If not for “Sopranos” lead actor James Gandolfini we would have gotten a glimpse of the rounded gabagool of one reluctant cast member.
Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa reveal in their new book “Woke Up This Morning,” that the boss intervened to change a nude scene for an uncomfortable guest actor who was “caught off guard” by the bare plan.
Peter Riegert, who played Assemblyman Ron Zellman, told the duo that Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano was originally supposed to beat “the living s – – t” out of the crooked politician while he was naked in Season 4’s episode “Watching Too Much Television.”
“In the scene description, it’s written that he pulls my underwear off,” Riegert said about the scene that was retaliation for Zellman’s newfound romance with Tony’s ex-gumare Irina Peltsin (Oksana Lada). “We did this whole table read and I was not happy about that.”
“So it was that he pulled your underwear down and spanked your ass?” Schirripa replied.
“It was,” Riegert replied. “I was going to be naked. As far as I’m concerned I would have liked a head’s up on that.”
Gandolfini then approached Riegert following the uncomfortable table read to gauge the actor’s comfort with doing the scene.
“(Gandolfini) said, ‘How are you with this?’ I said, ‘I’m not happy about this, man. I don’t think you have to humiliate an actor in order to humiliate a character, and I’m a little upset,’ ” Riegert said, adding that Gandolfini could recognize “that there was an actor in trouble.”
After learning of his fellow actor’s hesitation, Gandolfini intervened with creator David Chase to have the scene modified.
“He called David over and he explained what I was feeling. David said, ‘Well that’s the way I wrote the scene.’ I said, ‘David, I think I can act the s – – t out of this part and I promise you, the audience will be horrified by what they see, but you don’t have to humiliate me to get that across.’ David said, ‘Well OK,’ and he left.
After the confrontation, Riegert “didn’t know whether (he) was going to get fired or not” and felt little consolation until Gandolfini once again proved to be a good fella behind the scenes. “Jimmy said to me, ‘Whatever you decide to do, I promise you I will have your back.’ “
So instead, the two brainstormed the equally humiliating idea of Gandolfini hitting Riegert with a belt while he only wore long boxers instead.
“I told Jimmy, ‘Listen, this belt is styrofoam, I had the prop guy whack me with it, I didn’t feel nothing. You can whale away on me,’ ” Riegert recalled. “So you know what he did? He went to the prop guy and said, ‘Hit me with the belt.’ Because he wanted to prove to himself that I wasn’t making this up.”
That belting take was ultimately used as Gandolfini whacked away on a fetal-position Riegert to the soothing song “Oh Girl” by the Chi-Lites — in a scene that holds up as a fan favorite to this day.
“I said to (Gandolfini), ‘Do you know the word mensch?’ He said, ‘Yes, I think I know what it means.’ I said, ‘It means human. That’s what it really means. It’s as great a compliment as you can give,’ ” said Riegert. “I said, ‘You are a mensch.’ “