Original subtitles

- What was your first impression of David

when you first started?

- When I auditioned?

- Yeah.

- He was in the back like Woody Allen.

- Did you know who he was?

- Who was he?

- No, did you know who he was?

Like, when I, when I audition.

- It's a great question.

- I didn't know.

- I didn't know who Georgianne was.

She called me Anthony, but David, I got along with David.

You remember when we went to Italy?

- Yeah.

- And when he was doing the scene, were you there

that afternoon when we was sitting at the table.

It was just a glimpse of him.

- Oh yeah, that's where Tony Sirico, Paulie Walnuts,

goes, "Hey, commendatori!"

- Right, right, right, right.

- Tony, he looks around, and he looks at him, and then

he just like says, "fuckin' assholes," or something.

- I remember that day specifically because, you were there.

- [Federico] Yeah.

- 'Cause Tony went up to him and said to David,

"you really gonna get rid of Vinny?"

And he said,

"I'm not getting rid of Vinny.

"I'm getting rid of Big Pussy."

- [Federico] Oh, interesting. - That's a snide answer.

It's a snide answer. - That was his answer.

- Well, no.

I mean, he's in Italy.

He's in Naples. - I don't know.

- They, they flew me over.

- But you worked.

- No, I didn't work.

They flew me over.

- No, you did work.

- I did work, you're right.

- What they wanted to do is, since they're in a place

called Spaccanapoli, which is a center of Naples,

it really literally goes right down the center of Naples.

- Broken down the middle, right.

- We were, we were filming in that area, in that,

that place, and it's just packed with people.

They wanted Tony Soprano to look in the crowd and see,

it's like, you know, he was dead already at that time.

- No, I wasn't dead.

- You were, you were, that's why.

You were supposed to. Yes he thought that.

- I wasn't dead.

- Oh, you were on the lam.

- No, I wasn't dead. I was back in the States.

I didn't go with you.

I picked you. - No, no, no,

'cause you remember, your character was supposed

to be seen in the crowd.

- Right, but I wasn't dead.

- And then he goes up to you and he turns around

and this is somebody else.

You remember? And we were looking for somebody.

- We shot that.

- We found the guy that looked, like, exactly like you.

- And he had to walk the way I walked.

- Yeah, we were trying to teach him how to walk.

- Why, Vin, why?

- That, that never made the, that never made it.

- Never made the cut.

- It never made it, but to see what happened is that

Timmy called me up and said, Timmy van Patten,

and he said, "Vinny, you're going to go to Italy with us,"

and I said, "Well, I don't see in the script

that I'm going to Italy."

He says, "No, you're going to Italy with us

"because it's your last season,

"and I want you to go to Italy with us."

- Okay, yes, that's right.

That was a good thing.

- Did you know yet that?

- But the thing is that you were on the lam.

- Yes.

- That's why, and so he thinks he sees you.

- Ohh.

- That was the whole purpose of having you.

- I was on the lam.

- Yes.

- No, I wasn't.

- Yes you were.

- I was beating up my wife in the house with roses.

- No, no.

That's why, 'cause he thinks he sees you in there

and he goes up to, up to the guy.

- And it was a different guy.

- Guy turns around and it was a different guy.

- Anyway, I got a free trip to Italy.

- [Federico] You got a free trip.

(Federico laughing)

- And I bet you did all right with David Chase.

- I never had a problem.

- How did you do with him, did you?

- I auditioned first season.

I was only supposed to be a character

for one episode, end of the story.

- Who did you go up for?

- Johnny Sack, what do you mean?

What'd I, what?

- Oh, Johnny Sack was only supposed to be once?

- Yeah, he was only supposed to be there for one,

one episode. - But you auditioned for Johnny,

to play the character Johnny Sack?

- I auditioned for one of the casting directors.

I don't remember who.

- No, you auditioned for the part of Johnny Sack.

- [Vincent C.] Yes, yeah.

(speaking foreign language)

Yeah, yeah, and then four days later they had me come in

for a call back, and I heard all these guys screaming.

I guess these were the guys called back for Johnny,

and they're screaming their dialogue.

(Vincent C. droning)

So I said to myself, okay, I got it.

So when they call me in, they say, "You ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," and I said, "You know,

"it's really not a good idea for Hesh to Uncle Junior..."

Whatever it was, and they're bent, they're leaning over now

in their chair, they're trying to,

you know, and I just kept it.

- Very smart.

- Down, you know, and then the next day they called

and I had the one episode.

- And you auditioned for Chase?

- Yeah, they brought me into a room.

I didn't know who he was.

Nobody, actually nobody knew who he was.

- Right.

- Thank you,

and there was a director of the episode, Alan Taylor.

- Right.

- Some of the producers, Ilene Landress, whatever,

and I just did my thing.

- How long afterward did you know,

did you hear you got the part?

- Oh, the next morning, right away.

9:30, 10 o'clock. - Oh God bless you.

- Did you know that I auditioned for Johnny Sack?

- You auditioned for Johnny Sack.

- I actually auditioned for that role.

- [Arthur] You went up for Johnny Sack?

- Yeah, I went up for Johnny Sack and wound up

getting a call back and then nothing.

So I, I want to, I see the first episode, see the episode

that he's in because we're, as actors we're all curious,

like, who got the job?

- Of course, it's only natural, sure.

- Absolutely.

- The episode airs, and I see this guy come on screen.

I'm like, "Holy shit, man.

- Oh man.

- "This dude's amazing."

That's, that's really who I pictured to be in the look.

- I've told you this many times and I'm not

blowing smoke up your ass either.

For my money, as a viewer, as a guy that watched

The Sopranos, and I watched The Sopranos for three seasons

before I was on The Sopranos.

I am telling you, you were indispensable in that role.

You were indispensable in that role.

I loved Gandolfini, but I was as much afraid of you

as I was in love with Tony Soprano.

I don't, I don't believe the show could have ever been.

- Thank you.

- And I mean that with all my heart,

and you are the other one, and this one,

the first, on the first show that I ever did,

he drove me down to Pastis.

We were all getting together at that time.

- Pastis, yeah.

- This guy says to me, "Come here, get in the car, man.

"Get in the car," and he speaks like he speaks beautifully.

I went, "You don't have, you don't speak a broken English?"

I thought he had an Italian accent.

Look, I'm an Italian guy, I got,

I got 100 Italian people in my family.

I know what an Italian guy sounds like.

- He got possessed by that character.

- Holy man, were you so great in that.

- You were sitting in my audition.

- The three of us.

- Oh, really?

- You, me, Jimmy.

Jimmy said, come on.

We got to go look at this guy, and somebody said something

to me and I said, he's a good painter.

- I think it was David Chase.

I think you told me that he turned around and he said,

"So Vinny, what do you think?"

- I said, "He's a great painter."

- And he said, "He's a great painter."

- They heard you paint houses, huh?

- I went up for Chase four times,

four times. - But no.

Whoa whoa whoa.

- Go ahead, go go go.

He doesn't paint houses.

It was a joke.

(Federico laughing)

He's a very accomplished.

- No, he's an artist, he's an artist.

- We're talking about something else.

- I interviewed, I, what did I do?

I auditioned for Chase four times.

I came in in season, season four.

Me and Pie-o-My got in right under the wire.

(Federico chuckling)

I went up right, before the pilot I auditioned for somebody.

Might've been Big Pussy, it might.

Was a character I did not know.

I don't remember.

David later told me he liked me, but I wasn't off book.

- Oh, he said that to you?

- Yeah he did, he told me I wasn't off book

and that was bad, and for that's number one,

and number two, I didn't really care because I didn't know

what Sopranos was, number one, and number two.

- Nobody knew in the beginning.

- I don't sing, what am I doing for The Sopranos?

How am I getting a part in this?

I ain't got no voice, you understand?

So, all right.

So I audition once.

- You didn't really think it was a musical?

- I swear to God I did.

- When you first read it, The Sopranos,

I mean, it's the first thing comes to your mind.

- So I went up for whatever part, which I didn't get.

All right, then you, we knew you were getting it.

Good, God bless you.

Me and Vinny had been together

for years before The Sopranos.

- Yeah, it was either me or Roast Beef, you remember?

- Was it, was it you or Roast Beef?

- Really, I beat out Roast Beef.

- Well, forget about Roast Beef.

You got it, you killed in that thing, please.

- Well, I hope.

- That's huge.

Well, it's all right.

John, we love you, Mr. Roast Beef.

- I felt bad for you when you were crying

at the kids' conformation.

- So great.

- Was it A.J.'s confirmation?

- Yeah. - [Arthur] Yeah.

- And you went upstairs to talk to him.

- Yeah, it's called substitution, acting,

teaching, emotional recall.

- What was the other guy, who was the guy

that died of cancer, Aprile?

- Oh yeah, yeah.

- I went up for Aprile, that was then.

- No, he died of cancer?

- Sure, it was what's his name.

- He died of cancer early on.

I think it was.

- Rispoli.

- Was Michael Rispoli.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Jackie Aprile.

- Tremendous actor, tremendous actor.

- Three show arc.

He just got killed on, on The Deuce the other night.

- Oh really?

- I was pissed.

I love my regular.

- They pay him on.

- He's on, he's on, he's on Billions with me.

He's on Billions, he plays the police commissioner.

- I like Billions.

- Glad he works, it's good.

- Anyway, I went up for that part, Rispoli got that.

Okay, great, next.

Next year I went up for the part that, what's his name,

the lovely kid that cuts hair on 57, Sherossi, Tony Rossi.

- Rossi, Tony Rossi.

- That got strangled with, with college with the.

Remember, he sees him, he's taking Meadow to college

and then he sees the guy who ended up strangling him.

I went for that part, which was easy to do.

No lines, had to go in like this,

(man choking)

and like, I stay like three minutes, they're like, no good.

Boom, another year passes.

Now I'm in LA, I'm doing... something. Enemy of the State.

I'm doing Enemy of the State.

"Chase wants to see you," and they send me a side.

One page, makes no sense.

It could have been in another language.

It's just words and words in this and that, and

I don't really get it, but I learn it.

I'm going to go up again and he's there

with another man and a woman.

- [Server] Hello there.

Signore, zucchini fritti.

- Thank you.

- [Server] This is Italian french fry.

- Right, let me have some dishes.

I can share the multitude.

- Yeah, he will.

Oh, beautiful.

- [Server] I'll get you the-

Go on, Artie.

- Well, we'll wait for the gentlemen to serve the food.

Thank you, sir.

- Thank you.

(speaking foreign language)

- So I said to Chase before, before the fourth audition.

I said, David.

Thank you, sir.

(speaking foreign language) - [Server] My pleasure.

I says, "David, can I ask you a question, man to man?"

He said, "Sure."

I said, "Am I aging well?"

(Federico laughing)

I said, "The first time I came here, I was a child.

(Federico laughing)

"You understand me?

"How am I doing?"

- You actually had conversations with David Chase?

- That was the only thing I did.

- I never had a conversation with him.

- Really? - No, never.

- Can I say to you, David Chase, David Chase was

a complete enigma to me until I read the book.

The Soprano Sessions, the book.

I really, I mean, I've taken him to meals, we've had meals.

The guy put me in 43 episodes of The Sopranos.

There were 86 episodes, I did 43.

- Wow.

- Yeah, but I was a filler.

- Yeah, but still.

- I wasn't, I wasn't an important.

You guys were, you guys were

iconic characters in The Sopranos.

I was not, I was a guy that went, "Oh, kiss my ass.

"Oh, give them another drink," you know what I mean, "Taxi!"

You know, that was my stuff.

I didn't get, they never gave me a lot of.

- Have some more, it's delicious.

- Don't sell yourself short, Arthur.

- Delicious.

- Hey, I did 43 episodes.

They didn't mind me.

- The thing is that he never forgot you.

He, you know.

- No, no.

Well, he said to me, he was not gonna give me a part

that was two or three shows.

He gave me 43 shows, and God bless him.

That's 43 residual checks every cycle.

I mean, I don't want to go there,

but you know what I'm talking about.

- They're coming to you now.

- They are coming now. - That's important.

Every actor in the business wanted to be on the show.

It was like. - Oh, please.

- [Federico] It was like, you know.

- And never admitted it either.

- No, a lot of people did.

Oh, you know, look.

- I don't want to mention names, but.

- Well, listen, do you remember what's his name?

He was a singer, Bon Jovi, Jon Bon Jovi.

- Oh, yeah.

- He wanted to be on the show.

- Yeah, he was public about it.

That's fine.

- He used to come, he used to come

to the craft service and eat with us.

- Right, and was very adamant about it.

- And Bruce Willis, you remember, I met Bruce Willis

when we were in Los Angeles for the Emmys.

- [Vincent C.] Right.

- I was at the bar at the hotel we would stay at,

the Peninsula, right, and I'm walking in and I see him.

I said, "That looks like, that looks like Bruce Willis."

So he, he has his hat on and he looks at me

as I'm walking by and he goes, "Furio."

(Federico chuckling)

He goes, I said, "Oh my God, Bruce, man, how you doing?"

- Great guy.

- So we start talking.

He goes, "I'll buy you a drink."

So I'm sitting there and he tells me

that he spoke to David Chase a few times.

- That he wanted to get on?

- That he wanted to get on the show.

- But of course.

- David told him, see, David, David's a brilliant,

I mean like he's thinking of every level of this,

of The Sopranos. Like could you imagine being David Chase,

trying to figure out every single character,

storyline, arc, arc of every character.

So he tells, he tells him, right, "You could be

"in the show, but you have to play yourself.

"We can put you in like a..." You know, the,

remember when we had the executive games,

and you, you'd see all the?

- All that.

- I ran the game.

That's one of the things that I did.

- Yeah, yeah, exactly.

- Frank Sinatra Jr.

- Frank Sinatra Jr., right.

So they would, they would have these stars.

- Bobby Patrick.

- You know, David Lee Roth was in it, I think at one point.

- Bobby Patrick.

- Yeah, Robert Patrick.

- I was, he was in Cop Land with me.

- Oh, he was.

- He's still, still one of my best friends.

- Fantastic guy.

- Still my best friend.

- Well, Bobby Patrick, we busted out his joint up in.

- [Arthur] Yes, that's right.

- Up in Route Seven, Paramus.

- 'Til this day, he's one of my best friends. He was just,

he was just in Jersey, just did a movie in Jersey.

- Great guy.

- Last week.

- Terrific guy.

- That first card game was in '90, shot in '99.

Paul Mazurski was the dealer.

We shot for three days straight.

- Took you three days to shoot that.

- Three days and I mean, real days, Vinny.

- Wow, really?

- Yeah, yeah.

A lot of angles, lot of coverage.

- My first season, which was season two,

I shot out of sequence.

You know, you first see my character in Italy, right?

You see Furio in Italy.

- But then you did the massage parlor, right?

- Right, the massage parlor was shot first.

It was shot out of sequence.

That's, that's what I actually auditioned with.

After they, after I shot the massage parlor scene

and we did, we were doing another read-through,

David Chase comes up to me, you know?

So he comes over to me.

He's like,

"Federico, we're cutting the brothel scene."

He's like,

"wait till you see how this looks when it comes out.

"It's like, amazing."

So, and then he walks away,

and Lorraine Bracco's standing there.

She's like looking at me.

She's like, "Federico, far and few in between.

"Just hold on to that."

- That he said something, you're getting,

and getting accolades.

- Yeah, I was supposed to be a three episode character.

- And that was it?

- And he started writing, he started writing for me,

which was really nice.

- The thing that I never understood.

The logic of a table read.

I gotta be honest.

I never saw the importance of it.

- Has it helped you out as an actor?

- No, no, it wasn't for us.

It was for them.

- It was for everybody else.

- It's for the writers.

- I wish I would have phoned it in then,

'cause I used to hate going to those things.

- [Arthur] I gotta be honest.

- It was for everybody else.

Wardrobes, lighting, production, all that.

- Yeah, well.

- It wasn't for us.

- It's really for the producers to really hear

what the entire episode sounds like.

- I used to be happy when I got through the script

and I knew I wasn't getting whacked in that episode.

- Yeah, but you knew that before the table read though.

(Vincent C. Laughing)

- [Arthur] Did you?

- Yeah, well 'cause you get the script.

- You get the script a week or two ahead.

- I've got to clean you off all the time.

- But I never, I'm getting older.

I'm an old man.

- I always thought that was writers' ego.

- I still got it over there.

- Writers' ego?

Sitting around and hearing that?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Oh, give me this, give me this.

- Yeah, I did.

- But not all TV shows do that.

- No, that's what I'm talking about,

and they had a hell of a lot more dialogue.

- What the hell is this?

Somebody shaved me, what the fuck?

Is this still here?

- They're doing their own show,

so why don't you order 13 episodes?

- I'm sorry.

I had a galamot stuck on me.

The kid's trying to help me out, what the fuck?

- This is delicious if anybody wants to finish it.

It's delicious. - Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

- [Arthur] Well, I remember.

- I had a good director.

I'm sorry.

- No, no, go ahead.

- I had a good director once.

- [Arthur] Who?

- Mike Figgis, who directed Leaving Las Vegas.

They brought him in for an episode.

The man was tremendous.

The man came through, we go back to the read through

and he was just in awe.

He loved being, he loved being involved in the show,

even if it was one episode.

So it was early in the morning.

They lock down the street.

Very sweet guy.

He walks up to me, he said to me, he said,

"You know, I really love the character you play,"

and I said thank you.

- Yeah.

- He said, "I have nothing to tell you.

(Arthur chuckling)

"Have a nice time, do whatever."

- Didn't give you no notes or nothing?

- Nothing, not a.

- Baby, if it, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

- I, I appreciate that, but he was, he was so cool.

- Yeah.

- But then we, I had a couple of others.

I won't mention them, I can't, that will, you

would give you line readings.

- Anyway, can I ask you guys a question?

I'm sorry.

- That's all right, give you line readings.

- The man that died.

- Who?

- John somebody.

- Patterson.

- I only was with him once.

- John Patterson.

- John Patterson.

- But he was right at the beginning of my tenure.

- Yeah, yeah, he died of cancer.

- I didn't really know the man well.

He was a nice guy with me.

- He was a great guy.

- He was a part of the strategic air command.

- SAC.

- SAC.

- Really?

- Great guy. - That's right.

Korea Air Force, got into the business. - But he was always...

He would always direct the last episode, if you noticed it.

- [Vincent C.] Yeah, he would, that's right.

- That's right?

- You're correct.

- Did he do a lot of them?

- Yeah, quite a few.

Good friends with David.

- I, I thought like Timmy Van Zant used to do

most of the ones. - Van Patten.

- When we got a lot of, I mean,

yeah, yeah. - Van Patten.

- Where there was a lot of killing or something.

What, is he more like the action?

- He was more, well.

- Did you get that inference or feeling?

- Tim was my first, my first director.

- Very animated stuff with him, yeah.

- That's how I felt anyway, but it interests me

about that guy, John, because I knew

how he was beloved on the show.

- John Patterson.

- But I just worked with him one episode.

They did it inside a real bookstore briefly.

- And quite often the episodes I was in, he'd say to me,

"here, sit next to me at the video feed,"

and I felt self-conscious.

- Who's that, Timmy?

- [Vincent C.] No, Patterson.

- Oh, John?

- John.

So I'd sit next to him, and whoever is doing

the work is working, he's watching.

"What do you think?

"How about another one, should I?"

You know, I'm getting bold now, right?

I don't think you should do another one, John.

Although, that was it though, two takes.

Two takes, each angle.

He was done.

He got done early every day, but he knew

what the hell he was doing.

- [Federico] Yeah, yeah.

- He knew what he wanted.

So, and the cast, I mean, you can't ask for a better cast.

They knew what they were doing.

So it was like boom, boom, boom, boom, two cuts,

two hits, two hits, two hits.

It was over.

- It was, besides Alan Taylor, there was another Allen.

- Coulter.

- Alan Coulter.

- Yeah, the little guy.

- He was really open to a lot of different things.

- He was, yeah yeah.

- I remember there was a scene that I shot

with the two guys, the two, you know, Leila Brancato,

and it was another, my character goes and gets the money.

You know, he like, wants $1,000 extra.

- I remember that.

- There were things when we were doing the blocking,

you know, that weren't in the script, you know?

- So I said, you know, "Give me $1,000," and I did this,

and so he zeroed it in as a director, visually,

he zeroed in on my hands.

- Right.

- And he did a, he did a tight shot on the hand doing this,

which wasn't in there, and then I was supposed to look

at the underwear and say, you know, these two guys

suck each other's cocks in Italian.

I said, (speaking foreign language)

You know, and so, so. (Arthur chuckling)

(Federico laughing)

So I, I picked up both, both underwear

and he's just Federico, I love that.

- So he pops in on the underwear.

- Yeah, exactly.

No, but it was, you know, there's a lot of symbolism

in that. If you see the opening of that.

No, seriously, I'm not kidding.

Those two guys were in their underwear.

They were like kind of what they, you know,

and they were smoking a bong, but if you look

at that opening shot, the angle of the bong was,

was kind of like the guy's crotch

near the other guy's mouth.

- Right.

- So it was like this thing that they may be,

you know, on the other side of the fence.

(Arthur laughing)

- What was your line? - I didn't read into that.

- Blah, blah, blah, blah.

- Oh no, no.

It's, (speaking foreign language)

- That's so great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.

(elegant Italian music)

- It wasn't unusual that the fans had to wait

a very long time in between seasons. Finale of this season

to the premiere of the other season, whatever it was,

and I guess a lot of it had to do with writing

or maybe David wasn't, wasn't ready with another season,

you know, which is understandable, and I don't re,

recall ever shooting anything until the seasons

were complete, then they aired. If I'm correct.

Except the last season.

- They completed all the episodes, then they aired it

and then we would go back to work.

- Correct, correct, but the problem, the problem was

that at the sixth season, which I think was 12 episodes,

if I'm correct. Then HBO told the world we were going

to take a break, and we're going to come back

with the rest of the sixth season, which was

a bullshit story, in my opinion. Let me say in my opinion.

- So there were six episodes, and then you saw?

- No, not, no, not.

- Is that we're talking about now,

the last year, the last season?

- Yes, the final season.

The final season was whatever it was,

11 or 12 episodes, I don't recall.

HBO made an announcement to everyone,

"We're going to take a break.

"We're gonna come back with eight seasons."

(snaps fingers)

Then, or eight episodes, then they said no, nine.

We're gonna do nine. - Nine.

- But they called it the extension of the sixth season.

Meantime, the calendar changed already

100 times and whatever.

How do you continue a season from a year ago?

No, it's another season.

- So you shot.

- It's the seventh, in my opinion

it's the seventh season. - Wait a minute.

So this, the sixth season was all 13.

- 12 or 13, whatever it was.

- 12 or 13 episodes, and then you shot another nine.

- Yeah.

- That's another, that's another season.

- Shot another nine - months later.

- [Server] (speaking foreign language)

- Is that not a seventh season?

- That is a seventh season.

- Okay, so but however, our deals that I recall.

- Well, obviously, look.

HBO pulled a bunch of things over the years.

- Well, you know, but what would they be

without The Sopranos?

- A lot of people say that Sopranos put HBO on the map.

- Oh, I would say.

- And then, I spoke to somebody at HBO and they're like,

"oh no, you know, Sex and the City is really."

- Sex and the?

No, no, no, no, no.

- [Federico] I'm like, Sex and the City?

- You remember 1st & Ten that was HBO's first.

- Sex and the City was a good show.

- Their series about a football player.

- But you know, it's not, you're not talking Sopranos.

- The Sopranos put HBO on the map.

- That's exactly right.

- And it put them on Sixth Avenue.

- That's why people subscribe to HBO.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- [Arthur] Sopranos put so many.

- Sex and the City came after The Sopranos.

- Sopranos put so many existing, current shows.

- Not only that, we made our show.

- Oh my God, it became a benchmark for fucking...

- It was a format, it was a cultural change.

- Yes.

- It became a benchmark for every other show.

- There was no must see TV.

- No, no, no.

- Must see Sunday night TV.

The whole country stopped.

- Monday morning water-cooler conversation.

- You kidding me that, even... I heard people in Poland,

people in London, England.

- [Arthur] Of course.

- So I'm at a roast for Denis Leary.

- Can I?

- Let me finish my thought.

- Go ahead.

No, I wanna hear your story.

- Let me finish my thought.

- And then Kiefer Sutherland comes up to me.

- Big fan of the show.

- And said,

"Vinny, the reason why I took 24 was because Sopranos."

- Yes, you're right, because a lot of the film actors.

- The format.

- A lot of film actors were not.

- They weren't going to television.

- Kiefer said it to me that night.

- They thought was a step down taking TV.

- So what was your thought?

- I don't want to get in trouble.

- You gonna get in, how you gonna get?

- Well, I don't care.

I'm kidding around.

We're here in front of camera.

You know I don't care if I get in trouble.

You guys know that better than anybody.

- But I got a pension.

- So do we all, thank you.

- Yeah, but that was from Screen Actor's Guild.

(Vincent C. Chuckling)

- Oh, all right.

- I'm not there yet.

- Now, I mean your character, iconic character, Big Pussy.

I mean, the fish was making more money singing.

- Take Me to the River.

- It was unbelieveable. (Arthur laughing)

How was it for you to get clipped early

in that show, one, and two. - [Federico] I can imagine.

- And everybody knows this, after the second season

is when everybody started making a living.

- Right.

- [Vincent C.] Big mistake.

- [Arthur] I mean a big.

- Big mistake.

- What, that they killed him? - Absolutely.

- Please.

- [Vincent P.] Well, first of all.

- No, what I want to ask him is this.

- First of all.

- Let me ask you this.

How was it, again we go back 10 years before The Sopranos.

I mean, we really were in our salad days together.

How was it for you emotionally, financially?

How was that to handle that?

I mean, I always wanted to ask you that, I never did.

- He was fucking pissed.

What would it be?

- Well, I mean, let him answer.

- I mean, come on.

Go ahead, what were you? Go ahead.

- I wasn't happy.

- Ah, see.

- I don't remember throwing you a bar.

- I wasn't happy.

- You were in my house.

We were having dinner a few times.

- [Vincent C.] Go ahead, no, let him.

- I wasn't happy.

Everybody wound up getting a raise going into season two

and they, HBO told my agent, "Why do we have

"to give Vinny a raise,

"this is his last year?" but I had a seven year contract.

- [Arthur] That's right.

- What?

- I had a seven year contract.

- Up to the producers to renew, not to the actor to renew.

- You never told me that.

- I had a seven year contract, yes I did.

- Absolutely.

- No, your first year, first year you said.

- A seven year?

- Yeah, but it was up to them.

- I signed a seven year.

- You didn't have a contract the first year.

- Yes I did.

- The first year?

- I got a contract.

You sign a contract for the pilot.

- [Vincent C.] You were a series regular.

- As a series regular, and if the show

gets picked up, you go.

We signed a seven year contract for the pilot.

Me, Jimmy, Tony, Michael, who else?

- Lorraine, Edie. - Lorraine, Edie,

we had seven-year contracts.

- Oh, I never knew that.

- I remember you telling me.

Now, just correct me if I'm wrong.

You told me that you wanted a contract,

and they weren't giving it to you.

- No, I got the copy at my house.

- You got a contract?

- I had a seven year contract.

- Yeah, seven years.

- So what the fuck?

- They can do that to you.

- They can write you out.

They can exercise their option.

It's their option. - Their option.

You can't get out.

- Did anybody explain to you why they did that?

- Yeah, because like I said.

Okay, you want to know my theory?

Here's my theory. - Doesn't make any sense.

- No it doesn't.

- Let's hear his theory.

- My theory is that I don't think they knew

they were going to go seven years.

I thought, I think they thought they was going to go

year to year, maybe three, maybe four years.

- Well, look, if you read the book, The Soprano Sessions,

the book. Chase talks about that.

They asked him questions that had to do with a post-pilot,

and he went, I never thought about it

because I never thought we'd get further than the pilot.

- Well, and they ordered the second season,

he said, I don't have a second season.

- He didn't have a second season.

He called me up.

- In his third year, it sounded like he had traction.

- No, he called you personally. - And he had his feet under himself.

- He said, "Good news and bad news." - He called me up.

He said, "Vinny, this is David."

I remember it was a break in the summer.

He said, "Everybody is on the internet.

"They want to know 'Where's Pussy?'"

- You came back from.

- He said, "Well, you're going to be the rat,

"and this is going to be your last season with us,"

and I says, "Whatever you got to do."

- Well, look in the book, he says, he saw something,

and I'm trying to think where the hell it was,

he saw something else where it, oh,

it was the Stockholm syndrome. Whereby when people get.

- Patty Hearst.

- Yeah. Patty, when people get snapped up by bad guys.

- They told me I was going to have that.

- Exactly, that's exactly, and it's because you wound up

being more of an FBI guy then you were, than the FBI guy.

- I know, but listen, Artie, I wind up making

a lot of money after that year.

I wound up going to Hollywood making movies.

I was the first guy that wasn't on the show, so my career

took off.

- Yeah, I remember having that conversation with you.

- Every time I see David, I say to David,

every time I see David, go on yes. - Vinny, can I tell you something?

- There was a rumor going around that, that you were taking

other jobs early on and you weren't available for,

and he's like, David Chase.

- Tony Tirico started that rumor.

- David Chase said that, "What do you mean

"Vinny's not around? We're writing for him,"

and you were taking other jobs, and that's why I thought

that you didn't have a contract.

- No. - [Federico] That's, so yeah.

- The contract said I wasn't supposed to take other jobs.

- Ah.

- Did you?

- Yeah.

- Well you were allowed.

Okay, hang on.

So you were allowed.

- And with that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

I rest my case.

(all laughing)

Boom, out.

- That happened, that happened to me.

- [Arthur] Boom, throw him off the boat.

- No, now see, now we get to the real fucking thing.

- I was working with Danny Aiello who was.

(Arthur laughing)

- No wonder they shit-canned you.

What's the matter with you?

- And I would go up, I remember the scene.

- Again, I was so glad I asked this question.

- Listen, I remember the scene when Michael Rispoli,

it was in the hospital.

- [Arthur] Right.

- And I kept looking at the thing and I kept

going up to the first A.D.

I said, "I gotta, I gotta go, I gotta go."

"You got another scene to shoot."

I said, "Give it to Sirico and I left."

- Oh my God.

- Yeah, and I think because of that, I became,

I think David put me right on his shit list.

- That was page six, paragraph three.

- You know what, Danny and Danny Jr.

Were waiting for me in the city.

- The thing is that, you know, it is a mob show,

and if you, you know, if you go against the boss.

- You get clipped.

- You know, you get this, but anyway,

that, that was the rumor.

- If you wanna get rid of me, really get rid of me.

You could have killed me in the first season.

- Now, let me tell you this.

I was, I was here sitting right over there at that table.

- [Vincent P.] Okay.

- We were, I think it was, you know, we used to come here

when everybody, when somebody got whacked.

- [Vincent P.] Right.

(Vincent C. Scoffing)

- Seriously, man. - I know. I know.

- I was there.

- Literally, we would come to Il Cortile,

right. - Right.

Funeral repast.

- It was like, once you got whacked, you got a dinner here.

- I never knew that. - So the guys would take you out.

One night, some of the producers were here with us

and I forget who it was that had a little too much to drink,

and blurted something out that I don't think

we were supposed to hear, and this was

before the fourth season.

You, you're not going to like this.

"You know, Johnny Sack's got to go next season,"

and we all looked at each other. Like,

we're not supposed to be hearing this right now.

You know, all the guys were like.

Did you know that? - Now I'm going to tell you.

- Yes, I'm going to tell you,

I'm going to tell you why.

- Nobody knew this.

- I know, I knew this.

I'm going to tell you why.

They dropped my option.

- [Federico] What?

- Three times.

Three times they dropped my option within three

of the seasons that I was regular

and because they dropped 'em, then decided,

no, we need him back every time, it costs them more money,

because now we're starting from scratch with a negotiation.

- Oh, wow.

- Now how moronic was that?

- [Federico] Wow.

- That's not.

- [Vincent P.] Let me tell you something.

- That's not, that's not a money person

making a decision like that. - I never forget,

I got a phone call.

- That's an imbecile.

- And we loved Georgianne Walken, and she says,

"It's good, they want to put you in the kitchen.

"Tony and Paulie Walnuts comes back from Florida

"and they see you in the kitchen."

She says, this when she's into me.

She goes,

"I want you to bang 'em out."

I said, what?

She says,

"I want you to get, ask for $25,000 for the day,"

and I said, "$25,000?"

She said, "Vinny, they owe you."

- Sure they did. - Oh wow.

- That's great. Amen.

- That's what she said to me,

and I got my $25,000 for one day.

- Amen.

- She said, "They owe you," and that's a,

I love her for that.

- [Vincent C.] That's great.

- Wow, that's really great, man.

- She was always good.

- Finally someone sticking up for us.

- Georgianne is terrific.

- No, it's true. - Yeah, what we go through.

Literally, what we go through, I mean, like, you know,

that's why we have to have agents and managers.

I mean, 'cause you know.

- [Server] (speaking foreign language)

- Ah, beautiful.

- Those are hot peppers?

- I hope they are.

- I thought you weren't eating tonight?

- I might have to steal one. - I didn't eat it yet.

- [Vincent C.] What is that? What is that?

- Hot peppers.

(speaking foreign language)

The peppers are hot.

- [Vincent C.] But you talk about writers.

I'm good, I'll go with you.

- Oh, you're really looking for trouble here.

- No, it's the truth.

- [Federico] No, no, no.

- It's over.

The show ended 12 years ago, forget about it.

- But this is an audition for HBO.

Then you stay quiet.

- I'm keeping quiet.

- [Server] (speaking foreign language)

- Listen, Federico, I'm going into season two.

Everybody's getting a raise.

You know what HBO told my agent?

- What?

- "We're going to give him $35 an episode more."

He said, "That's it?"

He, they said, "Yeah, why should we give him any money?

"He's going."

- Really?

Oh my God.

Well, you know, I'm, I was on.

(Arthur laughing) - See?

- [Federico] I got the short end of the stick.

- I got $35 a episode more.

- You still gotta buy groceries.

- I came in in the second season, and that's when

they renegotiated for, from the first season, right?

- [Vincent C.] Yeah.

- So I wasn't a part of that, but I did like,

six or seven episodes that, that year, you know,

but just as a guest star and then they gave me

a contract right after that. - Really?

- [Vincent C.] Right.

- But when it was time to renegotiate for the fourth season,

that was my last season.

So I kind of like missed out on all the renegotiation.

- Right, right.

They gave me $3,500 per episode for 34 episodes.

- That's what I used to get.

- And then, you got $3,500 a piece?

- Yeah.

- [Arthur] I got $3,500 and that was

for four years. - That's all I got.

- What?

- That's all I got.

- $3,400, $3,500 is all I got.

Then Jimmy Gandolfini, for the last nine episodes,

Jimmy said, "What are you getting, $3,500?"

I said, "Yeah, that's it."

Two days later, the foreman, or PA,

"You get $10,000 an episode now."

So for those nine episodes I made $10,000.

- That was Jimmy, that's Jimmy.

- I never had an agent and you gotta understand something.

I never had representation.

I ain't even know how I even got in there.

He would call me up and say,

"I'm going for a big audition for a show."

I'd go, "Great." - Come with me.

- I would go up without anything.

I would sign in and they would call my name

and I would go in and they're like, "Who are you?"

I said, "Don't worry.

"Can I, can I just audition for you?"

I went to El-, I don't want to say the name.

I went to a big casting agent. Lovely lady, lovely lady.

- Ellen Lewis.

- Shut up. (Federico laughing)

- I went to a lovely lady and I went, "You know what?

"Forget the part, can we go out to lunch?"

She picked up the phone.

"Security, get in here."

She called the building security on me.

- That's funny.

- But that's what, he used to just tell me

where he was going.

He was my first movie star, man.

- Yep.

- What were you, in Goodfellas?

- Ellen Lewis got me Goodfellas.

- He had the line.

He was in Goodfellas.

He had the coats.

He was counting the coats in Goodfellas.

To me, he was the first movie star I ever met in my life.

(Federico laughing)

- I just saw that the other day.

- He's so great in it.

That was a big thing, man.

- That's how I got nailed by the IRS.

- Oh really?

Oh, Jesus.

- I owed them money.

- I remember that.

- Remember, my attorney would pick up my checks.

They'd show me in the movie.

- [Arthur] Really?

- Yeah.

They started taking my checks from Warner Brothers.

- I think that what we're talking about,

I think is kind of a universal thing with actors.

I mean, do you remember when during the second season

they were trying to renegotiate and they had Jim go first?

When everybody else, all the other actors

went to renegotiate, they said, "Well, you know,

"we gave all the money to Jim, so, sorry.

"We can give you a little." - That was bullshit.

'Cause they're bullshitters, they're liars.

- Yeah, yeah, so we can give you a little bit.

We can give you a little bit more,

but he took it all. - Old production company.

- When that got back to Jim.

- That's terrible.

- You remember what happened?

- Yeah, I do remember.

- And Jim said, "Oh yeah? - [Vincent C.] Yeah.

- "Okay, we'll see when, next time we renegotiate,

"everyone else goes first, and I go last."

- Okay, so let me, right.

- And they were trying to sue him, you remember?

They were trying to, HBO was trying to sue him.

- What happened was, we were nominated as an ensemble,

Screen Actor's Guild, second season,

whatever it was, second season, okay.

So, during this problem of negotiation, they sent us,

back in those days, a fax.

"As you'll all, you will all be together this weekend

"at the Peninsula Hotel, you'll be in

"Mr. Gandolfini's company, and as you all know,

"Mr. Gandolfini is not negotiating this season

"in good faith. We would appreciate it if the cast members,

"maybe, would be able in some way to have a discussion

"with regard to, let's put this to bed so we can go back to.

- They wanted to have a meeting at the Peninsula?

- They wanted us to meet with each other, Jimmy actually,

to say, "Hey, Jimmy, you know, really, you know, come on.

"Why are you being so tough?"

It sounds like the Godfather.

- And you know, you know nobody would, nobody would do that.

- Did they try to recruit you, did they try

to recruit you to intercede on their part?

- Correct.

- Did you tell, you guys told Jim, right?

- They didn't understand us very well, did they?

- No, no, no.

- So let me tell you what happened.

- This is great.

- So we decided that Saturday, when we had all landed,

we didn't have to do the gig until Sunday night.

I say, okay, so they send the limousines.

They pick you up at the Peninsula and they bring you

to the Kodak Theater, whatever the hell it was.

We decided we're going to get out of the cars

and we're not going to talk to anybody.

We didn't talk to a reporter.

We didn't talk to anybody who tried to interview us.

We did not stop for pictures.

So this was a sea, a school of fish like this

coming out of cars and going 350, 400 feet

to the entrance of the theater, boom,

inside with our mouths closed.

You wanted a little publicity, HBO?

You just got it.

- Wow.

- That's a great story, man.

I never heard that.

- That is a great story.

- True as the day is long.

- No, of course it is.

- Who the fuck are you?

- Didn't they understand that Jimmy was not only

our boss in the show,

but he's the boss? - Right, right.

- Who do you think you're trying to manipulate?

I don't need HBO to set my table.

I couldn't care less.

- No.

- Take the part away from me, go ahead,

and that's how I thought about it.

Well, whatever, whatever. - Who could do it, buddy?

- Thank you for that.

- How's your peppers, Charlie?

- They only gave me three.

You have one, he had one, there's another one.

- No, you got another one over there.

- No, I'm telling you, they're going to be hot.

The red peppers are always hot.

- Listen, I enjoyed my life.

I had a good life.

- My life, wait.

I'm sorry, where are we at, a funeral?

Oh, I mean, Vinny passed away.

(Federico laughing)

- I enjoyed my life.

- I'm going towards my retirement stages

and I'm slowing down and I'll have

more dinners with everybody and.

- Thank God.

- More things with my family.

- Listen to me, listen to me.

We're all at a place in our life.

You want a steak, you buy a steak.

You want a car, you buy a car.

A house, buy a house.

- It don't bother, yeah right.

- We had, we had one, not you, you're too young.

We have a com-one commodity left.

- What?

- [Arthur] One.

- What, a coffin?

- Time.

- I know.

- We have one commodity.

Our trick now. - This is really good.

- Is not to get another part, not to sit on the 6 train,

learn our lines on a way to audition.

Our job now is to stay alive.

The last commodity is time.

- Well, you also want to go out smelling like a rose.

- Yeah, if they find me the first day, I will.

(all laughing)

(lively music)

- There was a reporter that called me.

She said,

"What do you think about, you know,

"James Gandolfini, and you know, this whole thing with HBO,"

and I said,

"Well, I support Jim, and I think what he's doing is right,"

and so I never worked with HBO ever again.

So basically. - What was it, the contract,

they called you to ask you about the contract negotiation?

- No, yeah they were, they asked me a question.

- What the hell would they ask you that for?

- It was somebody that I kind of knew, you know,

and they called and I said, "This is off the record, right?"

And then they fucking printed it.

(Arthur cackling)

- That's like you're the cops.

- Unbelievable.

- When I was a detective in a scene,

they would bring you in internal affairs, TV

detention, whatever it was whenever they said,

"Look, Arthur, this is off the record."

As soon as you hear that, really, that was cop speak

for this, this is being recorded.

So as soon as they said that to you, "Oh, by the way,

"this is off the record." You knew everything

they're saying to you is taped.

- Is gonna be, they're taping it, yeah.

- Oh yeah.

- Off the record.

- Did you ever work with Jim before, before Sopranos?

- Jimmy and I studied with this guy who's Greek,

Nico Hartos, but Jimmy was in a different class.

- But you guys knew each other beforehand?

- Yeah, beforehand.

- [Vincent C.] Yeah, I knew him too.

- You too?

- I'll tell you how I met him.

It was a place we used to hang out.

We. I used to hang out with Sirico called Mary Lou's.

You know it well.

So I saw this guy and this guy looks familiar.

He wasn't at Sirico's table,

he was walking around at the bar.

Happened to be Sirico's 50th birthday party,

that's how long ago this was.

So for the next few, this is 1992.

Sopranos didn't begin until, shooting until '98.

- Right, '97, '98.

- Except the pilot was '97, anyway.

So I said, "How you doing? How are you?"

It was just that kind of thing, you know?

"What's the, yeah, I'm trying to keep busy,"

but whatever it was.

They cast me in the sixth episode of the first season,

and again, we'll go back to,

you have to go to the table read.

So I walk into the room where the table read is,

and I see this guy sitting there.

I said, "What are you doing here?"

He said, "I play Tony."

He said, just like, "I play Tony Soprano."

- Oh, God bless him.

- "You never told me that.

"How many nights, two o'clock in the morning,

"you never told me you got a show, man."

I didn't want to say anything.

Imagine.

- [Federico] Such a humble guy, man.

- How sweet he was, such a sweet man.

- What a humble person.

- Saw him constantly, and I saw him in a couple

of little movies before that, you know, but nothing big.

I said, "What are you doing here?"

He said, "I play Tony Soprano." Just like that.

- Yeah, he's a great guy.

- He did a lot of supporting character roles

and your eyes would just go to him.

He was that charismatic on screen.

- What about when he was in True Romance?

- True Romance.

- Wasn't he great in that?

- He blew that out of the water, incredible.

- You, Me and Dupree, that little part he had.

Trying to fix his damn tie.

- He told me he didn't get along with Denzel.

- Oh really?

- Yeah, no, he didn't get along with Denzel Washington.

- That's what he said.

- He said he had a fight with Denzel.

- I remember he told me.

- What about when he played the gay guy with Brad Pitt?

- The Mexican. - That's right.

The Mexican, there was the.

- And he dies.

- And I worked with him.

- When he died, that movie ended for me.

That was the greatest guy. - And I worked with him.

I worked with him and Brad Pitt.

They were together again,

in New Orleans. - In Killing Me Softly.

That was great.

You were wonderful in that,

by the way. - Thank you.

We were there for two months in New Orleans.

- The first time I ever met him was right before

we shot the first, my first episode of Pie-o-My

and we went to Monmouth, New Jersey in the afternoon.

They put me in a hotel, put all the other actors,

it was in a bus, we went down in a bus,

and I went to the bar.

We have a show tomorrow.

So I'm standing in a bar.

Next to me is a pole.

I'm having a drink, and this guy walks in and you know,

I have the presence, physical presence

and I look right behind and it's Jimmy,

and I said, "Hey, how you doing?"

I go, "I'm going to be on a show tomorrow."

He went, "Hey. How you doing? yeah yeah."

I said, "Let me buy you a drink."

He said, "No, no, let me buy you a drink,"

and I went "Hey, (speaking foreign language)

"let me buy you a drink."

(speaking foreign language) is, you know, squash in Italian.

I says, "Hey, (speaking foreign language), look."

He says, "That's what my father always called me."

- That's funny, man.

- Case closed, have another drink and then of course,

you know, we were late the next day.

- You know, his two sisters live near me.

- They were great, his sisters, yeah.

- I, in fact, I had dinner with them, I don't know,

four weeks ago and then a couple of weeks ago,

we did a birthday party for him, posthumously,

in his hometown of Park Ridge, New Jersey.

Which is near Upper Saddle River.

- You did a birthday party for him?

How nice. - Yeah, and they wanted

to have a little feast in his honor, you know?

And Federico came and his sisters are very humble

and they're very unassuming.

Whatever he did, always included both of his sisters.

- Sure.

- Whatever event, whatever flight, whatever the,

whatever the hell it was.

Those two sisters supported him emotionally, I would say,

while he was trying to come up.

He never forgot that.

- Who is the lady that was so close to him?

She had a kind of a strange.

- Susan.

- Susan Ba-, not Susan Bassinger.

- No, no, no, no, no, no, don't, she was.

- [Federico] Was that the one that?

- She was a gatekeeper, she was.

- Oh, I know.

- Tarantino?

- No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Skinny, very skinny, Irish.

- I don't know, she had a different name.

- I can find out, I can find out now if you want.

- [Arthur] Remember her?

- Yeah, yeah, check it out.

- I'm curious too.

- You had to go through her,

you know what I'm talking about?

- Yeah, I know, I do.

I thought it was Angela Tarantino.

- No, no, it's not a regular name.

It's not like Barbara or Louise or something, it's.

- Really?

- Yeah, it's a different kind of.

- I'll find out right now.

- She was a very strong person, very lovely person.

- Toby.

- No, man.

He hated Toby.

- [Vincent P.] Oh yeah.

- Oh, oh my God.

- She's going to watch this.

- So what, you know?

- Vinny, we already played our parts.

- You think we're gonna get hired by HBO again?

- The show's over 12 years. (Federico laughing)

- You got a contract?

Oh, sorry about that.

- No, this is an audition for tomorrow on HBO, stop.

- You got to do nudity.

I got news for you, you ain't getting the part.

- I told them if they hire me,

I am not taking my clothes off.

- That's it, Trixie.

- Trixie!

- Her name is Trixie.

- Trixie, I remember her.

Told her that, yes, yes, absolutely.

- Very prominent person in his life.

- Whatever happened to Trixie?

She wouldn't, you couldn't get them without Trixie.

- You're right.

- I took off my clothes in a play with Federico.

- That's what I was about to say.

Do you know that he got?

- Trixie.

- Boy, if you wanna do a nude scene, do a nude scene.

- I'm not doing a nude scene now.

- Suppose you were in the Deuce and they wanted you to do.

- I'd say no!

Why would I take my clothes off?

- What I personally would like to see.

- Who wants to see me naked?

- Jacques Cousteau.

- I would personally like to see you take your clothes off.

- You'd get more kicks out of watching

a sumo wrestler naked.

- It could be like an underwater show.

- Aquaman.

- Jacques Cousteau, look at this.

- Trying to encourage his creative side here, okay?

- My creative side, who gots?

So I got naked in one show, one episode.

- On Sopranos?

- Yes, yes.

- You did, you did.

- I had, my ass was sticking out,

and my head was sticking in a rat trap.

- That's correct.

- And Silvio stuck his head in there, and it was like.

It was real quick, but I was naked.

My ass was sticking out.

- You know who else, you know who else was naked?

- Who?

- But, (Federico laughing)

Joey Pants, Joe Pantoliano.

- Oh, please.

- Or, Joey sans a Pants.

Isn't that like, but yeah, he, he was actually

walking around the set completely naked.

Yeah. Yeah.

- He probably had a penile implant or something.

Who knows.

- Talking about actors on the show,

and I say this to you all the time.

He's a mutual friend of Vinny and I, his name is Tony Cucci.

Big guy. - Oh yeah, yeah.

- Wasn't his wife in the casting or something?

- Tina.

- Tina.

- Right.

- Little doll.

- I remember.

- Tiny girl, gorgeous.

Gorgeous kid.

Tony Cucci, the only scene that's prominent for me

ever in the whole show in 43 episodes.

- Is when you kill him.

- Is when I stabbed Tony Cucci, Fat Dom, to death,

me and, me and Stevie van Zandt jumps up on his back.

We stabbed the fucking guy.

That scene took three days to film.

It was, there was a transit strike.

It was, it ended on Christmas Eve, whatever year it was.

- He used to be a Chippendale.

- He was a Chippendale dancer on, on First Avenue.

- I don't know if I want to hear that.

(Federico laughing)

- He was a Chippendale dancer.

- I don't know if he wants to hear that.

- Yes he does, he talks about it.

- No, he's very proud of that.

He did very well.

- He told everybody in my class

that he was a Chippendale dancer.

- He was in the play with you, that, that play.

- Yeah.

- [Arthur] He was in, he was in On the Waterfront.

- On the Waterfront too.

Me and Tony were.

- That show, that, that scene starts with Steven van Zandt

on his back, and we just beat the Nicky off that poor guy.

- Well, you're two tough guys.

- But can I tell you?

- But the whole scene was Tony Cucci.

Without Tony Cucci we could've never have done it.

Could've never have done it.

- You just reminded me of something.

- [Arthur] Go ahead.

- Do you remember Burt Young?

He was amazing.

I mean, we hadn't seen Burt in a long time.

He had been, I mean, I don't know if he was doing film.

- Well, he was on a comeback though.

He had gotten thin again.

Yeah, yeah, he was, he looked great.

- Burt Young, and I love Burt.

He's a painter as well, and you know,

had really great connection over the years,

and I'm telling you.

- Remember which season?

- Did he, I think he got nom,

didn't he get nominated for a, for an Emmy

or something or for a SAG award?

- Probably.

- I mean, he was, his, I'm telling you what he did in that

episode was amazing. - He's a great actor.

- You know, Georgianne Walken walked up to me

on the soundstage of Silver Cup.

She said to me, "I'd like you to give

"this script to your father."

"My father?"

I said, "Why, why?"

- What do you mean, your real father?

- Oh yeah, your father.

- My real father.

- Yeah, he had a great face, his father with a mustache.

- I said, "My father is not an actor."

"No, no, no, no, no, listen to me. Listen to me.

"All I want you to do, take the weekend, read it with him.

"Read it with him, and then, you know, just call me Monday."

"For what?"

She had intentions of my father

playing Burt Young's, my father is not an actor.

- Did you give it to your father?

Was he interested?

- No, I, if I brought it home to my father,

he would make fun of me.

- I did one bullshit movie, my father saw it.

Then you know what my father did?

He was 80 years old.

He went and got headshots.

(all laughing)

I swear to God.

- During the fourth season, when my character kind of

has this like unrequited love affair with

Edie Falco's character, Carmela.

- Oh yeah.

- They were, they were, you know, to be honest with you,

you know, speaking of Edie, I never thought I'd ever work

with Edie, I mean, like, to the extent

that I've worked with on the show.

I mean, I always admired her from a-

- Did you know her before the show?

- Actually, no, no.

I only saw her like a couple of times in the series Oz.

- I used to work with her.

I worked with her a number of times before the show.

- Really, before The Sopranos?

- Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was around a long time before The Sopranos.

I mean, I had 20 movies under my belt.

- What'd you do, what'd you do with her?

- I did plays with her.

I did, I did a lot of readings with her.

I did, she was in, she was Copland with me.

- That's right, absolutely.

- You're kidding me?

- She played a deputy.

- She, she played a small part.

She's a, she was a bomb expert in Copland.

- She made the mistake of pulling over

Harvey Keitel in his car.

- That was her.

- Yeah, we used to go dim the lights at,

what's the place on 43rd,

Playwrights Horizon or something like that?

- Playwright's Horizon.

- I used to go. I used to do readings with her all the time,

all around with Edie.

Yeah, she was.

- That's interesting, - But she was good, man,

you know what I'm saying?

She was, remember we did a movie with what's her name?

We did a $40,000 movie with Calista Flockhart.

- Oh wow.

- $40,000.

- [Vincent P.] Something, Baby, Baby, Baby Joe or.

- John Doe's Sister or whatever the hell it was.

- Whatever it was.

- But when you saw her.

- That was before her show took off.

- No, it was before anybody.

She was just a kid, she was-

- [Vincent C.] You had to split that money

to buy a cheeseburger?

- Wait a second.

How about, how about the movie we did with Sandra Bullock.

How about that, Sandra Bullock?

- She don't wanna, she don't even have that on her resume.

- My point is when you saw the talent.

- We've all done bad films.

- When you saw, no no, I'm not talking about the film.

I'm talking about the individual.

When you saw the talent, you went "Holy mackerel.

"This kid's going somewhere."

- How about Costello?

- When you, when you saw Johnny Costello.

- So when you, when you saw, Sandra Bullock was nobody.

She was nothing.

- That was the same movie.

- That was, we made another $40,000 movie.

No, it was one of those jobs.

- It was the same movie.

- Whatever, P.S.

- Just show the two of them, all right.

Just bring the camera, come this way.

Come over my shoulder.

- It's the same with Johnny Costello.

- I'm, when you. (Federico laughing)

- It was not.

- Johnny Costello, I'm not talking about.

When you saw Sandra Bullock the first time.

You couldn't, you said "Holy mackerel, that girl

"is terrific." - You want to say what she was doing in the movie?

- I want to go back to.

- When you saw Edie in that show.

- [Federico] Just, yeah, yeah.

- I was trying to get there.

- Forget about Sandra.

- P.S.

- [Vincent P.] Go get your shine box.

(all laughing)

(lively music)

- So what about the fact you were never permitted

to ad lib a word or a syllable?

- Well, the pilot you were.

- Okay.

- The pilot you could ad lib.

- Well, you know, my character had

a little bit of leeway because.

- Because you always spoke in Italian.

- Spoke in Italian, definitely.

- You know, writers being what they are, and I feel

that they, for some reason, maybe perceive themselves

as being inspired by the gods, I don't know.

Sorry.

- Well said.

I'm with you.

- They always had that air about them that what they write

should be on Mount Rushmore.

- Well, why not?

- Well, I'll tell.

- I mean, I write plays, I don't want an actor

going up there and saying different words.

- No, we didn't say about different words.

We're talking about within the frame of the character.

Now you're playing the character season

after season after season.

You hear how we speak.

- Write for me a little bit.

- How come it doesn't sound that way when I get a script?

Why is that?

So I remember one time I did a scene with Jimmy,

at the Universal Studio soundstage, and there was a word

in there, an Italian word that made no sense.

Terry Winter wrote the episode.

So Terry is in the hall, you know, he stays,

you have to stay there when you're writing.

So Jimmy goes over to Terry and says, "Terry,

"Vince says this word, doesn't make any sense."

"Why, what's the matter?"

"Can we change it?"

He says, "I can't change it."

"What do you mean, you can't change it?"

"He said, I got to talk to David."

For the one fuckin' word? all right.

Terry got David.

"Vince says the word's no good!" Son of a-

(all laughing)

You son of a bitch.

- He said that to David.

- Yeah, now I'm pissing on his script, okay.

- He threw you under the bus, man.

- So, well, "What's, what's the right word?"

Terry says, "What's the right word? and I said "It's,"

and I don't remember what the hell it was.

- [Federico] Right.

Jimmy said, "I'm not saying it unless it's the right word."

Vince says, "That's the right word."

"Okay."

That's all you heard over the phone to Terry.

Then we said the right word.

I'd be like, well, what is this, the Bible?

Seriously?

- One day I got a call from David Chase.

Well, I got a call from the, the, the office, The Sopranos.

They, "Federico, we've got David, hold on for David."

So he got on the phone, I'm driving across town

from Manhattan, going back to Jersey.

"Federico."

"Yeah, David, how are you, how's it going?"

He's like, "Yeah, can you, could you tell me

"what the word (speaking foreign language) means?"

I said, "(speaking foreign language) means, you know,

"when, when things are not going right, you know.

- Frustration.

- "You like, yeah, you're frustrated, you know?"

He goes, "Well, what else would you add with that?"

I said, "Well, you could say, (speaking foreign language)

"or (speaking foreign language)"

He goes, "What's, what's that?"

He goes, "What's, what's (speaking foreign language)?"

I said, "Well, you know, in Naples, back in the day,

"when the Marines would come in, they would wreak havoc.

"You know, every, you know, restaurants, they would get

"into fights and everything and you know,

"the saying was (speaking foreign language)"

So that, that was the saying.

- Oh, because of the Marines.

- So once I explained it to him, he starts laughing

and he goes, "Thanks a lot," and he hangs up.

I get the script for the next episode.

It was when Janice shoots David Preval's character,

Gia Aprile, and my character comes in to clean up the body

with yeah, yeah, and Tony throws me the keys

and my line is, "Cadillac. (speaking foreign language)."

You know, he's more interested, he's more upset

about getting rid of the Cadillac than this fuckin' body.

(Federico laughing)

- That's right.

Well, that's how they are.

- Well, I had so few lines.

I mean, I wanted to do them all.

The only time I didn't.

(Federico laughing) - What the fuck.

- I only had, I had 43 episodes, I had 43 lines.

- I had so few lines, I wanted to do them all.

- I mean, it wasn't a critical part I played.

I killed Fat Dom, and in the middle of killing Fat Dom,

or in the lead up to stabbing him to death,

I turned around and I made a reference to his,

body part of his mother.

- Oh.

- It was just filthy.

- And you didn't want to do that?

- It's a word I would never say.

I did it kind of little and when I see it,

it looks like I did it little.

It wasn't, it wasn't emphatic,

the way a guy who was angry enough

to stab a guy to death would have done.

I didn't want to do that line.

It was filthy.

Other than that, it was mostly.

- I didn't want to hug my wife.

- Really?

Jenny.

- I just, I didn't want to hug here.

- Why didn't you want to hug her?

- I didn't want to hug her when I found her

with the candy downstairs by the washer and the dryer,

and I was upset that she wasn't staying on, I-

- You mean, as an actor, you, you.

- As an actor I felt.

- You felt your character didn't.

- I was too pissed off to hug her, and it was a, you know,

I just said to myself, I, if that was my wife,

I would be so mad, so disappointed, so aggravated

that you don't want to live a healthy life.

I, the last thing I'm gonna do is hug you

and tell you how much I love you.

- Yeah.

- I'm going to tell you either

you get the fuck out or I'm going.

- Well how did you play it?

- But Johnny Sack loved her.

- I had to, right, I had to play sweet.

- [Federico] Johnny Sack loved his wife.

- [Vincent P.] You had to hug her.

- I had to hug her, I had to say no.

- Vincent, in real life that girl passed away, right?

- About eight years ago.

- She did, yeah yeah.

- About eight years ago.

- She was, what was her name?

- Denise Borino. - Denise Borino.

- She was terrific.

- She passed away.

- She wasn't, she wasn't in the business.

- She was on that line, 1,700 people or something.

- The thing about your character.

- More, they did more than that.

- Actually, his character loved that, that woman, you know,

and he cared about her, and that's why

they wrote that in there, the way he.

- That was a whole storyline.

- Yeah, but no, I mean, you talk about.

- You didn't want to do that.

- I didn't want to do it.

I didn't want, I wasn't feeling it.

Not that I got to feel something to play it.

- Remember the last scene that I ever did on that show.

Well, I did come back as a ghost once in a while,

but when we were drinking the tequila?

- Yes, that's right.

- And I said, I drank, "We used to drink this stuff

"under the table," and then I ate her out.

The first take, I did it, and David says, "No, Vinny,"

and David's like standing right there, and he says,

"Do this." (Federico laughing)

I said, "You don't want me to do that, do you?"

I said, "My kid's going to watch this show,"

and he said, "Vinny, do that," and I did it.

- But it was great, man.

- But I didn't want to do it.

- But those guys, see if you.

- I didn't want to do it.

- Yeah, all right, but the one, one of the things.

- The right point being, yeah.

- One of the things that I felt once I got,

once I got the job, then I started really overthinking this,

this scene when I go in there and I beat the guy up,

and I shoot the thing and I'm grabbing the girl.

I throw her over. - You were so goofy.

- So I, you know, I'm supposed to punch this girl,

and what's it going to look like, I mean.

- It's gonna look bad.

- It's gonna look bad and so.

- You didn't want to do it.

- I don't want to do it, no.

So now I'm talking to several people there,

and they're all convincing me:

It's like, "You know, you don't want to change that."

So I had to rethink it.

I said, okay, Federico wouldn't do this,

but would Furio do this,

and he would. - [Arthur] True.

That makes sense.

- So that's what convinced me is that the character.

- Well, you become the character.

- [Federico] Exactly.

- So Federico's not hitting the person.

- But it's morally, morally.

- [Vincent P.] It's Furio.

- It's like, you know, the image of being,

it was almost like that guy that you were pissing on, right?

He was, he was going crazy,

because the actor. - He was going crazy, right.

- These are the choices that we make when we,

when we step into these roles, that we do things

that we wouldn't do normally, but the characters

that we play would do 'em, you know.

- He was, he was with a guy, he was supposed to work

with a guy that he was supposed to beat

the living shit out of, right, in the scene,

and the guy was resistant.

Why don't you tell the story, you're, you're.

- I gotta remember who.

- You pissed on somebody?

- Well, yeah, in other words,

I'm in a bar with my guy, Joe Peeps, and there's a guy

that's smirking, talking to the bartender and I caught him.

I see who he is, and Peeps says to me,

"He's talking about Jenny when she was skinny.

"She was a great dancer," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So he keeps talking, I'm ignoring what he's saying.

I'm, I'm, I'm stalking this guy now.

He finally walks out of the bar and I run across the street,

and I said, "Hey! So-and-so!" Boom, and I start,

I just start to beat.

- It was a brutal beat.

- It was a bad, yeah, it was a bad beat and the kicking.

So they put that thing on, on your, on your ankle

so that you can only kick to a certain distance.

You don't want to hurt the other guy of course, whatever.

So, "Son of a bitch," dop, da da boop, boody boop,

"Making fun of my wife."

I said, "Okay, hang on, hang on, hang on.

"Hey, you want a drink?

"You want a-" so I pull down my fly, supposedly.

Peeing on the guy, had a, I had a, you know,

you have the hose, you know, but it was four degrees

on a February night, so they had to put alcohol

on the water or it was not

gonna do the thing. - Froze, yeah yeah.

- I guess that my vision of it at that night

and the vision of the, the director and the other actor

were completely and totally different.

I'm going to leave it there.

- [Federico] Yeah.

- The actor didn't want to do it then?

- He didn't want any piss on him.

- No, I don't say.

- Well, who wants anybody to piss on them?

- No, no, he was doing his job.

He did not resist that.

What I'm saying was I, I didn't want

to do it. For two reasons.

First of all, I thought my guy was too high ranking,

to go down that road. - Oh, interesting.

So that's something else you didn't want to do.

- I did not want to do it.

I thought he was too high-ranking.

Yes, he loved his wife, he was devoted to his wife,

but this was something, especially out in public areas,

even though he was drunk.

No, it's not about the other actor.

It's about the fact that it could have been

handled differently and more humiliating in a different way.

- Can I tell you something?

- May I just quickly, just very quickly?

As an actor, that was, what a choice.

- Yeah, wow.

- Your character, Johnny Sack was another level of gangster.

- Well, well, well.

- I understand that was not a thing.

As you say, it could have been handled other ways.

- Much different.

- Beautifully thought out, as an actor, I really mean that.

What a choice. - I tell you something.

I saw that, it's very realistic what he did.

I, so no, and I'll tell you why.

You know, we all grew up around people that we, you know,

we, you know, they don't show you their, their mob card,

but you know who they are.

- Their mob card.

(Federico laughing)

- Right.

- When I was a kid, I used to call them the big hats,

and my father goes, shut up.

Hey Dad, look at that big hat he's got.

Shut up.

- But, you know.

- The what?

- Big hats.

They all wear hats.

When I was a kid, they all had fedoras.

- There was a guy who was big guy in Paterson, New Jersey,

and I remember, like, it was like three o'clock

in the morning, and this is one of the bosses

in that particular area. Just unzipped his thing,

started pissing in the middle of the street.

So, I mean, they come from a rough life.

They come from like, you know, their, their beginnings

are really fucking rough.

That character would have definitely done that

in my opinion and I thought it was, I thought it was great.

(speaking foreign language)

- I been eating.

- Who ate all the cheesecake?

- [Arthur] I wound up eating it all.

- I think it was him.

- No, no.

- [Arthur] I ate that, I ate it.

- What's this, cheesecake?

- I saw you eyeing that shit up.

- [Arthur] I did it.

- Oh, you, it was you.

- I ate the cheese, we whacked it up.

- He couldn't help himself, look at this.

- No, that's it.

- [Arthur] Nah, don't worry.

You got diabetes.

Don't worry about it.

- What I was going to say before. - I'm doing good though.

- No, no, but you remember, where there was supposed to end

the series with a film, a movie.

- Yeah, I know.

- That ends the entire series.

- Yeah, I know all about it.

- And I asked Jim after I read that.

- I was supposed to be in it.

- I see, Jim said, he goes, I was in his,

passed by his trailer, he was inside.

- But Jimmy passed away.

- So they're never gonna make it.

That's it.

- No, but Jimmy said that it was going to happen,

but it wasn't going to be right away.

- No.

I'll tell you the story.

- [Federico] And then he passed away. - You wanna hear the story?

- Little Steven's mother passed away.

Remember we went to the wake.

- [Vincent C.] Yeah, sure.

- After the wake, we went over to Stevie's

sister's restaurant and we were eating and I was sitting

and it was Max Weinberg, Jimmy, Sirico, Little Steven,

David was sitting there and David said to Jimmy,

"So you're ready to get back to work?" And Jimmy said,

"I got this one thing I got to get done,

"and then let's go back," and he, I loved him,

I miss him, he looked right across the table.

He says, "and you better bring Vinny back,"

and David said, "We'll work it out."

- Wow.

- And I don't know how they were going to do that but.

- Well, could do it.

- It, it's television.

- Absolutely right.

- He was on an acid trip or something.

- Whatever.

- But I think they were going to do a movie with him.

- Yeah, they were, absolutely.

- [Vincent P.] Isn't that something?

- Did you get any call or anything for the new film,

like the prequel, Many Saints of Newark?

- They invited me to a, all the parties

and everything, but I didn't go.

- You got invited to the parties?

- There was a par, an opening party.

- Look, that was nice that they offered, but come on.

- But you know what I did?

No, now listen to me.

The kid who plays. Listen. let me say.

The kid who played Little Pussy, David told him to call me.

He called me, he came to my acting class.

I took him to dinner.

- Who's the actor, who's the actor that plays?

- He's from Texas.

- Really?

Italian guy?

- No, he's Hawaiian.

- Hawaiian?

- Plays Little Pussy.

- Really?

- Nice kid.

- Does he have a lisp or no?

- No, but he's a nice kid.

- All right.

I was just curious, I mean like, they're trying to get.

- No, nothing against the kid, but Hawaiian.

- He was Hawaiian.

- Probably a Minoan, what do you call them?

Not Hawaiian, he's.

- Sumo wrestler.

- They're not Hawaiian, they're Maoris.

- Michael, Michael's going to be great in it.

- Michael, Michael, yeah, Gandolfini.

- He's going to be great.

- I heard, I heard that.

- He's really good.

- [Arthur] He's good on the Deuce.

- I'm wondering though, if when the credits come up

at the beginning of this film, people obviously

gonna realize that none of us are in it.

- Sirico's in it.

- No, no, no.

I just, I just.

- I heard that.

- I spoke to Sirico.

I'm going to tell you what happened with that.

Do you mind, do you?

- No, go right ahead.

Go right ahead.

- I originally saw Tony.

He's doing, he's doing well.

He's doing much better actually, and I asked him about that,

'cause I had heard that, you know, he was supposed

to be in it or something.

- Yeah, he didn't want to do it.

- And he goes, no, he said, well,

he wasn't feeling well at the time.

What happened was they wanted him to do a voiceover.

David called him to do a voiceover in the beginning,

like when the thing opens up.

Very first, yeah, first scene, he does the voiceover

and then David calls him back up and says,

"Unfortunately, we're not going to go with it."

That was the only person, I think, that was going to be

out of the original cast that was going to be in it.

- No, I, I heard that Edie there was sitting

at the table and everything.

- Edie?

- What, in the movie?

- That's what I heard.

- Edie is in the film?

- I heard they were sitting at the table,

eating dinner or something.

- Who are they?

- Then I heard wrong.

- Well.

- Edie's not in it?

- [Federico] From what I hear.

- No, nobody's in it.

- No one's, no one from the original cast.

- That's my point.

My point is when the credits come up, and the movie

comes on the screen, people know they're not

gonna see any of us.

- It's a whole different era.

It's a whole. - It's a different era.

No, I get it.

- And the operative term to the film is the prequel.

- That's right, right.

- There's not higher mathematics.

A prequel is.

- No, no, no, no, no, no, but listen,

there's, there's, there's diehard fans.

- The only guy that could have played anything is Jimmy's,

the guy that played Jimmy's father.

Remember, he used to play.

- That's right, and he didn't get.

He's not even in it.

- He's not in it.

- That poor guy's got cancer, that poor guy.

- Oh, I saw him.

- Joe Siravo.

- Joe Siravo, wonderful guy.

- God bless him.

- Lovely guy.

- I ran into him at an audition, man, and I asked him.

- Very sick, he was very sick.

He's the only guy that could have been.

- So who plays Jimmy's father in the movie, Ray Liotta?

- Jimmy's father's played by, you know this actor.

- The guy with the flat nose.

- Flat nose, balding up here.

- Right.

- Yeah, he's a great actor.

He's been in a lot of stuff.

- But my question, my question, my question is,

what does the prequel do?

Well, I mean, what is the purpose of the prequel?

- Well, you know, here's, here's what happens.

- To give people more.

- I'd like to hear this 'cause you were on this.

No listen, excuse me,

because you were on from day one, the pilot.

So you're very close to this show.

What do you think about a prequel?

- A prequel?

- What do you think?

That's what I'd like to know from you.

How do you feel about it?

- Well, what it does is, it keeps, it keeps us alive.

It, the fact that the movie's coming out

and it's 20 years anniversary and there's interest

in The Sopranos, it keeps us all alive.

- Okay.

- There's an interest in The Sopranos.

- Good answer.

- Well, you know, if, if this film,

if this film is a success, they may spin off

into a series, into a prequel series.

- Yeah, I heard that.

We see it.

People who, kids who never saw the show before, right,

they come up to us.

- There's a whole, there's a whole new generation.

- And they're saying, "I just watched it for the first time"

and blah, blah, blah and blah, blah, blah,

and it keeps us going. - Yeah, you're right.

- There's people watching us on cell phones now.

- Oh, sure.

- Every time there's a new platform there's another,

another wave. - And right now I'm renovating my kitchen,

so I could use, I could use the residuals.

It ain't coming from HBO.

- Vincent, when is the next residual period coming up?

- Now.

- Hey, thank you.

- So, thank you Vinny for taking us out to dinner.

I understand this is on,

on your credit card. - Thank you so much.

- Yeah, yeah, it is, yeah.

- Thank you.

- Which I stole from you when you bent over.

- Nobody on The Sopranos cast ever had alligator arms.

- No, we all splurged.

- We're all like, boom.

- We're all spenders on this show.

- We got deep pockets.

- [Vincent C.] Absolutely.

- All right, guys.

Great to see you.

- It's a pleasure.

- Love you, man.

- Johnny.

Johnny Sacks. - God bless you.

God bless you, Vinny.

Federico.

- [Federico] Great to see you.

- [Vincent C.] God bless you.

- We did okay.

(speaking foreign language)

- Federico, Federico.

- [Federico] Oh, I'll come and kiss you, come on.

- [Arthur] What'd I have, 40 napkins I use here?

Sacks, I don't know what the hell that show

would do without you.

- This was nice. - Yes, very nice.

- Tell you a million times.

- [Vincent P.] I love it.

- God bless you.

(elegant piano music)