The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini and his co-star got drunk and out of control during a scene that caused the crew to fear for their lives.
James Gandolfini’s The Sopranos was an influential television series that marked the beginning of the Second Golden Age of television. After Gandolfini’s Soprano family patriarch, one other character whom fans loved the most was Michael Imperioli’s Christopher Moltisanti. The two actors struck a friendship on the set of the show and the duo’s bond proved a little challenging for the makers of the series.
Imperioli revealed that during the filming of one scene, they were both so out of control that the crew feared for the actors’ safety on the set. Despite their little nuisances, both Gandolfini and Imperioli proved to be exceptional performers and garnered a huge fanbase for their respective roles.
James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli caused the crew of The Sopranos to fear for their safety
Fifteen years after The Sopranos wrapped up, Michael Imperioli opened up about his experience filming the series alongside James Gandolfini in an interview with The Guardian in 2021. At the time, the show had a resurgence in its popularity among viewers and Imperioli had written the book, Woke Up This Morning, about the series with co-star Steve Schirripa.
Imperioli recalled filming the first day on set alongside Gandolfini when he rammed the car with him and Gandolfini into a tree. Imperioli revealed that he didn’t know how to drive and feared that he would be fired for that incident. However, he shared that his co-star “found the whole episode a hoot”.
Imperioli and Gandolfini struck a close friendship. They often had dinner together in Little Italy and they would even hit the bar, the Ciel Rouge in Chelsea, to have a drink together. He shared, “If we wrapped at four in the morning we could always go and open the bar – I had the keys.”
However, the drinking once proved a nuisance for the crew of the series. It was during the filming of the scene where they disposed of Ralph Cifaretto’s body. Tony had strangled and killed him in the previous episode after Ralph seemingly killed his horse Pie O My. They had to throw the body off a cliff, but the scene took some time to set up. Imperioli shared:
We had to throw his body off a cliff and it was out in the woods. It took a long time to set up so we went back into the trailer and started drinking – and drank a lot.
The two actors got so drunk that the crew feared that they would fall off the cliff while filming the scene. In order to avoid any danger, the crew decided to chain both actors to a tree in the scene. Imperioli shared:
So they chained us to trees and covered the chains with leaves – that way we could go to the edge of the cliff and throw the body off.
They continued their friendship way beyond the series and until the day Gandolfini passed away. Gandolfini died at the age of 51 in 2013. Imperioli shared that he had joined him for a movie premiere just weeks before his passing. He called the day he received the news of his passing “one of the worst days of my life.”
Michael Imperioli wasn’t entirely convinced to play Christopher Moltisanti
Michael Imperioli’s first notable role was a minor role of a bartender getting killed by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. When David Chase approached him with the script of The Sopranos, he wasn’t excited about it. He knew nothing about Chase and he didn’t know what to think of his script. He thought, “Is this a comedy? Is this a spoof? What is this?”
Imperioli believed that he had blown the audition for the role as Chase didn’t seem impressed with his performance. However, he was not too bothered about it, sharing, “It wasn’t like I was auditioning for Scorsese.” Chase still offered him the job and he took on the role after some serious deliberations.
