All in the FAMILY

Vanities / Opening Act

MICHAEL GANDOLFINI On loss, confidence, and playing his father's famous character

Few parts have reached the same heights in television's pantheon as James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano. The Sopranos was appointment TV at the dawn of cable, and 13 years after the series ended, The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel film, will land on HBO Max this fall, with Michael Gandolfini succeeding his father as a young Tony. As the buzz begins, Gandolfini, who also stars opposite Tom Holland in the Russo brothers' adaptation of Nico Walker's Cherry, out this month, opens up about stepping into Tony's shoes.

EARLY MEMORIES OFThe Sopranos are few. "My dad didn't want me to see Tony Soprano— the violence, the angry, the mean. Of course I was on set and would visit him in his trailer, but I had never watched the show.... I never knew Tony Soprano. I only knew my dad."

GANDOLFINI SPENT SUMMERS with his dad on the Jersey Shore. "Because he was beloved down there, I would get jobs I was unqualified for, like working at a body shop at eight years old." When Gandolfini was 14, his father died of a heart attack while on vacation in Rome.

A FOOTBALL INJURY sent Gandolfini to try out for a high school play. "I'd gone to acting therapy after my dad passed. I'd resisted it, but it sparked something."

A MANAGER TOOK a chance and sent him to his first-ever audition, for HBO's The Deuce. She called the next day: "You're one for one!"

HE PLAYED Joey Dwyer and calls it "an incredible time of failing and learning and getting my sea legs." Costar James Franco was a formative mentor.

UPON HEARING ABOUT the Sopranos prequel, Gandolfini thought, Absolutely not. What if I'm not good? But when his manager insisted he audition, he decided it was time to see the first season. " It was really hard to watch my dad," he says. "I recorded four hours of his monologues with Melfi and walked around New York with them constantly, constantly, constantly playing in my ear."

WHEN HE AUDITIONED for creator David Chase, "I had this unspoken trust that David wasn't going to cast me if there was even a shred that this isn't going to work."

THREE MONTHS LATER, he got the offer. "It's an origin story through the eyes of Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher's father. The Tony Soprano we know has this beautiful vulnerability underneath and this rough exterior, but what if we flip that on its side and you watch a creative, hopeful, kind, curious kid get whittled down and formed into what he has to be?"

THEN HE WATCHED all six seasons over six weeks, "It transcends everything: Republican, Democrat; patriarchy and matriarchy."

AS FOR the historically polarizing series finale? "I'm not touching that one."

EDIE FALCO TOLD him to "relax and have fun on set, enjoy yourself, know you're lucky," he says.

IN CHERRY, Gandolfini plays the hometown friend to Holland's bank robber with PTSD. "Not playing the Italian New York kid, having them believe in me and allow me to play such a complicated, beautiful role was such a gift."

LOOKING BACK, he says, "my dad constantly told me, if I'd ask a question about acting, 'I'm not your acting coach. I'm your dad,' which I really appreciate now."

BRITT HENNEMUTH

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