Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos

- Got a picture? - Sopranos fever

here probably reached a peak last July

when 14,000 wiseguy wannabes

answered the show's open casting call

in decidedly unglamorous Harrison, New Jersey.

Crowd estimates ranging from ten to 25,000.

This was after the first season.

The line was all the way out to the freeway.

And, uh, it was ridiculous.

- Keep it moving, folks. - Ladies, step forward.

Apparently, the word got around.

Just bring your eight-by-ten photo to Jersey.

There are policemen, firemen, teachers here.

Who wouldn't want fame and fortune?

I'll tell you one thing here.

I am right for this part on The Sopranos.

You can't get more Italian than this.

They don't make 'em like that.

My friend and I, we got all dressed up

and, like, uh,

there were 482,000 people ahead of us.

I don't know if we got much of a chance now.

Leave the area!

You are subject to arrest

if you don't leave the area.

The Harrison police,

concerned about public safety,

closed down the audition.

It's over, it's over, it's over.

So most of this mob had to be content

with just dropping their picture in the bin

and taking their chances.

We found Ginny Sack in that group.

She had gone later to the same high school I went to.

She was a beautician, never acted.

What the hell is this?

I was dizzy. I was having low blood sugar.

What happened to the fruit salad, then?

You were supposed to quit smoking and didn't.

Nicotine's an addictive substance!

What's wrong with you? Why are you yelling at me?

You never doubted her for a second.

I know I've gained weight these last few years.

I see the other wives, the way men look at them.

- - Don't I look at you like that?

Haven't I always?

I love you.

As time went on,

I began to realize that the audience

did break down into two different types.

There was one part that were looking for a serial drama,

and then there was the group

that was called

"Less yakking, more whacking."

- -

- -

In the show, it wasn't an easy tone, in the sense that

it alternated light and dark,

and so you had to be prepared for either one to happen

anywhere around the corner.

Well, I mean, I guess something

that's really important to me

is the darkness mixed with humor.

And when I think about that, I think about myself

as a kid going to my first funerals,

seeing my grandfather dead in the coffin

and hearing some lunatic conversation,

some stupid thing that one of my aunts was saying.

You think to yourself, "What are you talking about?

There's your father lying there in a casket."

As a writer, that made an impression on me.

Look at her like that. Mariolina.

Gave me my first hand job, me and Vincent Maniscalco

in the alley behind the chicken market.

- Junior. - God.

What am I saying at this poor woman's wake?

- Let's go. -

You know, I would say this about The Sopranos

is that I really don't know

whether it was a drama or a comedy.

For example, Tony Sirico.

He was a serious gangster actor,

but the comedy just started to come forward.

Oh, motherfucker!

This absurdity, which was partly him.

Please!

Fuckin' poison ivy all over.

I was born in Brooklyn.

I grew up on the streets. I still got cement in my shoes.

So, you know, I'm well aware of the life.

And I know a lot of guys involved in this life.

I can feel it itching me already!

He didn't wear makeup 'cause he would go to tanning booths.

Like that, you know, he's got that reflector thing

getting tanned? Like that was really Tony.

Tony always had a tan.

I think my character acts like me, personally.

But, uh, don't-don't tell nobody.

You realize by the time Caitlin's out of college,

it'll be like the year 2027 or something?

She takes after you, she won't be out of fourth grade by then.

- Oh! What are you doing? - Nothing.

Oh!

And cut! Very nice. Check it.

Tony Sirico was very fastidious

and very, you know, particular about how he looked.

No one could touch his hair.

There were no hair people allowed to touch his hair.

He told me the whole system.

He would get up at three in the morning,

and he would read his lines,

he would comb his hair, spray the spray in the air,

and then the mist would settle,

and then he'd do it a few times

till it was shellacked and ready to go.

- The fuck you doing? -

You think we're digging a hole?

So we're doing "Pine Barrens" episode.

That's right, shithead, get to work.

I know the ground's kind of hard,

but give it some of that Siberian action.

Paulie and Christopher were going to kill a guy,

they took him into the woods, the guy escaped,

and then they got lost in the woods.

Wait a minute.

We walked in a circle.

How's that fucking possible?

One of the aspects of the episode

is when you first see Paulie...

Let's go with the satin finish.

...he's perfectly coiffed and he's getting a manicure.

- Excuse me. - The whole idea is that

he completely devolves

to the worst version of himself by the end.

Fucking cunt!

I lost my shoe.

He's a complete mess.

So I said to Tony Sirico, "That's the reality

of what would happen to your hair."

He goes, "I'm not messing up my hair."

"Tony, come on. The whole point of this

is that, you know, you're... Paulie's all fucked up."

So he said, "All right."

And so he just like... I said, "Come on. Tony."

And he went, "All right, you fuck."

And he messed his hair up like crazy.

I said, "Get this on film before he changes his mind."

And that's the only time you've ever seen Tony Sirico

with his hair like that.

Got mayonnaise on your chin.

What?

Mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise!

[Vivaldi's "Sposa son disprezzata" playing]

As the show got more complicated,

Denise and I, we bought a house in France,

and we would go there to work

trying to come up with the next season.

She was always gardening, so I'd go out there

and sit there while she was clipping and stuff,

and I'd tell her these stories.

Her influence, it was extraordinary.

["Sposa son disprezzata" continues]

It was always 13 episodes.

So I'd make 13 lines.

Then I'd start making lines like that

that would say, "Tony."

What does Tony do in episode one?

What does Tony do in episode two?

What happens... And that was containing a plot.

Then I started adding Carmela.

What's Carmela doing?

She had her own season. Chris.

They all had their own seasons. Some had two or three.

Tony would have two or three lines

of what happened to him in that season.

Then I would get back,

I would lay it all out for the writers

so they knew what the direction of the season was.

Then we'd sit down and say,

"All right, episode one.

I know what it says up here,

but what's this really going to be about?"

It was actually building a drama.

They're meeting in a basement, after all.

We'd sit around bullshitting like you and I are doing.

- Right. - All day long.

We'd talk about it and-and bullshit, bullshit, bullshit,

which a lot of good stuff comes out of that.

It was literally sitting with your friends

and, "What'd you do last night?"

And that would digress into a story,

or one time this happened to me or that or...

And sometimes it was prompted by David saying things like,

"What's the worst thing you've ever done

to somebody in a relationship?"

Really, Tony, just tell me.

How come I can't see you again?

‘Cause you fuck Ralph.

You got morals all of a sudden?