Lorraine Bracco was originally approached for another role in The Sopranos and another lead actress wanted the role of Dr. Melfi for herself.
It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Dr. Jennifer Melfi other than the brilliant Lorraine Bracco. Creator David Chase initially sought Bracco for the lead role, something she easily fit into with her Italian-American descent and her accent. Interestingly, she had played the wife of a mob boss in Goodfellas and didn’t want to play the same role again in The Sopranos.
The female lead, Carmela Soprano, went to Edie Falco who was phenomenal in the role. However, she later admitted that if it were up to her she would’ve cast herself in the role of Dr. Melfi. While it is easy to see Falco’s reasoning for such a casting decision, the switched roles wouldn’t have worked for me.
The Sopranos star Edie Falco would’ve cast herself as Dr. Jennifer Melfi over Lorraine Bracco
Lorraine Bracco won her sole Oscar nomination for her role as mob wife Karen Hill in Goodfellas. However, she didn’t want to take on another similar role and get stereotyped into the role. When The Sopranos team approached her with the role of Carmela Soprano, it was an immediate no from her.
However, there was another role in the series that interested her. She wanted to play the psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi, who had an interesting dynamic with James Gandolfini‘s Tony Soprano. It wasn’t an easy role for Bracco, but she insisted on playing the doctor instead of Carmela. The mob wife role eventually went to Edie Falco and fans never had a complaint.
However, Falco wasn’t entirely convinced when she was asked to audition for Carmela. During an interview with Vanity Fair in 2012, she shared that Carmela was an easy role but she didn’t think that she fit the role. Falco shared:
I immediately knew how she felt about things, the way she wanted to look. But an Italian-American Mob wife? I’m not the first person I would think of. I would have cast me as Dr. Melfi, but, luckily, I was not in charge.
I am glad that Falco wasn’t in charge of that decision. As much as Bracco made it look so easy in Dr. Melfi’s shoes, it was a much more challenging role than Carmela’s. While Falco is a great actress, Bracco was ready for such a challenge at that point in her career. A session between the psychiatrist and her Mafia boss patient was enough to give an adrenaline rush to the viewers.
How did Lorraine Bracco tackle the challenging role in The Sopranos?
Lorraine Bracco received four Primetime Emmy nominations for her role. She also received three Golden Globe nominations. Bracco described the role of Dr. Melfi in The Sopranos as one of the most difficult roles in her career. She shared that her real-life personality was the complete opposite of Dr. Melfi’s.
