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James Gandolfini
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Michael Cera’s Viral Tony Soprano Impression Came Late in ‘The Adults’ Development
Steven Van Zandt landed his first acting role in 1999 when David Chase cast him as Silvio Dante in the acclaimed HBO drama The Sopranos. Though he was already an esteemed guitarist and musician by the time he made his acting debut, Van Zandt credited his co-star, the late James Gandolfini, with teaching him the ropes during that first season.
“I say this all the time, you do a scene with James Gandolfini, you walk away a better actor,” Van Zandt told 60 Minutes correspondent Jon Wertheim. “He’s just so good.”
He added, “I miss him every day.”
Van Zandt’s character was the right-hand man to Gandolfini’s iconic mafia boss, Tony Soprano. But it wasn’t always supposed to be that way.
He told 60 Minutes that Chase decided to make his character Tony’s second-in-command because they had “bonded” so much behind the scenes during that first season.
“Slowly I become the underboss and the consigliere, and by that point, now I know what I’m doing because I’ve been doing this my whole life with Bruce [Springsteen],” Van Zandt said, referring to his longtime bandmate.
He expressed that it took him some time to become comfortable with acting but, soon enough, he and Gandolfini were “character actors.”
He recalled, “[Gandolfini] would pull me in front of the mirror, he would say, ‘Look at this face, look at this face, do you believe they cast me to be the lead in this thing?'”
They starred together on the hit HBO series for eight years. The show received over 100 Primetime Emmy nominations throughout its run, nabbing 21 wins across multiple categories, along with several guild awards.
After the show ended, Gandolfini pursued a career in film, starring in projects such as Killing Them Softly and Zero Dark Thirty, before his untimely passing in 2013.
His son, Michael Gandolfini, later played a young version of his iconic character in the HBO prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
The Sopranos is now streaming in full on Max.
