phungal and I were watching TV when the commercial for 1800 Tequila came on. She said "what ever happened to him, which got us talking about The Sopranos and what they have done since the show ended in 2007.
Gandolfini: no major roles since Falco: Nurse Jackie Imperioli: a few TV roles Bracco: a few TV roles Chianese: TV roles, including Boardwalk Empire Sigler: a few TV shows and movies, including Entourage and Ugly Betty Iler: basically nothing
in short, while there is definitely a “body of work” for many of the actors, few real “break-out” roles or lead jobs since the show, other than for Falco.
I believe Gandolfini has been doing a lot of theater work in NY. I get the impression that he’s very happy doing something with a lower profile than The Sopranos for a change.
I agree; it’s not a matter of being typecast as it is that a successful role like that gives the actors the financial and creative freedom to pursue whatever they want.
I think Gandolfini has had some movie roles… although I couldn’t tell you which films he was in.
Given the power of his performance on the show I am surprised that he didn’t break out as a popular film actor after the show ended.
In interviews he seems like such an unassuming guy I wonder if the success he had on the Sopranos was enough for him… I can certainly imagine him playing dramatic roles on Broadway if he wanted to.
As for Imperioli, both Detroit 1-8-7 and Life on Mars were critically well received but didn’t generate good enough ratings to last.
Edie Falco certainly has the highest TV profile as she won an Emmy for the first season of Nurse Jackie, was nominated for the 2nd, and I’m sure will be nominated again…
I think you’ve kind of made up your own defition of “major roles” here. He’s appeared in about a dozen movies in various types of roles, had a starring role in a Broadway show (God of Carnage), and produced a couple of documentaries. It’s true that not all of those things got a lot of hype, but he also doesn’t need the money at this point and he can pretty much do what he wants from a career perspective. Some of those roles would have been a big deal for most other actors. Meanwhile it sounds like he just made a movie with David Chase (Twylyte Zones) that will be out later this year. You will probably hear a lot about that because of the link to The Sopranos.
When we have threads like this, it needs to be stressed that for most actors, a significant role in one movie or HBO series - nevermind a starring role in a very popular series that runs for six seasons - will be the highlight of your career. Very few actors go from one big-budget starring role to another- few get the chance and not all of them want to do that. They get a major role and then more or less go back to the kind of work they were already doing either by choice or necessity. You’re kind of dismissing several people’s careers because nothing else they did was as well known as the Sopranos, but very few shows get that big in the first place. Edie Falco has had some starring roles, Imperioli starred in a few TV series, and IMDb says Lorraine Bracco has a regular role on Rizzoli & Isles. It’s a little unfair to lump Dominic Chianese into this category because he was almost 70 when the show began and had already had a very long career, and acting is a secondary thing for Little Steven. So I’d dispute the notion that most of these people were typecast.
I was unfortunate enough to see Mr. Popper’s Penguins recently, in which the only highlight was when I noticed one of Jim Carrey’s bosses was Junior Soprano!
I was going to wonder out loud if James Gandolfini was going to be the new Tom Sizemore - they were born within a couple of months of each other and have a similar vibe, although Gandolfini’s larger. But looking at their respective IMDB listings I’m more impressed by Gandolfini; Sizemore seems to be trying to become a parody of him and has fallen very far in a few years. He’s in loads of movies where he plays a one-name mob character. He currently has 17 in production, playing (amongst others) Bobby, Randy, Pickett, Robert, Sonny, Ernie, Glen, Lucky and, last but not least, Vito.
He’s in Madoff: Made Off with America which is, according to it’s IMDB trivia entry, “the largest Ponzi scheme in American history”. Make of that what you will. He’s gone from major roles in movies by Steven Spielberg, Tony and Ridley Scott, and Michael Bay, to the Insane Clown Posse’s Big Money Ru$tla$. Either he really likes working, or he’s had a really costly divorce*. Anyway, Gandolfini might still have a killer role in a major film for the ages, I suspect Sizemore will not.
(reads IMDB biography) Oh, so that’s why he needs the money.
Loraine Bracco had a pretty good career before The Sopranos (and was probably the biggest name in the cast when the thing started). She’s been pretty quiet since then, but I think she stays pretty busy w/ her winery.
Ah, Sizemore, when his troubles started becoming front-page news in the entertainment papers he was the lead in a great Michael Mann TV show Robbery Homicide Division, which got canceled after 10 episodes. It didn’t get great ratings, but surely wasn’t helped by the bad publicity from Tom.
I really liked Detroit 1-8-7, and was disappointed (but not incredibly surprised) when it didn’t get enough ratings to hang around. Imperioli was good in it, too.
