It was the wrong kind of Soprano.
In the new HBO documentary “Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos,” Drea de Matteo, star of “The Sopranos,” said that she misunderstood what the hit mafia series was about when she first auditioned.
Now on HBO (and Max), the documentary sees de Matteo, 52, say onscreen, “I didn’t know that [the show] had anything to do with being Italian. I thought it was about opera singers.”
The Emmy-winning HBO series aired for six seasons from 1999 to 2007, following mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), his family, and his various associates such as Christopher (Michael Imperioli) and his girlfriend, Adriana.
Fellow “The Sopranos” star Jamie-Lynn Sigler has shared the same sentiment.
On a 2024 episode of of the podcast “Life Is Short with Justin Long,” Sigler, 43, said that she thought her audition to play Tony Soprano’s teen daughter, Meadow, was for a show about singers.
“I had never gotten any traction in film or television,” Sigler said at the time.
“I was strictly a musical theater kid. I was just, like, all about Broadway. All I had been doing was theater my whole life, and it’s because of the title, I thought that’s what it was about.”
She added that she entered her audition expecting to sing.
“I’d asked David Chase if he would like a song a capella since there was no accompanist, and he said ‘Not necessary,’” she recalled.
“But I think that’s why he had Meadow sing in [the show],” she added. “Like, Meadow, like, you know, would have, like, her solos in the choir.”
In the documentary “Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos,” de Matteo, who played Adriana La Cerva, initially auditioned “for about five different roles.”
“I read for Tony Soprano’s mistress. In the end, they went with someone else, but [series creator David Chase] liked me,” she explained. “I think he just liked the fact that I was Italian, and maybe I was cute.”
Before becoming a series regular, de Matteo began her time on the show with a bit part as a restaurant hostess.
“I don’t think I ever read for the hostess part. That was a phone call, ‘Would you want to play this part?’” she recalled.
But she had trouble performing because she was starstruck.
“I couldn’t say my one f–king line, because I was so nervous to be around Lorraine [Bracco] after ‘Goodfellas.’ I was dying.”
Bracco was the closet thing that the show had to a star, Chase explained. HBO wanted her to play Tony’s wife, Carmella (played by Edie Falco), but Bracco fought to play his psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi.
“I went in wanting Dr. Melfi,” Bracco, 69, explained. “David was a little taken aback.”
Bracco said that she was “a different woman” during “The Sopranos” than she was years prior to it, when she played Karen in “Goodfellas.”
And, she added that she was reluctant to play a part that felt too similar.
“Dr Melfi intrigued me, I’ve been in therapy,” she said. “And, I think we’ve never seen an Italian educated woman. That pleases me. And, I don’t think Tony would talk to anybody that’s not Italian.”
