The Sopranos Cast Talks Series Finale & More With Frank the Tank | Episode 9 presented by BODYARMOR
Frank The Tank | Frank Walks
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00:00 I believe in Frank Walks.
00:07 You know, before we go for our walk, I need to discuss
00:16 how do I get these two guys made.
00:19 Frankie, ordinarily they have to kill somebody.
00:23 But...
00:25 Yeah, luckily right now, Omerta's got Welcome to the Family coffee.
00:30 So you can bypass that,
00:32 maybe get these guys drinking the right coffee. You know what I mean?
00:35 Omerta, code of silence.
00:38 Coffee and cigars.
00:40 That's right.
00:41 Where'd you find these two?
00:43 I don't know, I just stumbled upon them.
00:44 I don't say nothing about you, but these guys, and the sunglasses are good too.
00:48 Yeah, you gotta tighten them up. I feel like you're right arm.
00:51 This guy's got aviators, this guy's got orange sunglasses.
00:55 I'm ready to run New York.
00:59 Good for you.
01:00 Start with New Jersey first. Don't get too big.
01:04 Start with Staten Island.
01:05 Start with Belleville, you know what I mean? Start with Belleville.
01:08 So when are we gonna go for this walk?
01:10 Well, let's get ready to go.
01:11 Alright. Let's go.
01:14 (upbeat music)
01:16 Alright.
01:35 I want to thank Restaurant Depot in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey,
01:40 down here, down South Jersey, New York City,
01:43 you know, for helping us with the walk here.
01:45 I got three actors that were into sopranos.
01:49 Jason Serbon, who played Jackie Appiel Jr.,
01:51 Dan Grimaldi, who played Patsy and Phil Parisi,
01:57 and Robert Farnaro, who played Eugene.
02:00 And, well, it almost feels appropriate.
02:04 We're walking in a warehouse,
02:07 and we're talking about sopranos.
02:09 It almost feels like a sopranos-type meeting here.
02:11 It kind of feels that way.
02:12 So welcome aboard to it.
02:13 Frank Walksa.
02:14 It's the 20th anniversary of the Sopranos.
02:18 25th?
02:19 25th this year.
02:20 25 years.
02:21 1999, Sopranos premiered.
02:24 Yep.
02:24 I mean, it's amazing how iconic the show gets.
02:27 It seems like the show gets better every year.
02:29 With every re-watch, it gets better.
02:31 How many times did you watch it, Frank?
02:33 I did a re-watch two years ago.
02:35 Oh, I just re-watched it this year.
02:37 It's a great show.
02:38 It holds up.
02:39 I mean, it's like a good gravy.
02:40 You know, it always tastes better
02:41 the second day, the third day.
02:43 That's the amazing about Sopranos.
02:44 It's such a great show.
02:48 So well-written.
02:50 What are some of your favorite moments on the Sopranos?
02:54 One of my favorite moments was taking a golf,
02:57 the golf state with Jimmy,
02:58 and Jimmy offered to give me, I think, $5,000
03:01 if I would drive the golf cart into the pond.
03:04 And I said no, 'cause if you get hurt,
03:06 it's not gonna be, it's gonna be on me
03:07 and I'm gonna lose my job and that's it.
03:09 But I licked my ass off that day
03:11 because he was serious.
03:12 You know, God bless him.
03:14 Really thankful for him and everything that he did
03:16 for every one of us.
03:17 So that was my favorite, one of my favorite funny moments.
03:21 Yeah, yeah.
03:22 One of my favorites was actually him kicking the shit
03:26 out of me in the strip club bathroom.
03:28 As much as you might think it wouldn't be one
03:31 of my favorites, it was fun to do that physical scene
03:34 and to be, you know, go one-on-one with the big man.
03:36 My favorite moment also was with Jimmy
03:40 and was when Patsy had to pledge allegiance
03:44 to Tony and had to give up the grief.
03:48 That was, that was my, actually my favorite scene
03:51 and my favorite moment.
03:53 And the time where I kept blowing a line
03:56 and he kept laughing at me.
03:57 And I kept telling him, "Stop laughing
04:00 'cause how am I gonna remember my line?"
04:03 I remember, of course, my favorite scene,
04:07 one of my favorite scenes in the whole series
04:09 was involving Patsy there when he had confronted
04:14 Gloria Trillo and it was kind of a day like today
04:17 where it's raining and nasty outside.
04:19 You can see outside the car and he just looks at her and says
04:22 "I'll be the last face you see.
04:25 There won't be any cinematic.
04:28 I'll be the last face you see."
04:28 - Paul said, "Frankie, Danny, would you please do it?
04:30 'Cause this guy's, he's not, he's not."
04:32 - I didn't pass the audition.
04:33 This'll be the last face you see
04:35 and it won't be cinematic.
04:36 - There you go.
04:37 All right, Frankie.
04:38 - Now, of course, as the panel's had the ending,
04:43 the cut, the black, and there's always been theories
04:46 because it was always kind of like left for interpretation.
04:51 It's always been a lot of fan theories how it ended.
04:54 I mean, I think now the consensus is that
04:56 Tony was whack in Halston's at that day.
05:02 And that's now come to consensus.
05:04 And the scene is, one of the people that was there
05:06 was a guy in the members only jacket.
05:08 - Yes.
05:09 - Who went into the bathroom and came out
05:12 and you don't see him come out of the bathroom,
05:14 but he went to the bathroom just before the cuts to black.
05:17 - A lot of people say that, Frank,
05:19 you know, the members only thing.
05:20 And I think that Peter Bogdanovich said it best,
05:24 the director, and he was on the show also with Melfi.
05:27 He said it like, you really, there was an open ending.
05:30 You kind of can interpret it the way you want to do it,
05:33 but Chase was kind of giving you a cross section of America
05:36 in terms of the Boy Scouts and the rappers that were in it,
05:39 the members only guy.
05:40 It never really ends in perpetuity.
05:43 You're always looking behind your back.
05:44 And I mean, do you really want to see Tony get murdered
05:47 in a bloodshed?
05:48 He's so great.
05:49 You know what I mean?
05:50 So, I mean, I think he lives the course of his life
05:51 like Carlo Gambino.
05:52 That's my theory.
05:54 - I've heard this theory and I love this theory.
05:58 Is that Eugene went into a bar
06:02 wearing a Melanin, Rosemary jacket and killed that guy
06:04 when he's trying to get out.
06:06 And Tony won't let him out.
06:08 - Right.
06:08 - And his wife tells him,
06:09 why don't you put a bullet in his head?
06:11 And of course that was your last episode.
06:14 You end up hanging yourself in the episode.
06:16 My theory is, and I've seen this theory
06:19 and I heard the theory and I think it's the greatest theory
06:21 I've ever heard about how the show ended.
06:24 That Eugene's widow either like went to a brother
06:29 or a family member wearing Eugene's members only jacket.
06:33 And had the--
06:35 - You make it up.
06:36 You make it up, baby.
06:38 - And had the, or hired him in.
06:41 And it was Eugene's wife that in the end had Tony whacked.
06:46 - It's a theory.
06:47 - There you go.
06:48 - I think that's like one of the greatest fan theories.
06:50 - Can I come back and flashback of that?
06:52 Just so I can have more work?
06:53 - You think he was killed?
06:54 - Yes.
06:55 - Okay.
06:56 - Yeah, well I think the hints were there.
06:57 One, you never see the one that's coming.
06:59 And the episode there where the shooting happens
07:03 at the club there and Silvio's not killed
07:07 but the guy, he's wet and there's like no sound
07:10 and you just see the bullets going off
07:12 and he realized it and runs out of there.
07:14 And that was like so like different like theories.
07:18 And the discussion he had with,
07:20 um,
07:21 the brother-in-law, Bacala.
07:27 - Uh-huh, yeah.
07:28 - Is he's talking about him, he says,
07:30 you never hear the one that gets you.
07:31 And.
07:33 - That's a good point.
07:34 - They replayed that point like the day that,
07:36 in that final episode or like the next,
07:38 the next last episode.
07:40 They re-show that clip.
07:43 I think that was like, that's why my interpretation
07:47 is Tony was shot in the back of the head.
07:50 Right there and that boofed.
07:52 - Well, you know, it's, as I said.
07:54 - It's open to interpretation.
07:55 - It's open to interpretation.
07:56 Some of the best films are like that.
07:58 They're open to interpretation.
07:59 Everyone wants closure and everything.
08:01 - I like the idea though, that feeling that the audience,
08:04 that we got by like being worried about the fact like,
08:08 is this it?
08:09 Is he gonna get killed?
08:10 Oh my God.
08:11 Like that feeling is the feeling that Tony lived with
08:13 for the rest of his life.
08:15 The fact that like, you never know that angst,
08:17 that like, you know, like having to look over your shoulder
08:20 feeling, to me, I like that idea as the end that,
08:24 you know, but it's a lot of people think.
08:26 - I mean, the philosophy, the philosophy that Chase first
08:31 said, which he's changed along the way,
08:33 is that they go on living and we're not just watching them.
08:36 That's all.
08:37 - Right, right, right.
08:37 - That's a good point.
08:38 I mean.
08:39 - But I kind of like the open ending that you could.
08:41 - Sure.
08:42 - You could make your own ending.
08:43 - Oh, absolutely.
08:43 - If you think of it.
08:45 - I think when it first happened, people really,
08:47 really hated it.
08:48 I think over the years since it's happened and people have
08:52 gotten to see it grow that, hey, you know, it makes sense.
08:55 You can, you can interpret it however you want.
08:57 - Well, you think, I don't call too much art in TV,
09:00 but art is in the, you know, in the,
09:03 in the eye of the beholder and that's what he did.
09:06 He put, he made it art.
09:08 - I mean, I just think it was, it was different.
09:11 It wasn't like, I mean, Breaking Bad,
09:14 we see Walter White gasping for air at the end and that's,
09:19 but it's like different endings.
09:20 It's, it worked.
09:22 I think in the end it worked.
09:23 - Yeah.
09:24 - As I said, I don't think, I mean, maybe people,
09:28 the public want closure and everything and see that
09:30 finality, but in a way it's, it's just better that,
09:34 cause I can't see Tony Soprano being murdered and everything.
09:38 I couldn't see that.
09:39 - I think he goes on and he's smart enough to do that.
09:41 You know what I mean?
09:42 But I mean, as Jason said, you know,
09:44 he's going to always be looking behind his back and La
09:46 Cosa Nostra, whatever you want to call it,
09:48 Omerta, it's going to be around forever.
09:49 It's always, it's always--
09:50 - You said Omerta?
09:51 - Yeah, I said Omerta.
09:52 (laughing)
09:53 Try our coffee and our cigars.
09:55 - But the truth, the truth is that Patsy assassinates him.
09:58 (laughing)
10:01 - Of course, yeah.
10:01 - And takes over.
10:02 - And you guys are now working on this brand, Omerta.
10:05 Tell me a little bit about Omerta.
10:07 - Yeah, so we, we're doing our own line of coffee
10:10 and cigars, flavored coffees, all different kinds of coffee.
10:15 We have five different cigars.
10:19 We'll get you all hooked up, Frank.
10:21 - Oh, that'd be great.
10:22 - Yeah, yeah.
10:23 - It's great.
10:23 - Oh, there's coffee there, coffee.
10:26 Is that coffee?
10:27 (laughing)
10:28 What are you saying?
10:29 (laughing)
10:29 That's fucking science.
10:30 - Of course, they got a nice little,
10:32 one of your murderous cigars.
10:33 - We got some popcorn if you want too.
10:35 - Plenty of knives.
10:36 - Oh yeah, good.
10:37 I know, we probably should have got a cart.
10:39 - To watch your reruns of Sopranos, hello.
10:41 Plenty of popcorn.
10:42 COVID did this for us.
10:44 We all got together in front of the TV set,
10:46 three or four generations, Frank.
10:48 So a couple of generations started to watch Sopranos.
10:51 And your children started to.
10:52 - That's right, that's right.
10:53 - To watch Sopranos, right?
10:54 - My son started watching it now too.
10:56 Yeah, yeah, 15.
10:58 Yeah, totally.
10:59 - He wasn't old enough.
10:59 - Wasn't even born when it was.
11:02 - I tell you, so many people have come up to us.
11:04 I mean, afterward, you know, the,
11:06 I mean, just saying a lot more people have watched it
11:08 and we're just becoming better and better and better, right?
11:11 - We have new generations of fans.
11:13 - I think it's gonna be one of those shows that like,
11:16 there's certain shows that no matter how old it gets,
11:19 it's just timeless.
11:21 Like, I mean, I Love Lucy was on for like 50 years.
11:25 - Similar show, yeah.
11:27 - Yeah, Seinfeld.
11:27 (laughing)
11:28 But Seinfeld, I think the shows that are really the best
11:33 are the ones that have the greatest staying power.
11:36 - Yeah.
11:36 - And the greatest impact.
11:37 Like, you can watch it 25 years later
11:40 and it still feels fresh.
11:42 It still feels great.
11:43 - No, I mean, people still say,
11:46 I mean, after all these years that it's, you know,
11:49 number one on a lot of people's,
11:50 I mean, Donald Glover was just in an interview,
11:53 he goes, Sopranos is the best show.
11:55 People try to say something else,
11:56 but it's still the number one show of all time.
11:58 I mean, 25 years later for people to say that.
12:00 - The writing was just so good of it.
12:02 It was great.
12:03 - David Chase wasn't afraid to hire unknown actors,
12:06 actors that weren't so, like, Hollywood actors.
12:09 That's what made him a great director
12:11 and great creator, producer.
12:13 He was unafraid to hire people that really weren't known
12:18 'cause he wanted originality
12:20 as opposed to, you know, just what Hollywood gave us.
12:22 And that's what made the show great, I think.
12:23 - You do have like some familiar faces on here.
12:26 - Just some, yes, but not a lot, not all of them.
12:29 - I mean, Lorraine Bracco, I mean, of course,
12:31 you do Goodfellas. - Yeah, she was known.
12:32 - Yes, okay. - Goodfellas and--
12:33 - Yeah, when it started, she was the biggest, for sure.
12:35 You know what I mean?
12:36 Like the person you knew, yeah, yeah.
12:37 - She was the biggest name.
12:38 And Stevie Van Zandt.
12:39 - Right, well, Stevie never was an actor.
12:41 - No, but he was the biggest name.
12:43 - Yeah, that's true.
12:44 - He was a rock star.
12:45 - Yes, yeah.
12:47 But everyone else really wasn't really in the limelight.
12:50 So, I mean, it takes a lot of guts
12:53 to do something like that, to take that kind of chance.
12:55 - Jimmy and Edie were known in the business,
12:57 but they weren't known as they became known.
13:01 And Mike Imperioli and so many really good actors.
13:06 - You know, as time goes on, of course,
13:11 some great actors passed on along.
13:15 Of course, James Gandolfini is no longer with us.
13:20 Tony Sirico, well, Paulie Walnut too.
13:22 By the way, I think for all of the people on there,
13:26 I think Paulie Walnut might have been the best character.
13:29 Just like all his eccentricities, his superstition.
13:34 - Oh, he's hilarious.
13:37 - I mean, he was just, there's always something weird.
13:41 It was just like crazy with him.
13:43 - Well, Tony really lived the life, so I mean.
13:45 - Yeah, that's the crazy thing about it.
13:49 - So he was really a great actor and I loved his work.
13:53 You know, I really loved him.
13:54 Miss him too, great guy.
13:55 - Yeah.
13:56 - Now, what were some of your guys experience?
14:00 Yeah, get that again.
14:01 What were some of your guys experience prior to "The Sopranos"?
14:04 - Well, Frank, you had mentioned something I worked on.
14:11 - Yeah, I know Jason here was a child actor
14:16 and was in the music video, Susan Vegas, "My Name Is Luca,"
14:20 which was an award-winning music video.
14:22 But for some reason, when I was in middle school,
14:25 you know how stupid middle school kids are.
14:28 - Yeah.
14:28 - Just thought that was the funniest video ever.
14:30 - You think it was bad for you?
14:31 I was in middle school too at the time
14:34 and was in the video, so yeah.
14:35 - Well, I think we all did
14:38 all the New York episodic TV shows.
14:41 - Yeah, I saw.
14:42 - I started a film called "Don't Go In The House" in 1980.
14:45 - Yeah, that was a big film.
14:47 - Yeah, stage actor and I did a lot of stage,
14:49 still doing stage.
14:50 - I like it.
14:51 - I started a new play in April, so.
14:52 - I was taking a look at the IMDB.
14:54 It's like every one of you, "Law & Order,"
14:55 "Law & Order," "Law & Order."
14:56 - That's right.
14:57 - That's a New York staple.
14:59 - All the New York shows.
15:00 - "Sopranos" was my first professional acting TV job
15:03 or film, I call it film 'cause it was shot like film.
15:06 But I had done a lot of theater before that
15:08 and I did theater, I did a play with James Gandolfini
15:11 called "Streetcar Named Desire"
15:12 and that's how we met and became friends.
15:14 And later on, he helped me out
15:15 and got me an audition for this show
15:17 and that's how I got on "Sopranos."
15:19 And thank God, God bless James.
15:20 - I'm gonna plug my next play.
15:21 - Okay, what's that play?
15:22 - "Intar," I-N-T-A-R, "Intar Theater"
15:26 in New York City, Off-Broadway.
15:26 - 42nd Street.
15:28 - "The Feminine Hours."
15:29 It opens May 10th and closes June 12th, I think.
15:33 So go to Intar and buy tickets.
15:36 - And I'm gonna plug "Homemade" by Robert Finaro.
15:38 Try my Big Ziti, the first episode.
15:41 (laughing)
15:43 'Cause that's all I'm doing right now.
15:46 (laughing)
15:48 What do you got there?
15:49 - Oh yeah, I just picked up the cannolis.
15:50 - Oh, nice.
15:51 - I got some innies.
15:52 - All right, Frank.
15:53 - Well, it's good that you left it.
15:54 We already left it, guys, so we took the cannolis.
15:57 - Yeah.
15:58 - The bag of shows.
15:59 - Omerita actually makes a, take the cannoli coffee,
16:02 so flavored coffee.
16:02 - Oh, that sounds like a good one.
16:04 - Yeah, you gotta try that one.
16:05 This would go great with this.
16:07 We gotta find the cannoli cream.
16:09 That's probably in the refrigerated section.
16:12 - Thanks for the walk, Frank.
16:14 We enjoyed it.
16:15 Yes, Frankie, thank you.
16:16 - It's great.
16:17 - Thank you, Frank.
16:18 - Do you guys do any charity work
16:20 that you wanna talk about?
16:22 - Charity?
16:24 - Yeah, like any like causes that you wanna talk about.
16:26 - I work for community mayors in Brooklyn,
16:31 and I do several golf tournaments
16:34 for a lot of pro football players,
16:38 and constantly doing charity work.
16:41 - I donate to St. Jude's,
16:42 and I think it's a great cause.
16:43 - Oh, St. Jude's, I've done.
16:44 - Yeah, yeah, and Make-A-Wish.
16:46 - There's no one better.
16:47 I don't think there's a better charity
16:49 than St. Jude's, to tell you the truth.
16:51 And what I love about St. Jude's is,
16:54 40 years ago, leukemia was like,
16:57 like one of the worst cancers you could get.
17:01 It was like, survival rate was like,
17:03 less than 5%.
17:06 Now, 40 years later, and I think a lot of it
17:08 had to do with the work done by St. Jude's,
17:10 because it was the most common childhood cancer.
17:13 It's like, the survival is like,
17:15 much higher.
17:17 It's like one of the most survivable cancers now,
17:20 and a lot of it's to do with what they've done
17:22 with St. Jude's.
17:23 - Right, and they share all their research.
17:25 Yeah, no, that's a great cause, absolutely.
17:27 - Nobody pays, and it's wonderful.
17:29 - Yes, yes.
17:30 - Started by Danny Thomas.
17:31 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:32 - Danny Thomas.
17:33 - Marlo Thomas.
17:34 - And then she took over, yeah.
17:35 - Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
17:37 - Great, great cause.
17:38 - No, yeah, I give St. Jude's, Make-A-Wish, yeah.
17:43 - Yeah.
17:44 - But, yeah, well, thank you.
17:46 - Thank you, Frank.
17:47 - It's great, you know, Sopranos will go on forever,
17:50 and I want to thank you for joining me
17:52 on a nice little walk here.
17:53 Of course, the weather didn't cooperate,
17:55 but had to take Restaurant Depot.
17:58 - Yeah.
17:59 - And of course, it's always good to have the body armor.
18:01 They empower my walks, so.
18:05 - It's always good to have Chico and Sons water, too.
18:09 (laughing)
18:10 - Thank you, Frank.
18:11 - Yeah, Chico and Sons,
18:12 tell me a little bit about Chico and Sons.
18:14 - They got a sandwich for every Soprano,
18:16 and mine's the Eugene, and--
18:18 - What is the Eugene?
18:19 - Eugene is roast pork, pickled onions with a,
18:23 like a pesto, and mozzarella, and let me tell you,
18:28 and a special sauce that,
18:30 Carl won't give me the recipe for the special sauce.
18:33 I tried to bribe him with a few thousand,
18:36 and it didn't work, so, you know, he won't give it to me.
18:38 - We had a breakfast sandwich this morning
18:40 of eggs on bread with mushrooms,
18:45 and peppers, which was out of this world.
18:48 Best breakfast sandwich I've ever had.
18:49 - So if you're down in the area of Northfield, New Jersey,
18:52 come down to Chico and Sons,
18:53 and I wanna thank you again for coming on,
18:57 and thank you for all your fun.
18:58 - Thank you, Frank.
18:59 - And of course, Sopranos, legends.
19:01 - Thank you again.
19:03 You know, after our walk with Jason, Robert, and Dan,
19:13 we were told that there's a Italian convention,
19:16 Paisancom, in Fairfield, New Jersey.
19:19 Hey, that's only 25 minutes from where I live,
19:21 so you know I had to go.
19:23 So I got a chance to walk with Federico Castellucci,
19:26 who played Furio on The Sopranos,
19:29 and you know, let's watch that walk,
19:31 and enjoy it as we walk around Fairfield,
19:34 and get more insight into what it's like
19:37 to be an actor on The Sopranos.
19:39 Thanks to Body Armor, and this delicious,
19:43 zero sugar fruit punch.
19:45 How do we pronounce the last name?
19:47 - Castelluccio.
19:48 - Castelluccio.
19:49 - Yeah, you don't have to say E-O at the end, Castelluccio.
19:52 - Castelluccio.
19:53 I'm joined by Federico Castelluccio.
19:57 - Very good.
19:57 (laughing)
19:59 He got it, he got it.
20:01 - And, well, he played Furio on The Sopranos, of course.
20:05 This is our second Sopranos walk,
20:08 and you know, iconic TV show,
20:12 you have one of the iconic characters on there.
20:13 You were the soldier who came over from Naples.
20:16 - That's right, yeah.
20:17 - And you fell hard for Carmela.
20:21 Carmela was always--
20:22 - Well, maybe she fell hard for me, too.
20:23 (laughing)
20:24 - Well, Carmela loved flirting.
20:26 She was--
20:27 - Exactly.
20:28 - She was, she was like the,
20:32 she knew she was playing a dangerous game,
20:33 and she liked it.
20:35 Like, the first season, it was always with the priest.
20:39 - That's right, yeah.
20:40 - And she knew she was playing a dangerous game.
20:42 She, my favorite thing is the contractor.
20:46 - Oh, yes, that's right.
20:47 - Yeah, that's--
20:48 - What was his name?
20:49 He was a well-known actor back in the--
20:50 - Joe Perry.
20:51 - '80s and--
20:52 - Joe Perry, yeah, he was a--
20:53 - No, not Joe Perry.
20:54 It was Joe something else.
20:56 Joe Perry's the guitarist from Aerosmith.
21:00 - I don't know who Joe Perry was.
21:01 He was in Jake and the Fat Man in Riptide.
21:04 I remember those TV shows he was on.
21:05 - Okay, I think it's another name anyway.
21:08 (laughing)
21:10 But I always liked that he wanted to,
21:15 he like, as soon as the DeFroni came,
21:17 but he went running like--
21:18 - Yeah, yeah, yep.
21:19 - He, yeah, he got out of there,
21:21 but he didn't want anything part of that.
21:24 - That's right, that's right.
21:25 - He was smart.
21:26 He was probably one of the smartest people on that show.
21:28 - It's probably not the greatest thing
21:30 to get involved with the boss's wife.
21:31 (laughing)
21:32 - No, it wasn't.
21:33 - You know, that in fact, when I first saw the script,
21:37 actually even before that,
21:38 I remember being at an HBO party
21:41 and right before the fourth season,
21:43 from the corner of my eye,
21:46 I see Edie Falco come in with one of our producers,
21:49 Eileen Landris, and she gets my attention,
21:53 says, Federico, this next season, it's me and you.
21:56 (laughing)
21:57 I'm like, wow, that's awesome, man,
21:59 'cause you know, I think she's an incredible actor.
22:01 And then when I thought about it, I'm like,
22:03 oh my God, wait a minute, me and you?
22:05 That's the boss's wife.
22:07 (laughing)
22:07 That's not such a great idea.
22:09 In any event, I loved the moments we had together.
22:15 I loved the connection that Edie and I had in those scenes.
22:19 In fact, there was one time that we had to reshoot
22:26 one of those scenes where I was,
22:28 you know, Furio was building the thing,
22:30 the garage for his mother to come in, right?
22:33 And so there was a dog barking, relentlessly,
22:37 that whole, throughout our whole scene.
22:39 We had to rebuild that scene on the set.
22:41 A lot of people don't know this.
22:43 The moments inside, those were all reshot on the set
22:47 at Silvercup Studios.
22:49 So when we finished doing that scene,
22:53 the connection was so strong that
22:55 I had never experienced this before.
22:56 There was an applause at the end of our scene.
22:59 And that was the first time I had never heard
23:02 an applause ever on the set.
23:04 And the connection was so strong that we,
23:07 you know, the people felt it in the room.
23:09 And so if they felt it in the room,
23:11 then I'm sure we did our job, you know?
23:14 - I believe that house is in Belleville, actually,
23:16 wasn't it?
23:17 - Yeah, it was supposed to be Nutley,
23:18 but we shot in Belleville.
23:20 - Well, it's ironic because Uncle Junior's house
23:23 was supposed to be in Belleville, it's in Newark.
23:24 - Yeah, right.
23:25 (laughing)
23:28 Oh man, so what was your favorite episode?
23:32 I could tell you mine right away.
23:34 It was the Pine Barrens.
23:35 - Oh, it is phenomenal.
23:37 That was one of the funniest episodes
23:39 I can remember watching, man.
23:41 Tony Sirico's lines, classic.
23:45 He always had the most classic lines on the show.
23:49 Paulie Walnuts.
23:51 - Oh, Paulie Walnuts was my favorite character
23:54 on the show overall.
23:54 - Right?
23:55 He was phenomenal, man.
23:56 - He was just like, so crazy.
23:59 - He's standing next to me and he says
24:01 Paulie Walnuts is his favorite character.
24:03 I'm just kidding.
24:04 (laughing)
24:05 - Well, my favorite Furio scene is like when,
24:09 there's so many great Furio scenes
24:12 and one of my favorite ones is when you get shot
24:15 at the card game, you had to go.
24:16 (laughing)
24:18 And you had to go to like, what was it?
24:25 - Can I tell you a very interesting thing?
24:27 Mark Kamine, who was the locations manager at the time,
24:31 he's now a big producer, man.
24:32 I don't know, you see his name all over the place.
24:34 Such a great guy.
24:36 What he winds up doing is he finds out,
24:39 'cause he knew I was from Patterson
24:41 and they wanted to shoot the scene in Patterson.
24:43 So he finds out where I grew up,
24:45 which was 21st Avenue in Patterson.
24:47 And he goes to a social club that my father
24:50 used to play cards at all the time.
24:52 And they make a deal to, so when I got the call sheet,
24:56 I'm like, 21st Avenue, Patterson?
24:58 He said, that's where we're shooting at?
25:00 You should have saw all the people,
25:01 the friends and family that came to watch.
25:04 It was great, it was great.
25:05 So I wound up shooting that right on the street
25:08 I grew up on in Patterson.
25:10 - Oh, that's, I like how they do that.
25:12 - Yeah.
25:14 - The best thing about the Sopranos
25:15 is how North Jersey it is.
25:17 - Yes, that's right.
25:18 - Everyone can recognize everything.
25:19 If you grew up in North Jersey,
25:21 you recognize something from it.
25:22 I have lived either on or near
25:26 the Bluefield Avenue my whole life.
25:30 - Yeah?
25:31 - I've never been more than two miles away
25:33 from Bluefield Avenue.
25:34 - Wow, oh man.
25:34 - My whole life.
25:36 And it's like, that avenue just means my whole life.
25:41 I lived a few blocks off of here for 10 years
25:46 and I moved a little further in,
25:48 into Bluefield a little bit later.
25:51 Then I moved into Belleville.
25:54 And now I'm back over close to Bluefield Avenue again.
25:58 It's like, it's always been there.
26:00 - You know?
26:01 (laughing)
26:02 Yeah, you could take the man out of New Jersey,
26:05 but you can't take New Jersey out of the man, right?
26:07 - I mean, my grandmother grew up on 10th Street.
26:10 She lived on 10th Street, North 10th Street,
26:13 in North, just like a half block in from Bluefield Avenue.
26:16 So it's always been there, Bluefield Avenue.
26:19 And they've always talked about Bluefield Avenue
26:21 on the Sopranos.
26:22 - That's true, that's true.
26:23 - I mean--
26:24 - That was David Chase, he grew up in that area.
26:26 - I went to Bluefield Middle School
26:29 and that's a couple blocks away from Holstens.
26:33 - Oh, that's right, that's right.
26:34 So they're renovating Holstens, I heard.
26:36 - Yeah, they got rid of the booth.
26:37 - Oh, what a shame, man.
26:38 - They got rid of the booth.
26:39 - Yeah, they sold it for like 80 something thousand, right?
26:41 In an auction.
26:42 - Ah, I think they made a mistake.
26:45 - So listen, man, I wanna know how much weight you lost.
26:47 - Well, I started, my heaviest was 2016.
26:51 I was over 500.
26:53 - Oh my God.
26:54 - And I got down a little bit.
26:56 I got down under 400.
26:58 And then the pandemic put me back over like 425, 430.
27:02 And I started losing weight again.
27:04 And then I was 380 in August.
27:09 - 380, wow.
27:11 - And now I'm 333.
27:13 - That's great.
27:14 - This is the 199th consecutive walk.
27:16 It's been great.
27:18 - Congratulations, man.
27:19 - No, thanks.
27:19 - I remember when we first met,
27:20 I think you were somewhere in the 400s or four something.
27:23 - Yeah, probably near 400 at that time.
27:25 - Of course, we both like the same pizza place.
27:28 - Yeah, exactly.
27:30 - Calabria's.
27:31 - Yeah, Calabria, it's phenomenal pizza.
27:34 - Gabby is fantastic, her family's fantastic.
27:38 They make great thin crust pizza.
27:41 Dave gave an 8.9.
27:43 - Oh, fantastic.
27:44 That's great.
27:45 - It's like one of the, it's,
27:48 and I love thin crust pizza.
27:49 - Me too.
27:50 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:51 - Yes, and a long, long time ago,
27:55 my great grandparents actually are from Naples.
27:59 - Oh, really?
28:00 - Yes.
28:01 - Your great grandparents?
28:02 - Yes.
28:03 - So your parents were born here?
28:04 - My parents were born here.
28:05 My father's half Italian, half Irish.
28:08 - Okay.
28:08 - My grandmother was the baby of the family
28:11 and she was born in America.
28:12 - Okay.
28:13 - And, but her parents are from Naples.
28:16 - Ah, that's great.
28:17 That's where I was born.
28:17 - Yeah.
28:18 - I'm from Barez, which is on the Adriatic side,
28:22 but I was actually born in Naples.
28:23 My father was born in La Provincia di Salerno,
28:27 near Salerno, in the province of Salerno,
28:29 called Torre Orsaia.
28:31 And it's a beautiful mountaintop town.
28:35 You know, I missed that place.
28:37 I have to get back there someday.
28:39 But, you know, my father lived, you know, in Naples
28:43 and that's where I was born with my brother Marco.
28:46 My other sister and my other brother, Antonio,
28:49 Ines and Antonio, they were born in Bari.
28:51 - Yeah.
28:53 So, and I always like the part where you talk about Columbus
28:57 on the episode here.
28:59 Columbus, he looked down upon the South,
29:03 he was from the North.
29:04 He's like, this guy's no good.
29:08 You were not a fan of Columbus on the show.
29:10 - Oh man.
29:12 Well, you know, I don't know if you guys can,
29:16 if I can mention a charity at all or.
29:18 - Yeah, that's what we do.
29:19 - Oh, really?
29:20 Oh, that's great, man.
29:20 - Yeah, that's what we do.
29:21 - That's awesome.
29:22 You know, in the past four or five years,
29:25 I've been doing the Christmas ball in New York City
29:29 for the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club.
29:32 And, you know, I offer up myself
29:35 to go to dinner with people.
29:37 - Oh, that's nice.
29:38 - And so the first year we raised,
29:41 in a matter of five minutes, $24,000.
29:44 Two tables at 12,000 each.
29:46 The highest was 36,000.
29:50 And every year we're just raising a lot of money
29:54 to help these underprivileged children in New York City.
29:59 - That's good.
30:00 And New York City, it seems like too often
30:03 people just forget about people.
30:04 - Yeah, yeah.
30:05 - I mean, the politicians are probably more corrupt
30:10 than the mobsters these days.
30:11 With the way they--
30:12 - Yeah, no, no, absolutely.
30:13 - They skim off everything.
30:14 - Yeah, you're right, you're right.
30:16 - I mean, it's, I mean, you can't trust anyone.
30:21 Everyone is out for themselves.
30:22 It's, but it's good to have great charities
30:26 and people who actually care and do things for people.
30:29 - Yes, that's true.
30:30 - I went to an event in Connecticut, Friends of Feeny.
30:33 They do a lot of good work and I'm trying,
30:36 that's one of the things I'm actually going to try
30:37 to start doing is with my walks,
30:40 - Yes.
30:41 - Going on the occasional charity walk here and there.
30:44 I did an ALS walk back in November.
30:48 - That's great.
30:49 But we've, over the years, The Sopranos has,
30:52 we've helped the March of Dimes.
30:54 We are, St. Jude, we've helped out St. Jude.
30:59 - Oh, St. Jude, that is one of my favorite charities too.
31:03 We would date with St. Jude.
31:03 - Over the years, that was one of the greatest things
31:06 about being put in this position,
31:11 whatever little celebrity we have is to give back
31:15 to people and to help people.
31:18 And that was a nice thing about becoming well known like this.
31:23 - I mean, of course, James Gandolfini,
31:27 you would share a lot of screen time with him.
31:30 - Yeah.
31:30 - I mean, what was he like to work with?
31:32 - Gandolfini?
31:33 - Yes.
31:34 - Oh, he was a gem, gem of a person.
31:37 Really, really loved the guy.
31:40 He, speaking of helping people, he was so generous.
31:45 He was like generous, not only with his time,
31:48 but as a person, but also as an actor.
31:53 A lot of actors, what they would do is they would,
31:56 if you have somebody that's a well-known actor,
32:01 when they turn around, when they turn the camera around,
32:04 they have somebody else reading,
32:06 but Jim would always be there for us.
32:09 He would always be behind the camera and, you know.
32:14 - Every generation, every new generation discovers it.
32:18 - Yes.
32:19 - That's what's going to keep the show fresh.
32:21 - That's very true.
32:22 Right now, we have a whole contingency of young fans
32:25 that I never knew.
32:27 They're like, they weren't even born when the show was on.
32:30 - Now they're like 18 and they're discovering it.
32:34 - Yeah, yeah, so it's great.
32:35 - And that's going to keep that show timeless.
32:36 - And that's one of the things that I love most
32:38 about doing events like this is that we get a chance
32:41 to meet our fans and they're very dedicated fans as well.
32:46 - And that's great.
32:47 Well, thank you for joining.
32:48 - What a pleasure, man.
32:49 All right, keep going, my friend.
32:51 Keep going.
32:52 (laughing)
32:53 (upbeat music)
32:55 (upbeat music)