Latest news with #DavidChase
Wall Street Journal
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Gandolfini' Review: The Man Behind the Mob Boss
Starting out, James Gandolfini was willing to consider all sorts of theatrical roles, but he did not want to play a mafioso. Having grown up in an Italian-American family in blue-collar New Jersey, he was loath to disappoint his parents. 'He felt like his mom and dad had both worked too hard making sure their kids got a good education to end up playing, you know, somebody that was not representing Italians very well,' Jason Bailey quotes an old friend saying of the actor in 'Gandolfini,' a snappy and tactful biography subtitled 'Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend.' Fate, of course, had other plans. Imposing and magnetic, Gandolfini (1961-2013) was offered tough-guy roles as soon as he started looking for work. He was an actor on the rise when he came to the attention of David Chase, the creator of 'The Sopranos,' who was casting for a lead for his new television series. Mr. Chase, who had visualized Robert De Niro playing the violent, conflicted, charismatic Tony Soprano, wasn't immediately sold on Gandolfini. He liked a couple of other candidates, and he worried that that the actor, who already had a reputation, would be 'a pain in the ass on set.' But no other contender quite matched the darkness and sense of realness that Gandolfini brought to the role. Gandolfini's combination of twinkling charm and dead-eyed menace helped make 'The Sopranos' a hit. The show ran on HBO for six seasons, over the course of 86 episodes spread out over 8½ years starting in 1999. It is widely regarded as having inaugurated a new golden age of cinematic television, making possible a torrent of TV series with gritty performances, top-drawer writing and high production values, including 'The Wire,' 'Breaking Bad' and 'Mad Men.' 'The Sopranos' had an ensemble cast, but like the fictional family and crime syndicate the show depicted, it needed Gandolfini as both anchor and prime mover. In the role of Tony Soprano, a mobster having a midlife crisis, Gandolfini could toggle between geniality and aggression with terrifying speed. Prone to gaining weight that was good for throwing around on screen, he was, according to an early colleague, 'a sweetheart of a guy—but you could tell that there's a sharp edge on the other end of that thing, too.'
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sopranos star reveals James Gandolfini's savage two-word response to that infamous ending
It's been nearly 18 years since HBO 's The Sopranos ended with one of the most controversial series finales of all time, with star Lorraine Bracco revealing how her co-star James Gandolfini really thought of the ending. The series was a massive hit for HBO, following Gandolfini's Tony Soprano and his New Jersey mafia family, running six seasons spanning 86 episodes. Bracco, 70, played Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi, throughout the show's run, where it amassed 21 Emmys and is credited for starting the Second Golden Age of Television. For as popular and beloved as the series was, the finale, written and directed by series creator David Chase, is still among the most controversial of all time. The final scene takes place at Holsten's diner in New Jersey, where Tony is in a booth with his family, his eyes darting to the door every time the bell rings when someone enters. Bracco was promoting her new Netflix film Nonnas, when Fallon asked her to clear up a rumor that she didn't love The Sopranos ending, revealing her co-star Gandolfini's stunned two-word response: 'That's it?" It's been nearly 18 years since HBO 's The Sopranos ended with one of the most controversial series finales of all time, with star Lorraine Bracco revealing how her co-star James Gandolfini really thought of the ending. The final scene shows Tony waiting at Holsten's, ultimately joined one-by-one by his wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and son A.J. (Robert Iler) as Journey's Don't Stop Believin' is playing at the table's jukebox, while he keeps eyeing the door every time it opens and the bell rings. They're waiting for his daughter Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), who is running towards the diner, the bell rings one last time as he looks up, and the show ends abruptly with a final cut to black that the show's legions of fans did not see coming. While the ending didn't sit well with many of the show's fans, it apparently also didn't sit well with Gandolfini himself, according to Bracco. 'I'll tell you the truth, I was sitting next to Jimmy Gandolfini. And he just went like this,' as she stands up to mimic the actor, quoting him stating, 'That's it? That's it?' She added, 'And you know how he always used to push his hair back, and he just walked out. He was like, "That's it?" He couldn't believe it. I said, "Yeah, I guess that's it.' Bracco didn't seem to be a fan of it herself, though she admitted, 'You know, the only thing I can say is people are still talking about it. So, I guess David did do something interesting.' Holsten's is a real diner Bloomfield, New Jersey, which auctioned off the same booth The Sopranos sat in for over $82K last year. Creator David Chase has never confirmed whether Tony Soprano lived or died after the infamous cut to black, though he did open up in 2021 about how surprised he was about the uproar over the final shot. 'I had no idea it would cause that much — I mean, I forget what was going on in Iraq or someplace; London had been bombed! Nobody was talking about that; they were talking about The Sopranos,' he told THR. 'It was kind of incredible to me. But I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar. And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me,' he added. 'They wanted to know that Tony was killed. They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? And I just thought, 'God, you watched this guy for seven years and I know he's a criminal. But don't tell me you don't love him in some way, don't tell me you're not on his side in some way,' he said. '"And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You're a criminal after watching this s**t for seven years.' That bothered me, yeah,' he admitted.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sopranos Joe Pantoliano is 'so uncomfortable' in the US and wants to 'run for the hills'
Joe Pantoliano is "so uncomfortable" with the United States right now. The 73-year-old actor - who is best known for starring in crime drama 'The Sopranos' - was meant to be promoting the reality show 'Tucci in Italy' but admitted that he is struggling to think about work at the minute and just wants to "run for the hills" amid the current political climate. He told PageSix: "I'm so uncomfortable with the nature of what's happening in our country, and I just want to run for the hills. "It's hard for me to think about people's bulls*** like making a TV show. The world is on fire. It's hard for me to concentrate!" Joe recently had a trip to Portugal with his wife Nancy Sheppard and while they "really love it" there, they were there amid the major power blackout that also affected Spain, and he believes that it was all just a "rehearsal" for what is to come in his home country. He said: "We just got back. We really love it there. They just got hit with a cyber attack and I think that's just a rehearsal for what will happen here." The 'Bad Boys' star has also got into the habit of keeping cash at home in case any sort of outage would prevent him from having access to his personal funds. He said: "I keep a lot of cash at home, not a lot but enough to get me going for a couple of weeks, but it's buried and there's no map!" Joe is no fan of President Donald Trump, and previously described him as a "scumbag" who had completely misinterpeted the message of mob-centric series 'The Sopranos'. He told The Independent: "What always upset me was that the majority of the audience didn't get the genius of David Chase, and what David Chase was saying about these monsters. 'Tony Soprano becomes a hero, when he's a broken-down gangster and a murderer. Scumbags like Trump and Roger Stone, all these white-collar criminals, continue to be quoted as using The Godfather and The Sopranos as a blueprint for being douchebags! I mean, how f***** up is that?"
Perth Now
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Sopranos Joe Pantoliano is 'so uncomfortable' in the US and wants to 'run for the hills'
Joe Pantoliano is "so uncomfortable" with the United States right now. The 73-year-old actor - who is best known for starring in crime drama 'The Sopranos' - was meant to be promoting the reality show 'Tucci in Italy' but admitted that he is struggling to think about work at the minute and just wants to "run for the hills" amid the current political climate. He told PageSix: "I'm so uncomfortable with the nature of what's happening in our country, and I just want to run for the hills. "It's hard for me to think about people's bulls*** like making a TV show. The world is on fire. It's hard for me to concentrate!" Joe recently had a trip to Portugal with his wife Nancy Sheppard and while they "really love it" there, they were there amid the major power blackout that also affected Spain, and he believes that it was all just a "rehearsal" for what is to come in his home country. He said: "We just got back. We really love it there. They just got hit with a cyber attack and I think that's just a rehearsal for what will happen here." The 'Bad Boys' star has also got into the habit of keeping cash at home in case any sort of outage would prevent him from having access to his personal funds. He said: "I keep a lot of cash at home, not a lot but enough to get me going for a couple of weeks, but it's buried and there's no map!" Joe is no fan of President Donald Trump, and previously described him as a "scumbag" who had completely misinterpeted the message of mob-centric series 'The Sopranos'. He told The Independent: "What always upset me was that the majority of the audience didn't get the genius of David Chase, and what David Chase was saying about these monsters. 'Tony Soprano becomes a hero, when he's a broken-down gangster and a murderer. Scumbags like Trump and Roger Stone, all these white-collar criminals, continue to be quoted as using The Godfather and The Sopranos as a blueprint for being douchebags! I mean, how f***** up is that?"
