Family time THE SOPRANOS
stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa reflect on five of the show’s most iconic characters
IT’S BEEN 14 years since we last saw the Soprano family (not to be confused with the Soprano ‘family’) on screen, enjoying a Journey power anthem. Yet they’re more of a force in pop culture than ever. Even aside from the arrival of prequel movie The Many Saints Of Newark, The Sopranos has been in the midst of a major revival, with Gen-z-ers discovering the show and memes flying in every direction. Cast members Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa have not only got a podcast, Talking Sopranos, but a new book out about the making of the show — so we asked for their takes on some of the show’s beloved characters.
Michael Imperioli: It’s one of those moments where a really great actor meets a really great role. You have this incredibly compelling character who does some very awful, evil things, yet is engaged in struggles that people relate to.
Steve Schirripa: This guy could be a plumber, you know? He wasn’t some Godfather-type guy. His family didn’t give a shit that he was a Mob boss. The audience is like, “Fuck, his wife is breaking his balls and the kids are breaking his balls.” That was the main thing.
Imperioli: Jim didn’t talk like Tony at all. That accent and even the pitch of his voice, that was not him. He was much more laidback. Kind of a hippie-ish, Birkenstock-wearing guy. Liked music, liked hanging with friends.
Schirripa: The last movie he did, with Julia Louis-dreyfus [Enough Said], that was the closest I’ve seen Jim on film to his real personality.
Imperioli: One night he and I had an easy scene — we just had to take this body and dump it off. So we had a few drinks. They ended up chaining us to a tree so we wouldn’t fall off the cliff. We usually didn’t get drunk on the set. That’s one of the rare times we did.
Imperioli: Steve, you always say she’s the most conflicted character on the show. Schirripa: Absolutely. She’s a phoney. Very materialistic. She uses the church as a cure-all, yet she wants that money, that house, that jewellery. She wants to be the Godmother, basically. I don’t know if I like Carmela. I don’t think I do. Imperioli: That’s because Edie is so effective at playing it. It’s a brilliant performance. There’s a scene in the hospital when Tony’s in the coma, and you just see that affection. There’s hardly any words exchanged, but seeing that really touches me.
Imperioli: He’s the most tragic character in the show. Because he tried really hard to do a lot of things. In the Mob, in the movies, in his relationship, in his sobriety. And he just was doomed.
Schirripa: There are so many incredible Christopher moments. When he kills JT. When he’s down in the basement telling Tony that Adriana became a rat. Even his death scene, just the way you stare at Tony. In my head, the show is Tony, Carmela, Christopher.
Imperioli: Could he have made it in Hollywood? I don’t know. He had a lot of issues. But listen, there’s some dopes making movies out there. Believe me, I’ve met tons of them.
Schirripa: That’s for sure.
Schirripa: I never got told one thing by the writers or David Chase. Not one thing ever. But the writing was so good that I just created this guy from what was on the page. He was basically a nursemaid for Uncle Junior. But then he marries [Tony’s] sister and suddenly he’s sitting to the right of the boss at Sunday dinner. Maybe Bobby wasn’t as dumb as he seemed. Imperioli: I have a soft spot for the episode where Bobby’s wife dies, because I got to write that. They were tough scenes and you knocked it out of the park, Steve. It was a collaboration between the two of us, even though we weren’t together in the scene.
Imperioli: Christopher aspired to other things. Tony liked being around rich people. Paulie Walnuts — those guys, that’s all he had. No wife. No kids. He barely had a girlfriend. He liked being a captain and that was his world, period.
Schirripa: Tony has some quirks. He’s a very dear friend of ours, and a little bit of a germaphobe. He would carry Binaca and cologne in his pocket, so if you were doing a scene he would go, “Open your mouth,” and spray the Binaca in, whether you wanted it or not. He would say, “Blow the stink off.”
Imperioli: His cologne was Obsession For Men.
Schirripa: He would put it on his hand and slap you in the face with it, affectionately. And you would smell like Tony Sirico all day.
Imperioli: Without a doubt. WOKE UP THIS MORNING: THE DEFINITIVE ORAL HISTORY OF THE SOPRANOS, BY MICHAEL IMPERIOLI AND STEVE SCHIRRIPA, IS OUT NOW IN HARDBACK, EBOOK, AND AUDIOBOOK FORMATS