The mobster and the shrink - interview with actors James Gandolfini and Lorraine Bracco - Interview

The domestically troubled mobster in HBO's The Sopranos does what no screen don ain't never done before - he voluntarily goes to see a therapist, and a female one at that. Here the stars of the series, James Gandolfini and Lorraine Bracco, talk about its slant on the Mafia mythos and Italian-Americanism

In HBO's hit series The Sopranos, James Gandolfini plays Tony Soprano, a New Jersey Mob boss torn between two families: one that used to be called La Cosa Nostra; and another - the one at home - that could simply be called dysfunctional. Having concluded that he's in the midst of a midlife crisis, Tony does what we've seen no screen mobster do before - he goes into therapy. His doctor, Jennifer Melfi, is played by Lorraine Bracco, best known for her role as Mafia wife Karen Hill in Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas (1990).

Created by David Chase (who also brought I'll Fly Away to network TV in 1991), The Sopranos is being hailed by critics for the originality of its concept and the strength of its writing and acting. For Bracco, it signals a return to the public eye after several years' absence, during which she focused on smaller projects and exec-produced a documentary (It Ain't Love, 1997) on dating violence, with her husband, Edward James Olmos. For Gandolfini, one of the movies' most respected character actors, the initial success of The Sopranos spells breakthrough, but one tinged with discomfort. Gandolfini has long avoided the limelight, but it seems to have sought him out. Whether it remains a glow or turns to a glare depends on whether The Sopranos (airing through April 4) lives up to its early promise. Here, Bracco and Gandolfini tell us what the show means to them.

LORRAINE BRACCO: I have friends who are already nutty about the show. Have you gotten phone calls from people you haven't talked to in a long time?

JAMES GANDOLFINI: Some, yeah.

LB: They were like, "I love this!" It's so wild.

JG: It's struck a chord for some reason. I thought it would be a little too weird, but people dig it.

LB: It's that infatuation with the Mafia.

JG: No, I think it's smart writing. I think, if anything, Sopranos resembles a Mob movie like Donnie Brasco [1997] 'cause it shows the family life.

LB: One thing I read about The Sopranos is that it's like a continuation of GoodFellas. And, in a way, that's true. The whole thing about GoodFellas was that in showing Karen and the kids and all that, it was much more than the stereotypical mama-in-the-kitchen kind of Mafia film. Part of The Sopranos, too, is that it shows the -

JG: Humanization.

LB: - humanization. Thank you so much. And also, as an Italian-American woman - which I'm very proud to be - I like that in The Sopranos you come from one side of the block, I come from the other. You know, who's to say what goes on in everybody's household? I could have personally, myself, Lorraine Bracco, very easily married into the Mob in Long Island and all of that. And, in a way I have. [laughs]

JG: You ain't lying. [laughs] Probably more so than others.

LB: I'll tell you one thing: I could never have played Tony's wife. It would have depressed me. I think Edie [Falco] does such a great job in that part. I am so impressed with her talent. She doesn't even know how good she is. I sobbed when I saw her talking to the priest in the college episode. It was so good, so true and so real and pure and honest, that it hurt. I wanted to stand up in my bed and scream, "Bravo!"

JG: I told David, "We have a thoroughbred here. You better give her a lot to do."

LB: You know who else I think is brilliant? Nancy [Marchand, who plays Livia Soprano, Tony's widowed mother].

JG: Yeah, she just lets me have it.

LB: Well, what's so incredible for a Mob show is you're totally surrounded by strong women. None of us are wusses, that's for sure. Even Meadow [Tony's teenage daughter, played by Jamie Lynn Sigler].

JG: Oh, I know. Tony just sits there and is completely abused by women. It's very much like my life. [laughs] Yeah, the women are very strong. They're almost like . . . you know, like Lady Macbeth. They get into more trouble than the men in a lot of ways.

LB: Do you think the show will hurt Italian-Americans?

JG: No.

LB: Do you think that now we've totally deglamorized the Mafia and made it so human it will never be the same again in the movies?

JG: No.

LB: I wonder what John Gotti thinks of the show.

JG: I'm not sure they get HBO in -

LB: - in Marion, Illinois? [laughs] Don't you like that I even know where John Gotti Is?

JG: You should give him a call. You know, I had no interest in doing the dapper don kind of deal in The Sopranos. I know that's a part of the Mafia thing and I think a lot of those gentlemen are like that but human frailty and confusion are what interest me. The more sensitive the character and the more he's in touch with things, the more confusion there is. People who just bludgeon everything as they go along, that's easy to do.

LB: But that's the complexity of the whole character, Jimmy: Tony comes from that sensitive, trying-to-find-out, lovely part of you, but he also has that other side.