Drea de Matteo: she was wired, wigged-out, and finally whacked by "the family" on the HBO superhit The Sopranos. Now the feistiest actress on television is beginning her second life on the season's most heavily scrunitized sitcom

Drea de Matteo's used to getting roles that are to die for--literally. But despite the fact that her breakthrough character, the beloved Adriana on The Sopranos, was putatively rubbed out at the conclusion of the show's last season, de Matteo's career is anything but dead. She's drawing huge raves for her role as Gina Tribbiani, the snappy single-mom hairdresser sister to Matt LeBlanc's titular character on Joey, the mega-hyped spin-off of Friends. Meanwhile, on the big screen, she holds her own alongside big guns like Laurence Fishburne and Ethan Hawke in the upcoming big-budget thrillfest Assault on Precinct 13. Whether in a sitcom or an action flick, de Matteo enlivens every role she plays thanks to her greatest attribute: gritty soul--the down and dirtier, the better.

MATT DIEHL: So, Drea, where are you?

DREA DE MATTEO: I'm at a gas station in Oklahoma City. I'm with my boyfriend and my crazy Italian parents. We're driving cross-country in a giant RV because I have to start working on Joey. We stopped at a motel in Arkansas last night and got panhandled so badly by some crazy white-trash lady with two teeth. She had a story that was 40 minutes long, but basically she just wanted money. We gave her some and then got nervous she was going to follow us, so we just decided to get the hell out of Arkansas.

MD: One thing that impressed me about how you play Gina, your character on Joey, is that you play her real, not over-the-top.

DDM: That's the best compliment I could have gotten, ever. With a character like Gina, who has such a heavy New York accent, it could easily turn into a caricature, but I've always worked against that. The Sopranos is dramatic, but when I was playing Adriana, she was funny in terms of her accent, in the way she handled herself, and her wardrobe and all that. I play Gina the same way.

MD: It's hilarious how Gina had to become a hairdresser after being outed by the local news as "the Southland's most dangerous dental technician."

DDM: I took that as being really, really sad. This poor girl is not really a hairdresser; she's just hanging on, and it happens to be funny, just like Adriana. She's got the balls of an ox. What's great about the Joey writers--and it's many of the same writers from Friends--is that they try to keep it as human as possible, not just one joke after another. I like real problems, the human condition--twisted, darker stuff. People loved Adriana and people love Joey, so who else should be together on a show, really? Adriana, in my mind, was a lot like Joey: vulnerable, open, and clueless.

MD: Are you ever afraid of being typecast?

DDM: Goddamn! I love playing roles like that! If it's got accents and costumes and all that, I'm there. To play some straight-up girl, some Midwestern character with no point of view whose only goal is to get her guy back by the end of the movie--that would bore the shit out of me.

MD: You use music to prepare for scenes.

DDM: I do. I had so much crying to do for The Sopranos, and certain songs that remind me of certain people or times in my life really helped. One that makes me cry is "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" by the Velvet Underground, and "Loving Cup" by the Rolling Stones, and anything by Neil Young. This year, one of the songs that got me to cry every time is called "Please Carry Me Home." You're gonna laugh, but it's off the Passion of the Christ soundtrack.

MD: [laughs] Who sings it?

DDM: Well, my boyfriend, Shooter [Jennings, son of the late Waylon Jennings], and his mother [singer Jessi Colter]. It's one of the most amazing songs. It doesn't relate necessarily to religion, in my mind.

MD: How did you meet Shooter?

DDM: Shooter was introduced to me by a friend-nothing exciting. [Shooter complains in the background. To Shooter] You are exciting, but how you and I met wasn't that exciting. Meeting you was the best thing ever, little angel face.

MD: You've said you don't like acting that much.

DDM: I'm tired of the industry, tired of playing the whole game--the dressing up, the red carpet. I hate talking about myself.

MD: So what would you rather do?

DDM: I'm a workaholic, and I have a lot of projects. We have a company where we find new writers and develop their scripts [Great Dane Productions]. I have Filthmart, a clothing company and store I do with my ex-boyfriend. I like to make everything my friends are involved in a little better. I should have just become a manager. [both laugh]

MD: How would you dress if you were a manager?

DDM: I would wear suits every day to work, with skintight pencil skirts down to the knee--kind of like how Kim Basinger dressed in 9 1/2 Weeks [1986], but with a tie.

MD: So, sort of Annie Hall meets 9 1/2 Weeks?

DDM: Maybe one day I'll be that woman.

Matt Diehl is a contributing music editor for Interview.

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