Silvio Dante actor revealed how The Sopranos creator David Chase wrote an entirely new role for him after a failed audition.
The Sopranos followed the story of mob boss Tony Soprano, played by the brilliant James Gandolfini. The series revolved around Tony trying to find a balance between his mob family and his real family. As a result, Gandolfini’s performance began integral to the series and it might surprise some fans that he was nearly replaced by another actor who was later cast in a different role.
During an interview, Silvio Dante actor Steven Van Zandt revealed he had originally auditioned for the role of Tony Soprano in the series. However, he was offered a different role but creator David Chase opted to create an entirely new character for Van Zandt after the actor felt bad for one understandable reason. Here is what Steven Van Zandt said about his The Sopranos casting.
The Sopranos creator David Chase wrote a new character for Steven Van Zandt
In the 1990s, Steven Van Zandt was primarily known as a musician as a part of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, where he played guitar and mandolin. However, The Sopranos creator David Chase was impressed with Van Zandt’s humorous appearances Rock N Roll Hall of Fame appearance (via Deadline).
As a result, the musician was invited to audition for the lead role of Tony Soprano. However, Van Zandt admitted the network was uncomfortable with casting someone with little to no acting experience. During an interview with Vanity Fair, Van Zandt opened up about Chase’s reaction to his audition.
So David goes, ‘Sorry—any other part you want, you can have it.’ I said, ‘You know what, now that I think about it, I feel kind of bad taking another actor’s part here.’
Van Zandt made the above statement, highlighting his background as a guitar player, which made him feel bad for accepting any other part.
However, Chase was presumably so impressed with Van Zandt’s style of comedy that he ended up writing an entirely new character for him to play. The character became Silvio Dante, the right-hand man to Tony Soprano, who proved extremely popular with fans and remains revered to this day.
The Sopranos star Steven Van Zandt recalled his audition for Tony Soprano
In the same interview, Van Zandt also talked about his audition for the role of Tony Soprano, which eventually went to the legendary James Gandolfini. The musician-turned-actor described the experience as funny since he only went to HBO to audition as a formality since Chase had personally invited him to rest for the lead role.
Now, I don’t know if he was there because HBO had decided they were not going to cast me because I’d never acted before—which is what they ended up telling David—or whether Jimmy was there for another part. I never asked him.
Van Zandt made the above comment, recalling Gandolfini as he went to audition for the role of Tony Soprano.
Meanwhile, Gandolfini revealed that after his initial audition did not go well he was asked to come back and test for the role once again. The late actor implied his second audition was when Van Zandt likely ran into him. However, Gandolfini aced the audition and the rest is history.
