Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperioli Remember James Gandolfini

It's a great thing to do, to go back and review it, just to kind of give the people that are fans this sense of, you know, what it was like for you guys and what it's like to see it again. And just to put it into context in history, that's the show that started off these kind of shows. When you think about the shows that you have today, like the Ozarks and all these different, like, really kind of wild shows where you have to follow one episode to the next. And you have to know what just happened to pay attention to the new episode. The Sopranos started that shit. Yeah. And it was also the first show where there was a real anti-hero. Anti-hero. Yeah, absolutely. And it was also bringing a cinematic quality to television that people would traditionally go to the movies for. And even a novelistic quality to television. Well, in a sense, better. Because you could do it over the course of many hours. You weren't limited by an hour and a half, two-hour time frame. You could do it over the course of multiple hours. And he wasn't, you know, listen, he was an overweight, balding guy. He wasn't your typical leading man like it. But he was sexy. Chicks liked him. They loved him. I told you. We used to say, TV doesn't put 50... He used to say all the time, you know, they used to say, TV puts 10 pounds on you. I say it takes 50 pounds off you. Well, there was something about his character. I mean, first of all, he was a phenomenal actor. Like, always, always was. I mean, he was fucking insane in everything he did. True romance. I mean, you just go back through his whole history of his career. But that show, doing Tony Soprano, just fucking synced. Whatever it was, his look... Yeah, one of those moments when the actor and the role really come together. Yeah. The great actor and the great role really come together. Because they don't always. They don't always. He was fucking perfect for that role. And you know, you see him, like, there's scenes. And now I look at it kind of differently, obviously, than back then, you know. Back then, I was just trying not to get fucking killed, you know. But now you're watching it. And in one scene, right, there's some incredible scenes where he's happy, mad, furious, in one three-minute scene. He goes through four different emotions. He's amazing. You know, like anything, you start to see what you have. Like, what are these actors bringing? You know, what are they playing to their strengths? And what kind of qualities they're bringing to it. You know, just like there's that one scene in the pilot where, at the end, towards the end of the pilot, my character tells Tony Soprano, oh, I could go to Hollywood and sell my story or something. And in the script, it was kind of, he was like fatherly, like, you don't want to do that and sell out. You got to stay with us and build a family or whatever. And instead, Jim just grabs me, you know, by the throat or something like that. And it became very menacing and very intimidating. And he really, you know, and I think David saw that and was like, oh, wow, that's the guy. That's the character. And it probably influenced how he took the story and how he would write it. But I think a lot of the tone was already in his head. But seeing what the actors were bringing to it, I think, you know, influenced a lot. Gandolfini was so fucking believable. I mean, you know, when you think about a guy who just embodied a role, like when he was Tony Soprano and he's not and he wasn't like that. That's the other thing. He was more like a hippie. You know, he was very laid back. You know, he wore like Birkenstocks and like a bandana on his head. Big music guy. He didn't really talk like that. He was. I wiped my ass with your face. Hey, big music guy, you know, he was. He never wanted to do a talk show. You know, Joe, I would say, why don't you? Everyone thinks you're Tony Soprano. Why don't you pick, whether it be Letterman or whatever and show them the real Jim. You're a very intelligent guy. I mean, he's not that guy at all. Matter of fact, he would say to me like before the season, let's go down and have dinner at Il Cortil, which I ran into you there one time. Let's go down to Moray Street. I want to start getting back into the swing of things because he wasn't. He didn't hang around with those guys. He wasn't that guy at all. But he didn't. He never did a talk show. He did 60 Minutes. He wouldn't do any of the talk shows. He said, I'm not interesting. And he didn't grow up around that. No. He went to Rutgers University. He was an actor, theater guy. I tell you what's funny. I wrote a kid's book called Nicky Deuce and it turned it into a movie and Michael's in it and Paulie Walnuts and Johnny Sack. And I was in Jim's trailer and he had just did the movie with Brad Pitt, a mob movie. And he said Harvey Weinstein called. He wants me to do Letterman. I said, I don't do talk shows. And he kept calling and he says he got fucking nasty with Jim. And Jim said, I will beat the fuck out of Harvey Weinstein. He fucking calls me again. I will beat the fuck out of him for the money he paid me. I'm not fucking doing it. Swear to God. And this is all before the Harvey Weinstein shit when he was still the king shit. This is 2012, you know.