Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa: ‘People say The Sopranos is their comfort food – even though it’s about killers and drug addicts’

For six seasons, Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperioli lived at the heart of television’s most notorious crime family. Decades on, they speak to Annabel Nugent about the show’s legacy, James Gandolfini, and what Tony Soprano’s mobsters would’ve made of Trump

Co-hosts of ‘Talking Sopranos’ Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperioli are taking their hit podcast this side of the Atlantic this month (Getty)

It’s strange to think that had things been different, there might’ve been a seventh season of The Sopranos – that in another world, David Chase’s ambitious, mean mob opera, and with it James Gandolfini’s ambitious, mean mobster Tony Soprano, could have returned to screens one last time. “There was talk of us coming back,” says Michael Imperioli, whose performance as Tony’s problem nephew Christopher won him an Emmy. It was around 2012, five years after the show wrapped, that the idea of a reboot was first floated.

“There was even talk at one point of us doing a prequel, like with us in it – which given our age didn’t really make any sense,” says Imperioli from the dark alcove of a hotel room somewhere. “I remember Jim was like, ‘What are we gonna do? Wear wigs and girdles like Star Trek?” He laughs to himself, lost in the memory. “Yeah, I remember Jim saying that.”

Any chance of a reunion would be stamped out for good when Gandolfini died aged 51 of a heart attack a year later. “I think he would have gone for it for the right price and the right script but then he passed away – and without Jim it didn’t make sense,” adds Steve Schirripa on a separate call, Zooming in from home where behind him today are a raft of framed photographs – some of him in character as Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri, the mob’s most domesticated soldier, and others of him alongside Clint Eastwood, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Tony Danza, and Tony Bennett.

And so, barring a spin-off movie that starred none of the original cast – 2021’s The Many Saints of Newark – The Sopranos remains preserved as a singular moment in time: six seminal seasons of complicated and clever television that have proven rich enough to justify decades of discussion. Not least on Talking Sopranos, the rewatch podcast that Imperioli and Schirripa hosted during the pandemic, when viewership skyrocketed as older fans embarked on their billionth rewatch and new ones discovered it for the first time. “People say it’s their comfort food, which is funny because it’s about killers and drug addicts,” says Imperioli. “But there are people who have been with us since it first came on air, and they have memories of watching it on Sundays with family and friends. It occupies a special place.”

Schirripa and Imperioli are bringing their podcast this side of the Atlantic for the first time this month. On air, they make a right pair: Schirripa is a laugh, while Imperioli carries a more sober tone about him. It took them a while to find their groove when recording, admits Schirripa. “People thought we didn’t like each other,” he says. “The first five episodes were a little rough but then I think we did OK. You know, it was a tall order.”

Tall order, indeed. If fans of The Sopranos did not approve, certainly they would make their disapproval known. It’s a testament to the show’s legacy that fans are so ardent despite the fact social media did not exist back when it was airing. Several accounts have been created retroactively in appreciation of its fashion (gaudy and louche) and dialogue (hilarious and affecting). “Christopher in a Neckbrace” has become a classic Halloween costume.

One guy approached Imperioli in Central Park to show off a tattoo on his calf he’d had done of Christopher. Imperioli gets it: “I became an actor because I was a fan – of Al Pacino and Jon Voight and Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. Musicians, too. I still have that for certain artists.” To be clear, he doesn’t have an Al Pacino tattoo. “But I understand that intense fandom.”

Intense is underselling it, really. The Sopranos was one of the first shows big enough and with a perfervid enough fanbase to justify extreme measures when it came to on-set secrets. The season five fate of Adriana (Christopher’s glamorous girlfriend, played by a phenomenal Drea De Matteo) was famously filmed two ways to stop it getting to the press. And by the end of the show, Schirripa says, the actors were only getting their own pages. “There was a leak on set because somebody was selling information. We had some suspects…” They never did catch the rat.

Schirripa and Imperioli as Bobby Bacala and Christopher Moltisanti in ‘The Sopranos’ (HBO)

Talking Sopranos is full of behind-the-scenes trivia and juicy titbits like this, but when it comes to on-set drama, the pair keep their cards close to their chests. “I never say anything bad about anybody,” says Imperioli. “I mean, I could, but I won’t. I’m sure people say bad things about me – I wouldn’t be surprised – but we tried to keep it above the belt. No low blows. I find it not classy.”

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They are likewise careful to protect Gandolfini’s legacy. Across several documentaries and biographies since his death, the cast and crew have recalled how tough those last months of shooting The Sopranos were amid the actor’s worsening depression and addictions: how he would frequently threaten to quit; how on some days he wouldn’t show up to set at all, a breach in his contract that cost him $250,000 each time. “Look, Jim was a brilliant actor and a wonderful guy, but not without problems,” says Schirripa. “You’re working 16-hour days, you’re making a lot of money, and you have no life. And the fame snuck up on him, and he didn’t expect it. He was very nice to people, to fans, but he wasn’t one of those guys who could hide away.”

Schirripa, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Imperioli, Edie Falco and Gandolfini at a ‘Sopranos’ event in 2006 (Evan Agostini/Getty)

I’ve long wondered whether some of that real-life darkness bled into what we were seeing on screen, as Tony’s storylines became progressively bleaker too. Neither Schirrippa nor Imperioli think so. “I think there were times Jim felt that way, that the series was mirroring some of his life,” Schirripa says. “But I didn’t see that [translate to his performance].” Imperioli agrees, “No, that darkness was necessary to show the karmic debt of all this criminality and amorality.”

For any off-camera drama or backroom politics that may or may not have happened, both actors remember their time on set fondly. “It wasn’t Hollywood-y,” says Schirripa, “and the vibe came from the top down, from Jim. He was the leader, and if he was a schmuck, it would trickle down. But there was none of that diva attitude on set. It just wouldn’t fly. And if anyone did behave like that, you’d get straightened out quickly. David wouldn’t have it, and Jim wouldn’t have it.”

The fact is that these characters are all immigrants, but I think a lot of them would probably be Trump supporters oddly enough

The Sopranos has gone down in history as the first cable show to ever win an Emmy for Best Drama; it’s surreal to think it took a whole five seasons for the series to nab it. When Edie Falco took home the acting prize early on for her performance as OG mob wife Carmela Soprano, she said she felt embarrassed by the win, given that the series had been snubbed elsewhere. She stuffed the statuette in her bag immediately. “The West Wing kept beating us every year,” says Schirripa, with Imperioli adding, “All the reviews were so hyperbolic, and we thought we were going to win – and then it didn’t happen.” That said, they both say it didn’t stop them from having a good time on the company dime.

Family guys: Imperioli and Gandolfini in ‘The Sopranos’ (HBO/Still)

The Sopranos was always about more than mobsters; it was about capitalism and consumerism, human struggle and the banality of evil. It’s tempting to imagine what the show might look like set in America 2026. “The show is about the American dream, especially through the eyes of immigrants,” says Imperioli. “I think that would be one of the big themes if it was made today: the current climate in the US and what they’re doing to immigrants. The fact is that these characters are all immigrants, but I think a lot of them would probably be Trump supporters, oddly enough. So how do they reconcile those things? When Italians came over – and people forget this, or they don’t want to see it – a lot of them were undocumented.”

In 2024, the cast and crew members of The Sopranos reunited at Da Nico, an old red sauce restaurant in Little Italy, New York, where they celebrated the show’s 25th anniversary. Lorraine Bracco, Dominic Chianese, Aida Turturro, Steve Buscemi, Drea de Matteo; the gang was all there. Gandolfini’s absence was felt, and so too was that of Tony Sirico, who’d played wise guy Paulie Walnuts and who had died years earlier following a dementia diagnosis. Who knows if there will be a 30th celebration? “We’re all getting older,” says Schirripa. “Everything changes, but hopefully there will be.” Imperioli compares those six years on set to an experience akin to just hanging out with your friends. “And we would go out afterwards,” Schirripa adds. “We were younger. Going out every night and having a great time – a real good time, maybe a little too good. But we just enjoyed every moment.”

‘Talking Sopranos’ UK tour starts in Belfast tonight (15 February) until 2 March; tickets here