HBO’s new documentary, Wise Guy, is out now. In it, David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, talks about the making of the show that changed television history. Wise Guy is a fascinating look at how Chase came up with the idea, as well as a look into the writers’ room where many of the show’s classic episodes were created. The Sopranos is one of the greatest series of all time, with great writing, thrilling twists, and some memorable characters, but none of it would have mattered without James Gandolfini, the actor tasked with playing The Sopranos’ lead character, a broken and angry man. Playing such a character earned James Gandolfini a couple of Emmys, but it also took a heavy toll on him physically and mentally. James Gandolfini was just 38 when he was cast as Tony Soprano on The Sopranos in 1999. Twenty-five years ago, you might have been familiar with Gandolfini from his supporting roles in major feature films like True Romance, Crimson Tide, and Get Shorty, but he wasn’t a leading man or a household name. In Wise Guy, David Chase talks about the number of actors he auditioned for the role of Tony. They all seemed to approach it the same way, but Gandolfini was different. He may have been a scary mafia boss, but you could see the human being behind the character. After all, if we’re supposed to sympathize with this man still stuck as a boy, if we’re supposed to understand why someone so powerful would have panic attacks and see a therapist, then Tony Soprano has to be more than a caricature. Tony Soprano may be a sympathetic character, but he’s still a bad guy. In the fifth episode of The Sopranos, “College,” we see Tony kill for the first time when he strangles a former gangster now in Witness Protection named Febby Petrulio (Tony Ray Rossi). It’s a brutal murder, with Tony wrapping a rope around Febby’s neck and strangling him to death. In Wise Guy, they talk about how Tony got so into the scene that he actually cut his hand with the rope. Sadly, Gandolfini had more to endure. Tony was often angry, and Gandolfini had to sit through that feeling while filming the show. To prepare himself, he would punch things before filming, and many times he would purposely not get much sleep the night before, so that he would actually be angry and not just pretend when his scene came around. That might work on a show, but it’s very different when you’re playing the same character for six seasons.
In Wise Guy, the documentary delves into the pressure James Gandolfini endured. The show may have had a big cast, but he was the star. The success (or failure) of The Sopranos was on him. Old interviews in Wise Guy show Gandolfini talking about working long hours, sometimes staying on set until 1 or 2 in the morning, only to come back a few hours later. That pressure drove him to drink.
Steven Van Zandt tells Wise Guy how he and James would go to bars and get drunk, and almost every time, Gandolfini would tell him he couldn’t take it anymore and he was going to quit. Van Zandt would have to convince him, reminding him that everyone would lose their jobs if he did that. Gandolfini couldn’t be replaced with a new character. Tony Soprano is The Sopranos. While Van Zandt may have prevented Gandolfini from quitting, he also points to the main source of pressure the star felt. Everyone depended on him, and he couldn’t let them down.
Tony Soprano is a villain, but we love him because of the way James Gandolfini portrayed him. We may be disappointed by that final fade-to-black scene, but what could be better than seeing Gandolfini on camera? Unfortunately, in 2013, Gandolfini died of a heart attack at the age of 51, just six years after the final season of The Sopranos. Wise Guy shows footage of his funeral, with the church packed. During David Chase’s eulogy, the showrunner barely manages to get through it, breaking down in tears as he delivers his speech. That feeling comes not from what James Gandolfini, the actor, did for his career, but from what James Gandolfini, the friend, did for his life. If an artist has to suffer for his art, then that couldn’t be more true for James Gandolfini. Tony Soprano endured more than we can imagine, but in the end he gave us one of the most iconic roles in television history. Tony Soprano is certainly one of television’s most complex and memorable characters. Although Gandolfini is gone, his legacy as Tony will live on forever in The Sopranos.
