Gabagool!
In the new documentary “‘Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos,” (now on HBO and Max), “The Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli confessed that he thought he initially blew his audition for the show.
“The idea of a series on HBO, back then, there was no prestige attached to that,” Imperioli, 58, said onscreen in the doc.
“To be really frank, it was kind of the bargain basement of TV, it really was. But I loved the character…his name was Dean when I first read the script.”
Imperioli starred as Christopher Moltisanti in the Emmy-winning “The Sopranos,” which aired on HBO from 1999 to 2007, starring James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano.
In the documentary, which tells the behind-the-scenes story about making the show, Imperioli also said that he didn’t know that series creator David Chase was Italian, and scoffed at his audacity for trying to tell a mafia story.
“I kind of thought ‘Who’s this guy’ making a show about Italians! Scorsese and Coppola were Italian Americans,” said Imperioli, who was also in Scorsese’s modern classic mob movie, “Goodfellas.”
He added, “But I worked really hard on it, and went in [to audition] for David [Chase]. And David is very poker faced….I walked out of [the audition] thinking, ‘This aint gonna happen. Who cares, he’s not even Italian!’”
Onscreen, Chase offered up his side of the story.
Recalling Imperioli’s audition, Chase said, “Michael came in and he was great. But I played it straight. He was like, ‘Who the f–k is this guy, anyway, he’s not even Italian. F–k him!’”
In actuality, Chase was born into a working-class Italian American family in Mount Vernon, New York.
In a recent interview with The Post in August, Imperioli also said he accidentally caused an on-set incident and thought he’d get fired on his first day.
His first scene involved Christopher driving Tony.
The task was difficult because Imperioli had to drive backwards on the sidewalk while extras were standing around, and he had to simultaneously deliver dialogue.
“And I didn’t know how to drive. I never had a license. I lived in New York City since I was a teenager, so I never got a license,” he said. “But I didn’t tell them that, because I wanted the job … I figured, how hard could it be? It’s TV, they probably tow you …”
He ended up accidentally slamming the car into a tree “really hard,” noting how it “really did a lot of damage.”
“The airbags went off and there was smoke,” he recalled. “I just thought they were gonna get rid of me. People run over, there’s a hush … and then Jim just bursts out in hysterical laughter,” he added, referring to Gandolfini.
Imperioli said Gandolfini’s laughter alleviated his fears of getting fired on the spot.
“I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to be all right.’ [Gandolfini] kind of always liked when the wheels fell off. Like, when things would go awry, and go wrong. He had a really tremendous, goofy sense of humor.”
“[He was a] really good guy,” Imperioli added. “It’s still just heartbreaking that he’s gone. Always will be.”
