsure about this, possibly there was more Tony there than he desired to admit. That it was too easy for him,” Chase speculated. “People say, ‘The show got darker.’ Well, he got darker.”
Keep scrolling to read The Sopranos forged and crew’s quotes about Gandolfini within the Smart Guy documentary:
Creating Tony Soprano
Chase said it was “pretty obvious” right off the bat that Gandolfini “was Tony” through and thru — despite some drama with the actor’s audition.
“He left in the midst of the primary audition,” Chase recalled. “But we thought he was great, so our casting directors got him to come back to my house and he read the scene. It was like, you recognize … bang.”
After they began filming the show, Chase knew that Gandolfini “understood the character.” He added, “Jim had his own way of becoming Tony Soprano.”
Although he played such a sophisticated character, Chase praised the late star for making everybody laugh on set. Former chairman and CEO of HBO Chris Albrecht even stated that Gandolfini was “magic.”
Perfecting Tony’s Dynamic With Dr. Melfi
“He would just, you recognize, f—k around. He would throw kisses at me and take his clothes off,” Bracco recalled. “I mean, he was only a lunatic.”
She was in a position to get back at him on set, nevertheless.
“Jim had never been in therapy,” the actress recalled. In order that was form of fun to steer him, push him, manipulate him in a way.”
Chase said that Gandolfini and Bracco “rehearsed for 3 days” before shooting the primary scene of Tony in therapy. “For him it was like, ‘What’s your attitude in a psychiatrist’s office?’ There was loads of things he wasn’t used to,” he added.
What Edie Falco Said
“It was at all times great from the start to the very end,” Falco gushed of her onscreen husband. “It at all times felt like fidgeting with him.”
It was “easy and carefree” to turn out to be Tony and Carmela Soprano.
“He was incredibly invested in making that character believable,” she said elsewhere within the film. “Unless you’re really diligent, you possibly can find yourself taking your work home. As an actor that’s not at all times an ideal idea. So, yeah, I believe it could have taken a toll on him.”
The Story Behind the $30,000
Gandolfini famously received a large pay raise from HBO, doubling his salary ahead of The Sopranos season 4. After the contracts were signed, he shared the wealth together with his costars.
“When Jim got the deal, none of us even knew it was on the table,” Drea de Matteo (Adriana La Cerva) recalled. “We didn’t know to barter. I believe he felt terrible about that. So, he called us all into his trailer one after the other and gave everybody a check for $30,000.”
Falco seemed to be joking when discussing the cash aspect, telling the documentary filmmakers she doesn’t “know anything about” the $30,000. “He was a really good-hearted, kind man. Looking for his friends.”
As for why the “generous” Gandolfini gave the cash? Chase had an idea about that.
“I believe he felt HBO had f—ked them. And he desired to do something to make up for it, to assist,” the creator explained. “I also think that there was possibly a shred of regret for the times he didn’t show up for work.”
Inside Gandolfini’s Struggles
As his fame continued to rise, Gandolfini suffered — quietly at first but then things began to turn out to be public. (Gandolfini struggled with substance abuse as his fame continued to rise.)
Costar Steven Van Zandt (Silvio Dante) said Gandolfini threatened to “quit the show every other day.” While the star would at all times return to set “a couple of times, he disappeared for a couple of days,” Van Zandt recalled. “It just got to him.”
Albrecht said that Gandolfini made a take care of the network to “dock him $100,000 a day for on daily basis he didn’t show up.” While the show’s star skipping work cost money, it also created “the concern about what’s happening to him.” Eventually, the forged and crew tried to have an “intervention” with the actor.
“He walked in, he saw everybody sitting there, and he went, ‘Oh f—k this.’ And he walked out,” Albrecht recalled, noting that Gandolfini said, “Fire me.”
While they were aware of his hardships, some costars defended Gandolfini. Imperioli, for one, said the extent of fame was “somewhat strange” for the late actor. “That eradication of privacy, he was really within the highlight wherever he went. He didn’t mix into the gang,” he added.
De Matteo said the entire forged “partied” together while they were filming. “We had an ideal f—king time,” she said. “Perhaps there have been some mornings where it just was somewhat harder to get away from bed for all of us. It wasn’t just Jim.”
Chase, nevertheless, just thinks that “Jim didn’t know or expect” what it will be like to steer a series of this caliber.
“He felt that he needed to go to places, he said, that were destructive to him. And painful for him,” the creator added.
His Response to the Finale
The Sopranos famously has a controversial ending scene — and Gandolfini thought so too.
“Jim said, ‘That’s it?’ … He couldn’t imagine it,” Bracco recalled, noting they watched the last episode together. “I believe he was in shock, like everybody else.”
Smart Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is accessible now on HBO and Max.
