Like father, like son

When the creator of The Sopranos began working on a movie prequel, there was only one person he had in mind to play a younger version of Tony Soprano (inset): the late James Gandolfini’s son Michael (above, with co-star Alessandro Nivola).

“Mostly because he looks like his father and moves a little bit like him. He is his father’s son,” David Chase told Rolling Stone magazine of casting the late actor’s progeny in The Many Saints of Newark, which is out now.

But not only that, he’s inherited his award-winning father’s talent too. “Well, it felt miraculous,” added David of witnessing Michael play the younger version of Tony. “I remember looking across the room at the table read.

He was sitting there like this [re-creates adult Tony’s suspicious posture] and it wasn’t his scene. He was doing this thing and I thought, ‘Holy s**t. That’s incredible.’”