Speaker 1: I remember sitting in my honeywagon and a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know what a honeywagon is. The trailer you
Speaker 1: see where all the trailers are parked that have the
Speaker 1: tiniest little rooms ever, so you know, like the main
Speaker 1: actors are not in the honeywag. There were rooms with
Speaker 1: toilets with a pillow on the toilet, so you can
Speaker 1: sit on your toilet while you're waiting to be called up.
Speaker 1: That's a honey wagon. So I would be sitting on
Speaker 1: my in my Honeywag, and every time I got a
Speaker 1: script because they kept bringing me that in my episode
Speaker 1: twelve man, I'm sitting on my toilet and I was
Speaker 1: in twelve scenes and I lost my ship and I
Speaker 1: ran to a pay phone with my script and I
Speaker 1: called my mom collect and I said, mow, you won't
Speaker 1: well it it twelve scenes come. That was it. I
Speaker 1: was on my way to becoming series regular. Hi am
Speaker 1: Dred and Mateo from Brian's favorite show. I there, everybody,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to another episode of Off the Beat.
Speaker 1: I am your host Brian baum Gartner today, I'm your
Speaker 1: happy host. Why well, if you know me at all,
Speaker 1: you know what a fan I am of The Sopranos,
Speaker 1: and today I am bringing on Emmy winner Drea the
Speaker 1: Matteo Adrianna from The Sopranos. Let me listen. Just listen
Speaker 1: to her say Christopher, Christopher, just one time, and you
Speaker 1: will be instantly transported back into the world of the
Speaker 1: New Jersey Mob. There's some spoilers in this one spoiler alert,
Speaker 1: but it's twenty years since The Sopranos, so if you
Speaker 1: haven't watched it, I guess you're not going to um.
Speaker 1: This is an amaze is in conversation about both The
Speaker 1: Office and The Sopranos. I hope you enjoy it as
Speaker 1: much as I did. You're gonna hear from Drea about
Speaker 1: how Adriana was one of her earliest roles and how
Speaker 1: heartbroken she was leaving the show. But since then she's
Speaker 1: gone on to be on one of my other favorite shows,
Speaker 1: Sons of Anarchy, Joey, Desperate Housewives, Shades of Blue, the list,
Speaker 1: it goes on and on. Talking to her today, this
Speaker 1: was even better than I expected, and I expected a lot,
Speaker 1: so I think we should just dive right in. You
Speaker 1: should hear from the woman herself, Drea the Matteo. Everyone
Speaker 1: bubble and squeak. I love it, Bubble and squeak, Bubble
Speaker 1: and squeaker, cooking it every month, left over from the
Speaker 1: nut before. What's up? Hi? How you doing? I'm so sorry, man,
Speaker 1: I could not get it together. Everything in my house
Speaker 1: is misplaced, this wasn't plugged in. I was just like, so,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. It took me a minute to get it
Speaker 1: all together here. Please don't apologize at all. I'm so
Speaker 1: happy that you agreed to come and talk to me.
Speaker 1: I have we ever met? We haven't really. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, we haven't really Allwood style meeting. You know
Speaker 1: how we all just know each other. Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: we just don't kind of know each other. But you know,
Speaker 1: I have a confession to make. I've never watched The Office.
Speaker 1: Well does that seem to me? Because it's right at
Speaker 1: my first of all, well that's okay because we're not
Speaker 1: going to really talk about that today. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so weird and what what years did it run from?
Speaker 1: So it was on the air two thousand five two? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why. Because I was busy having babies and watching
Speaker 1: like baby shows non stuff, and that was it. And
Speaker 1: I don't I don't haven't seen anything that has come out.
Speaker 1: I would say since two thousand seven, Like I completely
Speaker 1: stopped watching television completely except for cartoons Mickey Mouse, Clubhouse
Speaker 1: and ship like that. Well, I'm kind of in the
Speaker 1: same boat. I have a little one to so little ones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's that can be. Do you watch Blueye is Blue?
Speaker 1: On the on the radar? Well, now my kids are big,
Speaker 1: but for a year now we watched Naruto and um
Speaker 1: and Stranger Things. And now I got them into that
Speaker 1: you're gonna crack up. But now I've gotten them to
Speaker 1: watch The Righteous Jim Stones. Really that's great. My daughter
Speaker 1: is like what you know, when the when the sister
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, Daddy, I would shave my asshole. I'm
Speaker 1: going to kill you. M Yeah, just Gemstones. That's where
Speaker 1: we've graduated to. She's fourteen. Now, there you go. That's
Speaker 1: the funniest man alive, the funniest. My son is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they would probably love The Office. I need to watch
Speaker 1: the Office with them, and that's what we're gonna do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, well let's do that. I mean, luckily, for
Speaker 1: this conversation, I've seen everything that you've done, I think,
Speaker 1: so that'll make things go a little smoother. But I
Speaker 1: want to start back before then. You you grew up
Speaker 1: in New York, right in Queens. Yeah, I was born
Speaker 1: in Queen's Um. I went to school in Queen's maybe
Speaker 1: for like a year, and then mom realized, yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: this person shouldn't be raised here in the armpit of America.
Speaker 1: Maybe we get her into the other armpit of American Manhattan.
Speaker 1: I went to school Manhattan for years, but we also
Speaker 1: got we have We lived with my grandmother and Queen's
Speaker 1: but then we had apartments in the city all the time,
Speaker 1: so we were back and forth a lot. And your
Speaker 1: mom was a playwright, is that right? Yes, she taught
Speaker 1: playwriting at HB Studios three years. She was herb Bergof's
Speaker 1: protege um and he would direct all her plays and
Speaker 1: udhah Hagen would star in them. And then when Uda
Speaker 1: got sick, my mom was the healthcare proxy, so she
Speaker 1: was dealing with the studio a lot. So she really
Speaker 1: took care of that place for a lot of years.
Speaker 1: But now she has dementia, which is crazy when like
Speaker 1: one of these brilliant, brilliant minds just couldn't disappears. So
Speaker 1: bizarre to go from being the smartest lady in the
Speaker 1: room to that. Um, but it was Yeah. I grew
Speaker 1: up watching all of them playing house on stage. I
Speaker 1: was like, get me out of here. He's adults are crazy.
Speaker 1: I was playing an house. So you would go to
Speaker 1: rehearsals a lot and you would watch Is that that's
Speaker 1: how you spent your childhood? Every birthday? Every birthday was
Speaker 1: a play opening of hers and she thought it would
Speaker 1: be cute doing it on my birthday. I was like, cute,
Speaker 1: I am fucking ten years old. I had no appreciation
Speaker 1: for any of you people right now. I despise you all. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hated it. I hated going to rehearsals. I you know,
Speaker 1: I started to like it when I was I would
Speaker 1: say it was thirteen. She did a play of a
Speaker 1: bunch of teenage boys with Patrick Dempsey Jerry O'Connell, Like
Speaker 1: all these kids were in the play, and I fell
Speaker 1: in love with Patrick Dempsey. Okay at that time, you
Speaker 1: know he was a teenager and he had to leave
Speaker 1: the play to go do can't by any love. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget that. And then Jerry O'Connell had to go
Speaker 1: and do stand behind me. Um, yeah, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You know, because we were just my family. My mom,
Speaker 1: you know, was small town Queen's people. You know, she
Speaker 1: was raised in a mafia family and not you know,
Speaker 1: if you if she she wanted to become an actor
Speaker 1: and her father was like, only horse become actors. So
Speaker 1: she ended becoming a play right later on in life.
Speaker 1: So that was it's a big deal for her. You
Speaker 1: know that those guys were nobody back then. They were
Speaker 1: just little kids. But yeah, she she did do it.
Speaker 1: And you know, nobody from Queens as a playwright, you
Speaker 1: know in those days. That's so so it was really
Speaker 1: about getting a crushes on boys that started to like
Speaker 1: make you interested. Uda Hagen didn't didn't do it for you.
Speaker 1: I still wasn't interested even then. I know, I was
Speaker 1: fine sitting there while I had to wait for her
Speaker 1: to come home and sit at the theater because I
Speaker 1: was going to school uptown. But I know I was
Speaker 1: I I only started acting. I would also say that
Speaker 1: I was just telling my boyfriend this the other day.
Speaker 1: Every one of my boyfriends in high school, they were
Speaker 1: very ambitious, all of them, and they all wanted to
Speaker 1: be actors, and they didn't. They eventually they would leave
Speaker 1: me or cheat or do whatever because I wasn't ambitious
Speaker 1: enough because I'd sit around smoking weed, you know, partying,
Speaker 1: just being a hippie, living my best teenage life. And
Speaker 1: they wanted to become these big time actors. And they
Speaker 1: were just like you're going nowhere, We're going somewhere and goodbye.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, I'll see you later, man.
Speaker 1: I was like accepting my award. Why so I went
Speaker 1: to n y U film school. I wanted to make movies.
Speaker 1: I had no interest. I loved Weird German Inde film
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. That was had become sort
Speaker 1: of my obsession. So I went to film school in Too,
Speaker 1: n y U and I was going for filmmaking. And
Speaker 1: then I would jump in front of the camera for
Speaker 1: all my all my own student films because I was
Speaker 1: too busy partying. So I never was prepared with my projects.
Speaker 1: So I have to be in my own movies doing
Speaker 1: a one man show, which she probably relates to. It
Speaker 1: is probably commedian. Um. I was like, I don't even
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing. All my friends were like, you know,
Speaker 1: you should probably just do that you're good at, not this,
Speaker 1: And I was like I could do it. I do
Speaker 1: it all, and I think that part of me felt
Speaker 1: like filmmaking was just too giant a task at that time.
Speaker 1: And I was good at the acting, and I started
Speaker 1: taking all these acting classes for directors, so I never
Speaker 1: had to feel like there was any pressure on me
Speaker 1: to be an actor. But I really enjoyed it. I
Speaker 1: really really really enjoyed it. I think I enjoyed just
Speaker 1: not being myself because I was this kid growing up
Speaker 1: in the theater that hated my life because of it.
Speaker 1: And now I realized these people didn't have to be themselves,
Speaker 1: So this is what's going on. This is great. But
Speaker 1: then as I got older, liked being myself and I
Speaker 1: stopped acting as much as I used meeting myself now,
Speaker 1: so who I don't really need to act that much,
Speaker 1: but it is funny. So yeah, that was really how
Speaker 1: it started. That's so interesting to me. It was a
Speaker 1: revenge job. I did it out of revenge. Brian, you
Speaker 1: did like from your childhood, from your mom or is
Speaker 1: that what you mean? No? I think with all the
Speaker 1: guys that were like, you're working with my actors, and
Speaker 1: I was heartbroken, you know, even though in your stone
Speaker 1: that was still heartbroken. I was like yeah, I was
Speaker 1: like non fucking guys, and they were dating all these
Speaker 1: like supermodels and one of the actresses and all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, but I don't want to be an actress.
Speaker 1: Like all these girls are waiting tables and then at
Speaker 1: nightclubs every night, like fuck this. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: bar attending, so I should really speak, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: pretending that I was. Who is it trying to be
Speaker 1: anything other than Bartenden. But I also had a manager
Speaker 1: that somebody stuck me with when I first started acting,
Speaker 1: and I took a high. I left her because I
Speaker 1: was like, I gotta get my life together. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of smoking too much weed and doing too much of everything.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get my ship together and come back to you.
Speaker 1: And when I came back to her, she said, you
Speaker 1: need voice classes because your voice is in atrocity and
Speaker 1: you will never work in Hollywood. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: but I want to work in New York, so I'm good.
Speaker 1: She's like, I'm sorry, I'm not going to represent you
Speaker 1: until you've had a year's worth of voice classes. I
Speaker 1: thought that was really drastic, but I went and I
Speaker 1: started up for voice classes and I told her that
Speaker 1: I was, you know, those classes are pretty common, you know,
Speaker 1: littre gonna project you know, speech whatever it was. And
Speaker 1: she said, no, not that kind of voice class. Not
Speaker 1: not for addiction or projection or accent. She said, you
Speaker 1: need to take opera classes because your voice is really,
Speaker 1: really awful. I used to have such a gravelly voice
Speaker 1: that I sounded like a guy because I smoked so much. Um,
Speaker 1: and I really sounded crazy. But whatever, it was unique,
Speaker 1: I guess any gravelly voice. I was like, come on,
Speaker 1: let me in and I could play this game. But anyway,
Speaker 1: she didn't want me. And then a week later I
Speaker 1: got The Sopranos. Wow, so that really, Um, I thought
Speaker 1: that was I thought it was very like Serendipitous said
Speaker 1: it would be called The Sopranos and I was kicked
Speaker 1: to the curb because I needed to take what was
Speaker 1: so unbelievable to me opera lessons. So yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It felt very and it wasn't. I was a day player.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like I got I scored some huge role
Speaker 1: on anything. Um, it still felt very you know, looking
Speaker 1: back on it, I always tell the story like, yep,
Speaker 1: who's singing now, bitch? You know I'm saying, I know. Um,
Speaker 1: it's like okay with this voice of mine that you
Speaker 1: thought was genitrosity. So yes, I feel like my entree
Speaker 1: into the world of it all began with revenge, not love,
Speaker 1: not a love of no, because my father would say
Speaker 1: to me, don't do this unless you can't do anything else.
Speaker 1: This is the most heartbreaking thing you'll ever do. But
Speaker 1: once I started doing it, I then realized this is
Speaker 1: the only thing I ever want to do, because I
Speaker 1: did fall in love with the craft of it all.
Speaker 1: I fell in love with scoring a script. I love
Speaker 1: the score a script when I was when I was
Speaker 1: younger from a directorial standpoint, you mean score script No,
Speaker 1: as an actor, I did when I was doing theater
Speaker 1: when I was younger. I loved breaking a script down
Speaker 1: as an actor, really having the journey in there and
Speaker 1: scoring it with the right actions. I guess, yeah, you're
Speaker 1: through line and action. So really it was like a
Speaker 1: math problem for me. Yes, So this is so fascinating
Speaker 1: to me because like the master of all scoring of
Speaker 1: scripts is Uda Hagan, who as a child, Yes, you
Speaker 1: never read her book No, and she used to. She
Speaker 1: used to watch me act because I took place at
Speaker 1: HB and she she gave me one of the best
Speaker 1: compliments I've ever gotten in my life. And she was
Speaker 1: not easy, man, No, she's not. No. But like the
Speaker 1: greatest book, in my opinion, on acting ever written, Respect
Speaker 1: for Acting by Udhah Hagan, Like that's where like that's
Speaker 1: where I from, I don't know, four thousand miles away
Speaker 1: or whatever, Like that's where I started learning how to
Speaker 1: score a script. I mean in terms of through line
Speaker 1: and action and objectives and all of that stuff. That's
Speaker 1: so interesting. This is something that you love to do.
Speaker 1: Yet the perspective, this perspective is just interesting. As a kid,
Speaker 1: You're sitting there while your mom is playing make believe
Speaker 1: with a bunch of people on stage, Like that is
Speaker 1: the crazy, crazy thing. Well, you know, I think I
Speaker 1: learned how to act watching my mom teach honestly, to
Speaker 1: watch her teacher. She was really known in the in
Speaker 1: the underground theater world. The way she taught that class
Speaker 1: was was magic. And I would even send my friends
Speaker 1: that were having emotional problems to sit in her class
Speaker 1: because the way she would explain action in your life,
Speaker 1: like how you affect people cause and effect that you're never.
Speaker 1: You have to stay active all the time. The moment
Speaker 1: you become stagnant, everything just sort of falls apart. There's
Speaker 1: no you know, states of being. You always have to
Speaker 1: be in a state of doing something otherwise the script
Speaker 1: is going to fall flat. I mean, look, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of great tableau sort of style films, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't work in TV land, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work on stage either. I feel like TV
Speaker 1: and stage are very similar. And the fact that the
Speaker 1: writer is the king, the director is you know, they
Speaker 1: can be interchanged, which they are every week. Um, the
Speaker 1: writing team the usually the writing team, and they are
Speaker 1: psychotic about their words. I mean, I don't want sopranos.
Speaker 1: I was not allowed to change. Even I could, I
Speaker 1: kept saying with David's please, I don't want to say Christopher.
Speaker 1: I hate saying it because I can't. My accents sounds
Speaker 1: so stupid. Um the Christmas fla, I felt like it
Speaker 1: sounded so fake. I said, can I just call him Christie?
Speaker 1: He's sitting up and Jesus Christ, That's what I've known
Speaker 1: for now. I walked down the streets. Can you just
Speaker 1: say Christopher? Christoph? The writers king? Yeah, well you know
Speaker 1: going back slightly, because I when you had this manager,
Speaker 1: so I thought the manager was going to be brilliant.
Speaker 1: Now it turns out I think I think not. But
Speaker 1: I think what's so interesting to me about you and
Speaker 1: your work, starting with the Sopranos, is that I think
Speaker 1: of you your physicality and voice being connected. So see,
Speaker 1: I thought when she was talking to you about having
Speaker 1: voice lessons, she was feeling like you weren't connected to
Speaker 1: your voice in some way, um, which I think you
Speaker 1: always are, If that makes sense. That's why people want
Speaker 1: to hear you say that because your intention, your needs,
Speaker 1: objectives seem always tied in with your physicality and your
Speaker 1: voice is yourself physically. Is that something that you think
Speaker 1: about as you're creating a character. Yes, it's yeah. I
Speaker 1: have like hang ups. I have certain hang ups with
Speaker 1: certain characters, especially with the character like Adriana. Um that
Speaker 1: was very specific for me. I have things like shoes,
Speaker 1: like the right shoes, like if I'm not if I
Speaker 1: could never take my shoes off, even if I was
Speaker 1: off camera and playing the scene with somebody, because Adriana
Speaker 1: wouldn't be not in those high heeled shoes. Like they
Speaker 1: would't even say to me, Hey, you're gonna be off
Speaker 1: camera all day. Don't put on your nails. We're not
Speaker 1: going to do your hair. You know, we're just gonna
Speaker 1: because we'll take four hours to get me ready sometime. Um.
Speaker 1: And I was like, no, man, And I was younger,
Speaker 1: so obviously it was a lot more precious about we
Speaker 1: know now that we when we're older that you know,
Speaker 1: you kind of kind of just show up and do
Speaker 1: things and still be awesome at it. But when you're younger,
Speaker 1: you don't know, you don't have that confidence, you know,
Speaker 1: so you hanging on all of the the outside stuff
Speaker 1: to grab onto. Um. Some people call that method. Some
Speaker 1: people call that being a diva. Some people call that
Speaker 1: being painting. Ask Um, I don't know. I needed it.
Speaker 1: I definitely needed it to come alive as that character.
Speaker 1: I couldn't have the accident without all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Like there's you know, me in a bathrobe with my
Speaker 1: hair wet, and I had such a hard time being
Speaker 1: her without makeup. One I was like, who am I?
Speaker 1: So I guess it's that was a little superficial of
Speaker 1: me to a degree, because everything should be right in here, guys,
Speaker 1: those of you who can't see well the way you see, right,
Speaker 1: this is not a visual Now, it's gotta be inside
Speaker 1: your heart, you know what I'm saying, inside your body.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's a it's a weird thing. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: interesting to the accent. That's my favorite thing to do,
Speaker 1: is that accent. And when I was younger, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to be stereotyped in that world because it's really
Speaker 1: hard to come back from that. And I, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm being Italian. I had another manager who wanted me
Speaker 1: to change my name to make it not sound Italian,
Speaker 1: and my father got so fucking mad at me. I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, we'll just leave that. He's Aboutineer
Speaker 1: or about chin On. I was like a paragraphic didn't say, now,
Speaker 1: I only want to play with Americans. Now you do,
Speaker 1: that's what you want. I would do anything to get
Speaker 1: back into that realm again, where I'm playing a real
Speaker 1: New Yorker, like a heavy accent to New Yorker. You know.
Speaker 1: I did like She's blue j Low and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: But that wasn't me getting to play that. I loved Adrian,
Speaker 1: you know, And it took me a lot of years
Speaker 1: later to recognize that that it would have been okay,
Speaker 1: but I just kept doing that for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life. Right, let's talk about it a little bit.
Speaker 1: Pretty early in your career, you get an audition for
Speaker 1: The Sopranos. By the way, you talked about the voice
Speaker 1: thing earlier, Jamie lenn Siegler talked to me about I've
Speaker 1: known for a long time she was a singer, and
Speaker 1: she kept waiting for David Chase to ask her to
Speaker 1: sing a song because it was called the Sopranos, and
Speaker 1: she came and prepared a song. I thought it was
Speaker 1: about singers. When I got there too, I wore no makeup,
Speaker 1: with my hair in a bun and pull back slipped
Speaker 1: back because they say, just be a blank canvas for them,
Speaker 1: and I said sure, and I show up like that,
Speaker 1: and now they want me to play the saucy you
Speaker 1: know what, would be a queen's girl. And I was like,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I know how to do that, but I'm
Speaker 1: not prepared because I don't have the hair or the
Speaker 1: makeup and I can't put on that accent without it.
Speaker 1: And I didn't get the part. I put the auditioned
Speaker 1: from Michael's girlfriend and I couldn't. I didn't get the part,
Speaker 1: but he liked me, and he made me read for
Speaker 1: every other side character. I read for the Russian girls,
Speaker 1: I read forum, Oh god, I can't remember. There were
Speaker 1: like four roles that I read for in that script
Speaker 1: and I got none of them. And then they finally
Speaker 1: called my agent at that time and said, she seems
Speaker 1: like a snooty Connecticut girl. Would she be okay playing
Speaker 1: um the hostess in the restaurant who turns down Lorraine Brocko?
Speaker 1: And I was like, you have me learned brock all either?
Speaker 1: And I couldn't say my lines because I was so nervous.
Speaker 1: I was with Karen, Karen for fucking good bells. I
Speaker 1: couldn't saying my line at all. I was dying. It
Speaker 1: was hurt. It was she and Jim, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know Jim, and nobody knew Jim yet really right um?
Speaker 1: So I didn't care about him, but I definitely cared
Speaker 1: about her. And I couldn't say any of my lines.
Speaker 1: And then a year later they would call me back
Speaker 1: to play Michael's girlfriend again, his date, just a date, Like,
Speaker 1: why are they calling me back? I messed up? So
Speaker 1: I don't think they knew that I was the same girl.
Speaker 1: I don't think they knew. Maybe they did. I don't
Speaker 1: even know. I don't know if I ever even asked
Speaker 1: that question. But according to Eileen, one of the producers,
Speaker 1: I got the part as his girl, as a day
Speaker 1: player role, and another day player part on the show
Speaker 1: because of the way I said the word out. I
Speaker 1: had one line it was out, and she said I
Speaker 1: turned it into a tense syllable word because I had
Speaker 1: my mom told me to say it that way. I
Speaker 1: was at a home's house when they Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: at my mom's house when they called UM to come
Speaker 1: into second time and I said, hey, Mom, it's the show.
Speaker 1: It's that Sopranos show that I told you about. But
Speaker 1: I had given her the pilot to reach so straight.
Speaker 1: This is gold. She's like, this is the most unbelievable
Speaker 1: scripts I've ever read and TV it read like one
Speaker 1: of her scripts. Um, and I looked at her and
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I'll probably never get made. She said,
Speaker 1: probably not too good. And that was And then year
Speaker 1: later they called me at their house and said, hey,
Speaker 1: can you come in for an audition. I said no,
Speaker 1: I can't. Actually I'm in Queens And they said that's funny.
Speaker 1: So were we can you be here in a half hour.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh to my mom and I go,
Speaker 1: how quick are those chicken cutlets? Can be tough? My
Speaker 1: grand cutlets. My grandmother goes, make a chicken cut and
Speaker 1: the sandwich. Just get in the car and go. My
Speaker 1: mother goes, I'm gonna get your name plate and diamonds
Speaker 1: out of the safe. You need to wear it because
Speaker 1: I had this Andrea in diamonds on a rope chain
Speaker 1: from my confirmation. She goes, you're gonna wear that. You
Speaker 1: go tease your hair, go put makeup on and talk
Speaker 1: like Silvana my neighbor. And I was like, okay, let's go.
Speaker 1: And then I went with my parents in the car.
Speaker 1: They were waiting for me. In the car, I ran
Speaker 1: into Silver Cup Studios, which was in Queen's and I
Speaker 1: think my audition and I came back out and I
Speaker 1: my chicken cutlet sandwich and then I got I got
Speaker 1: the part and it was just for one line. Though,
Speaker 1: you know, I still have my checks from from those,
Speaker 1: my five hundred dollar checks from my first day player
Speaker 1: role sitting on my remember sitting in my honeywagon and
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know what a Honeywagon is,
Speaker 1: but Honeywagon is a trailer. You see where all the
Speaker 1: trailers are part that have the tiniest little rooms ever,
Speaker 1: so you know, like the main actors are not in
Speaker 1: the Honeyway, they're little toilets. There are rooms with toilets
Speaker 1: with a pillow on the toilet so you can sit
Speaker 1: on your toilet while you're waiting to be called up.
Speaker 1: That's a honey wagon. So I would be sitting on
Speaker 1: my in my Honeywagon, sitting on the toilet every time
Speaker 1: I got a script because they kept bringing me back,
Speaker 1: which I thought was super cool. I remember being at
Speaker 1: Craft Services, David Chase coming over with me and he goes,
Speaker 1: you know, people in the editing room really think that
Speaker 1: you're a couple with Michael And I said really, and
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, you guys have really great industry. And
Speaker 1: I looked at him. I was like, must be the eyebrows.
Speaker 1: People have big eyebrows. You know. Um that my episode twelve, man,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting on my toilet, sitting on my toilet in
Speaker 1: the honey Wagon. And I was in twelve scenes and
Speaker 1: I lost my ship and it ran to a pay
Speaker 1: phone because that's all we had and I ran too
Speaker 1: a pay phone with my script and I called my
Speaker 1: mom collect and I said, mow, you'll well it twelve
Speaker 1: fucking scenes. God, that was Let's see that that episode
Speaker 1: of the music industry stuff, and that was it. I
Speaker 1: was on my way to becoming series regular. And I
Speaker 1: always tell people like I never would have gotten that
Speaker 1: part if they were auditioning for a series regular, because
Speaker 1: you know they were mirrort Rovino versus Tommy Debbie Mays
Speaker 1: are all those girls would have been the perfect actors
Speaker 1: for those roles, you know what I mean. So I
Speaker 1: got really fucking lucky. You said your mom read the
Speaker 1: pilot and talked about how good it was. Obviously your
Speaker 1: experience in the pilot was, you know, was brief. But
Speaker 1: at what point did you realize that this was not
Speaker 1: just a job and they were giving you more to do,
Speaker 1: but the show itself was something special? Oh man? I
Speaker 1: you know, because I grew up in that world of
Speaker 1: watching her critique scripts, and I've heard great script scripts everything.
Speaker 1: And she wrote heavy about mafia because her father was
Speaker 1: made guy, so you know, reading all her scripts about
Speaker 1: that subject everything, I knew I was reading something that
Speaker 1: that was beyond you. Know. I also want to say
Speaker 1: why films, So I studied Scorsese like a lunatic. Key
Speaker 1: was my obsession when I was a kid in Main
Speaker 1: Streets was my favorite movie. And then Good Fellows had
Speaker 1: come out, and I it was I knew this was
Speaker 1: going to be the greatest thing ever. I never thought
Speaker 1: it would get made. I never thought that anybody would
Speaker 1: recognize it. I never thought that it would be important
Speaker 1: in the world and anyway, because I knew that it
Speaker 1: was of such quality that it might just fail or
Speaker 1: not be not be great, you know, and and and
Speaker 1: the truth is, when the show did come out, we
Speaker 1: did have a lot of critical acclaim, for sure, but
Speaker 1: we also had a lot of a lot of haters.
Speaker 1: Hollywood still did them love us. I could tell when
Speaker 1: we would go to the award shows. I could tell
Speaker 1: the way we were not cared about on the red carpet.
Speaker 1: It was really like people thought we were the real
Speaker 1: people in the show, showing up and making a joke
Speaker 1: out of their society. That's how it felt. It felt like.
Speaker 1: And all of us actors to show some of the
Speaker 1: people were very much like their characters, but a lot
Speaker 1: of them were not really, not at all but we
Speaker 1: were so into our characters and so into the show,
Speaker 1: and so into the idea of never breaking character for
Speaker 1: the sake of the show. Um, so what you New
Speaker 1: York actors, We're nuts, you know. So I feel like
Speaker 1: we showed up in character. We should up in a
Speaker 1: new Jersey transit, us on the red carpet for the
Speaker 1: Emmy is the first year and we all which rest
Speaker 1: the part, you know, we came in like a fucking gang.
Speaker 1: We were nuts and we were we had our egos
Speaker 1: in check. We were ready to roamble. We were like,
Speaker 1: we are the mafia. You all better step aside right now.
Speaker 1: But they didn't want us. They did not want us,
Speaker 1: and we felt it. It's so interesting. I have never
Speaker 1: articulated this before, but I I was watching you, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, eventually when you guys started showing up is
Speaker 1: when we started showing up to the same stuff and
Speaker 1: your people. That's who I was hanging out with at
Speaker 1: those things. And I think to a large degree, it's
Speaker 1: because both of our shows were that way right, Like
Speaker 1: we were not friends. And I keep using that as
Speaker 1: an example, but like, regardless of quality of show or
Speaker 1: like anything else, they were all made to be on
Speaker 1: the cover of Cosmo and Vogue and TV Guide and
Speaker 1: Entertainment Weekly, and we just weren't. We had one like
Speaker 1: very special Entertainment Weekly cover edition and that was like
Speaker 1: really big for us, and so we were always kind
Speaker 1: of that way as well. The step children hidden in
Speaker 1: the back, and we were having fun. You know. Jenni
Speaker 1: Fisher talks about us at our first Golden Globes, it
Speaker 1: was like the Beverly Hillbillies come today. We showed up
Speaker 1: at the Golden Globes. I showed up in a Honda Civic.
Speaker 1: We were asking whereout, We were asking where the valet.
Speaker 1: I wasn't driving it, but there were four of us
Speaker 1: crammed into a Honda Civic at the Beverly Hilton Hotel
Speaker 1: and we thought we could valet some there like no
Speaker 1: sirs and MAM's you can't valet. So one of the
Speaker 1: one of our cast members, drove a mile away and
Speaker 1: had to go find parking and walk. He's like, I'll
Speaker 1: drop you guys off, and we went walking the carpet
Speaker 1: with no invitation. Nobody cared. But it's so fascinating because
Speaker 1: I think getting back to actually your point, we were different.
Speaker 1: Both shows actually were not made from that traditional television
Speaker 1: model and mo, this is how it goes, and this
Speaker 1: is how the people look and this is how everybody behaves.
Speaker 1: We were not that, And I wonder if that's why
Speaker 1: I became friendly with so many of the folks in
Speaker 1: your show as well, because I felt we were kind
Speaker 1: of the same in a weird way. Well, I also think, like,
Speaker 1: you know, even though I haven't seen The Office the
Speaker 1: way a lot of my friends are religious office freaks,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, I've caught some of it, and I'm
Speaker 1: always like, God, this would be my favorite show if
Speaker 1: I sat down and watched TV for a minute, because
Speaker 1: it's it is so and like Sopranos, everybody gets it
Speaker 1: from one thing. You well know, I always said this
Speaker 1: about about the Sopranos. It appeals to so many people
Speaker 1: on so many different levels. Um, you have the gumbas
Speaker 1: that like it for the gunshots. You have the critics
Speaker 1: that really understand the intellectual nature of the show and
Speaker 1: the way it's written and handled. Then you have people
Speaker 1: that dig it for a family show. Then you have
Speaker 1: people that are just mafia obsessed. Um, So it has
Speaker 1: something for everybody. And I felt like the intelligence of
Speaker 1: the show, which is what kept it in its in
Speaker 1: its glory. I'd say the same with The Office, like
Speaker 1: it was. The Office was so off the beaten path
Speaker 1: and so genuinely different. Like the style of the humor,
Speaker 1: the style of the jokes, just dry and not in
Speaker 1: your face. It's not a sitcom, you know. It was
Speaker 1: one of the for me, also one of the more
Speaker 1: genious shows. And yeah, and you guys all looked like
Speaker 1: real Pete, we all look like people too. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say that you who are you hanging out with?
Speaker 1: From the cast though when we were, I would we
Speaker 1: were always very at least from me. I was so
Speaker 1: shy that I was in the back row of anything.
Speaker 1: I'd be in a corner. If we were at an event,
Speaker 1: if there was a red carpet and I wasn't required
Speaker 1: to be on it, I wouldn't be there. Um. I
Speaker 1: was very shy, so I didn't. I didn't socialize at all, right,
Speaker 1: I feel like it was you know, we would say hello.
Speaker 1: That's why I said, I mean, look, you're you're also
Speaker 1: talking to someone in the Sopranos was around before. So
Speaker 1: this for me, I mean spoiler alert, it is. It
Speaker 1: is my all time favorite television show and your performance
Speaker 1: in the show is one of my all time favorite
Speaker 1: television performances in the history of television. No, but a
Speaker 1: big part of it is what I talked about before.
Speaker 1: That connection between voice and physicality and body and movement
Speaker 1: and the specific journey that you went through was just
Speaker 1: just stunning. But I want to I want to ask
Speaker 1: you something because you kind of brought it up and
Speaker 1: I wasn't planning to ask you this specific question. But
Speaker 1: is the Sopranos is it a Mafia show? Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, thank you for all the things you just said,
Speaker 1: because that was very nice to hear. A hundred years later.
Speaker 1: It's there. It means a lot to me. And I
Speaker 1: think about the whole team that was behind us creating
Speaker 1: those characters with us and I and I'm so grateful
Speaker 1: for all of them. Um, is it a mafia show?
Speaker 1: The level of David Chase's writing, but the way the
Speaker 1: way he formulated the show, the way he included every
Speaker 1: It's no, it's not a mafia show. It's a show
Speaker 1: about family and the Mafia is the backdrop. That's the
Speaker 1: way I see it. Um, it has something for everybody.
Speaker 1: Everybody has their reason for loving the show, and they're
Speaker 1: all different. So that's why I feel like even the
Speaker 1: end of the season, the end of the whole show
Speaker 1: to wrap up the way they ended it, and people
Speaker 1: hated that so much, it really kept in line. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if David Chase would agree with me,
Speaker 1: but I always felt it kept in line with this
Speaker 1: sort of blank canvas where the show could be what
Speaker 1: you wanted it to be for you. You could take
Speaker 1: away from it what was important to you, whether it
Speaker 1: be or a woman in a family having a husband
Speaker 1: was cheating on her um, or you're you know, a
Speaker 1: guy caught up in the crime, or you know, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. So I always felt that way, especially at
Speaker 1: the end too. It was another blank canvas for the
Speaker 1: audience to say, this is how I want to see
Speaker 1: the story end. Yeah. In preparing to talk to you,
Speaker 1: I mean this, this goes to the point, Um, we
Speaker 1: have a great staff. They put together a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of questions or things for me to think
Speaker 1: about talking to you about. There there was a point
Speaker 1: written down about your character and what big issues that
Speaker 1: she had to deal with, domestic violence, infertility, health issues,
Speaker 1: and then finally encounters with the FBI. Now, maybe aside
Speaker 1: from encounters with the FBI, the FBI that may be
Speaker 1: more mafia specific, but the complexity of issues that the
Speaker 1: show was talking about. I always viewed it the same
Speaker 1: as you. It was about a family dealing with issues
Speaker 1: and their family. They're connected, family dealing with issues. Uh,
Speaker 1: the mafia was just a backdrop for it, but it
Speaker 1: was talking about so many other important things. Was it
Speaker 1: difficult for you diving into such dark stuff? I mean
Speaker 1: the violence with Christopher, infertility, dealing with that, the health
Speaker 1: issues that your character was going through. Were you able
Speaker 1: to leave it behind or had you? Did you go
Speaker 1: so method that you would carry that stuff with you afterward?
Speaker 1: I was I have lost a friend. During that time,
Speaker 1: I didn't have kids yet, having kids and doing what
Speaker 1: I do, what we do, you know, I had to
Speaker 1: start dialing back, like maybe I'm gonna use a tear
Speaker 1: stick now, you know, maybe I'm not gonna sit and
Speaker 1: prepare for six hours before I show up it's on set,
Speaker 1: you know, because I can't imagine sitting around thinking about
Speaker 1: my kids being mutilated and destroyed, because that's where I
Speaker 1: would go. I at that time, it was extremely method.
Speaker 1: I would hold on to everything and carry it around
Speaker 1: in a box. And I never wanted to be antisocial
Speaker 1: on set. I never wanted to come across like a
Speaker 1: fuck to anybody. So I always made sure that I
Speaker 1: could let the air out every two seconds when it
Speaker 1: was time to talk to the hair and makeup wardrobe.
Speaker 1: But they also always knew that there was you know,
Speaker 1: my my best friend now who was the PA on
Speaker 1: the show, and she's one of my best friends now
Speaker 1: in life. She always do to keep everybody away from me.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't. I wasn't. Everybody has a different
Speaker 1: method of action. Some people are more methodical and can
Speaker 1: show up and do their work. I was definitely more
Speaker 1: like a tighter in a cage because I didn't have
Speaker 1: that much training. I used to wild animals a film student.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. You know, I had done a little
Speaker 1: bit of training, but it wasn't immense. It was definitely
Speaker 1: I think if I would have to go through that now,
Speaker 1: it might be harder, or maybe looking back on it,
Speaker 1: it was hard because I know when it was time
Speaker 1: for me to leave, When they told me that I
Speaker 1: was going to be leaving the show, I had to
Speaker 1: find my piece in that. So the only way to
Speaker 1: find my piece in that was to say, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm ready to laugh because this has been a year
Speaker 1: of crying NonStop. So when Joey came along, fucking Joey
Speaker 1: speaking of friends, I always like, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: do it, but my dad was like, you you're taking
Speaker 1: this job. He made me take that fucking job and
Speaker 1: bought me this house. So I mean it was a
Speaker 1: good deal. But you know, between he and Matt le
Speaker 1: Blanc got there, I had no choice but to take
Speaker 1: that show. But I knew that I needed to laugh
Speaker 1: after that because it was intense in the end, but
Speaker 1: not always. It was just in the last year before that,
Speaker 1: and it was a party. That's why I was asking
Speaker 1: on Sundays after the awards, would you hang out with us?
Speaker 1: Because we were not There was a select group of
Speaker 1: us that would get together after the awards and we
Speaker 1: would end up at an after hours place called the
Speaker 1: mouse Trap. I don't know if you were ever there.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Every time we'd go into an award
Speaker 1: ceremony and they would put us up either at the
Speaker 1: Peninsula or the Four Seasons. I would end up on
Speaker 1: a two months hangover at the Hotel. I literally would
Speaker 1: move into the hotel and not meet for months. I
Speaker 1: remember you all staying at the Four Seasons. That's all
Speaker 1: I'll say. I remember you guys staying at the Four Seasons.
Speaker 1: That was in the end. The Peninsula was our first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see, I wasn't. I wasn't around them. We joined
Speaker 1: you at the end. I have to ask you a
Speaker 1: couple of questions about Adriana and the character. Specifically, what
Speaker 1: do you think her relationship with Tony was? How does
Speaker 1: she view him? I well, I mean, look, as soon
Speaker 1: as I knew I had that storyline all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I had like, well, I think I always had the
Speaker 1: biggest hearts in my eyes for Jim. I even tell
Speaker 1: her his his wife. I'm like, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a crush on him. He was hot man, those eyes
Speaker 1: like he was the sexiest guy alive to me in
Speaker 1: those days. Um, Adrianna, would she necessarily be into him.
Speaker 1: She was so loyal to Christopher, she loved him so
Speaker 1: so much. I think that it was for her, more
Speaker 1: than anything, a fleeting moment of of just enjoying the
Speaker 1: attention from some one who was powerful, someone who was big,
Speaker 1: someone who felt safe. And I think that she enjoyed
Speaker 1: his company a little bit, but I don't think that
Speaker 1: that there ever. I don't think she would have ever
Speaker 1: really want I mean, the thing got nicked in the
Speaker 1: bud obviously, but I don't even I never even got
Speaker 1: that far when I was doing the podcast watching those episodes,
Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly what happened there because I haven't
Speaker 1: watched them since they are it's been it's it's been
Speaker 1: fairly recent. I went back and watched it within the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. And you know, the car accident, right,
Speaker 1: we were going to get blood. Yeah, the car, the
Speaker 1: car accident happens, and the car accident is what sets
Speaker 1: things on end with Christopher because you know, he finds
Speaker 1: out you're in a car accident and it's very concerned,
Speaker 1: and then or Adriana not you and a car accident,
Speaker 1: is very concerned and then finds out it's whatever it
Speaker 1: was three o'clock in the morning and telling yes, and
Speaker 1: Tony was with you. Um, but I thought that that
Speaker 1: was danced around, and I thought, your answer right there
Speaker 1: is really smart because in a lot of ways, right,
Speaker 1: Tony is so different from Christopher in terms of his confidence,
Speaker 1: in terms of his power his effortless power and security
Speaker 1: and that attention, particularly when you know her partner was
Speaker 1: not giving it to her so much. It was just
Speaker 1: I thought that was just such a very interesting storyline. Yet,
Speaker 1: as you said, she was so loyal and loved him
Speaker 1: Christopher so much. Would she would she ever? But I thought,
Speaker 1: I think she also not have the confidence. She doesn't
Speaker 1: have the balls to be with the with the formidable man.
Speaker 1: I even though he's fucked up in all his ways,
Speaker 1: he's still more of a man and Christopher is. And
Speaker 1: I think that she's less of a woman than Carmela
Speaker 1: is in a lot of ways because she she really
Speaker 1: just focuses on the other person like she I mean,
Speaker 1: she is trying to do something for herself with the
Speaker 1: music industry and all that stuff. But I always look
Speaker 1: back at my character and I think to because back
Speaker 1: then I was like I have nothing like her, and
Speaker 1: now I look back and I'm like, Jesus Christ, I
Speaker 1: became her. I ended up dating all these musicians my
Speaker 1: whole life and basically just doing everything in my power
Speaker 1: to make sure they got to stand in their light. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I was like probably wrecking my own little world to
Speaker 1: a large degree, and I'm like, I turned into Adriana fucker,
Speaker 1: but I really get a ship beat out of me,
Speaker 1: but definitely a moment um feeling like like emotionally, I
Speaker 1: was getting the ship beat out of me just by
Speaker 1: having to endure the musician's lifestyle because they're all crazy
Speaker 1: man's being in the mafia. It could be the same
Speaker 1: thing we're always looking to get up to because climb
Speaker 1: that ladder to get up there. When you received the
Speaker 1: script for the episode Long Term or King, did you
Speaker 1: know in advance where your story was going. I had
Speaker 1: a feeling for sure, but I am I had gone
Speaker 1: to David Chase before an episode five. I went to
Speaker 1: David Chase. I remember this, and I remember the episode
Speaker 1: and everything. I went to him and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: I know that this may not end well, but I
Speaker 1: just have a question. Because we take such long hiatuses.
Speaker 1: I like to direct a film. It was my first
Speaker 1: time getting back into the possibility of going back towards
Speaker 1: the other side of the camera. Um. One of my
Speaker 1: mom's students had written amazing script and I wanted to
Speaker 1: direct it, and I was going to start in it too,
Speaker 1: So I brought that to him and said, I just
Speaker 1: want to know when would be a good time for
Speaker 1: me to do this. How long is our hiatu is
Speaker 1: going to be? Am I even coming back? Maybe you
Speaker 1: don't even want me to come back, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: kill me. Now, who knows? Well, you don't want to
Speaker 1: ask David Chase these questions. You don't let them know
Speaker 1: that there's anything else that you might anticipate wanting to do.
Speaker 1: I wasn't saying I want to do this instead, I
Speaker 1: was saying I want to do this as well. Well.
Speaker 1: He said to me, I'm gonna shoot at two ways.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna shoot you getting killed, and I'm gonna shoot
Speaker 1: you getting away, and no one's gonna know how it
Speaker 1: ends until it airs. And I was like, it's not
Speaker 1: even me, Like I don't know what you mean. And
Speaker 1: he's like nope, he goes there's too much, too many
Speaker 1: confidentiality issues on the show. We're gonna have to shoot
Speaker 1: a two ways anyway because there's a snitch. There's a rat.
Speaker 1: I'm like Jesus Christ. I was like, it's life is
Speaker 1: imitating our here, right, there was a snitch on the show.
Speaker 1: There was the confidentiality on our show was probably more heavy.
Speaker 1: Dute even on any other show whatever existed, I would
Speaker 1: say to a large degree because of this whole Monday
Speaker 1: morning water cooler thing that had just been gone with us,
Speaker 1: and and those storylines, especially Adriana dying, you know back
Speaker 1: in Big Pussy Died, that was a big one. But
Speaker 1: that was in the beginning, like you didn't, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: This is now five years with this character and she's female.
Speaker 1: It's different. So they shot at two ways, and I
Speaker 1: lived from episode five until whatever the long term parking was.
Speaker 1: That's when I got that script. And when I got
Speaker 1: long Term Parking, there was something in the script that
Speaker 1: bothered me, and I went to David Chase, I went
Speaker 1: to Michael. Why didn't go to David Chase? I went
Speaker 1: to Michael first, and then I went to Stevie van
Speaker 1: Zana because he was going to kill me, and we
Speaker 1: all talked about it. Um. They had a scene in
Speaker 1: there where Christopher tells Tony that I that I spoke
Speaker 1: to FEDS. He goes down to the laundry room in
Speaker 1: in his in his house where they speak in Tony
Speaker 1: Sprano's house and confesses everything while he's crying and and
Speaker 1: Tony Saprani says I'll handle it. And then you see
Speaker 1: the next scene of him calling me, and you know
Speaker 1: that now she's dead, and that's it. I really wanted
Speaker 1: that scene taken out. I felt like, and I've never
Speaker 1: been outspoken about anything, but I really felt like that
Speaker 1: scene saying in there would have just I feel like,
Speaker 1: let this be the biggest moment of the season and
Speaker 1: let everyone not know what's about to happen. Like everyone
Speaker 1: should just be like what is about to happen and
Speaker 1: freaking the funk out instead of knowing exactly what her
Speaker 1: ride is that ride with Sylvia, So me, Stevie, and Michael,
Speaker 1: I think we all discussed it with them and tried
Speaker 1: to have it removed. I didn't know if it would
Speaker 1: help or anything, but when I watched the show, it
Speaker 1: was gone. And then if you watch the next season,
Speaker 1: it go. They showed that actual scene in a flashback
Speaker 1: because they shot it, but they used it in a
Speaker 1: flashback for season six, I guess. So I was like,
Speaker 1: thank God, because I really was protective of how it
Speaker 1: would end. And that was it. That was my That
Speaker 1: was my sman song right there. Yeah, you riding in
Speaker 1: the car with Stevie on the way, not of course,
Speaker 1: as you just indicated not fully knowing where you were going,
Speaker 1: but as you start driving and it changes, uh, it
Speaker 1: becomes it becomes clear. Just one of the most haunting
Speaker 1: scenes and beautifully performed and shot scenes I think in
Speaker 1: um in the show. And of course you don't actually
Speaker 1: see you dying, but that horror and fear on your
Speaker 1: face makes it even worse that you don't see. I
Speaker 1: remember Steve van Zand was on a talk show. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was like Leno or something, and
Speaker 1: he goes, so, what were you doing? Did she? Did
Speaker 1: she die? And he looks at at Leano whoever it was,
Speaker 1: and he goes, what do you think I was out there?
Speaker 1: She will fucking squirrels. Stev, don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: We labored so hard. At that point when we shot
Speaker 1: that scene, I was done. I had already signed on
Speaker 1: to Joey like I was done, you know, I was
Speaker 1: ready to go, and he but if they weren't done,
Speaker 1: they were still in it, and we're killing her and
Speaker 1: I have to call her content, I have to pull
Speaker 1: her by her hair, and I was just like, just
Speaker 1: do it. Let's oh, we gotta do it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was It was pretty freaking crazy that a whole
Speaker 1: sitting in the car. But you see the way they
Speaker 1: shot it. They shot at both ways that he used
Speaker 1: the flashback of me imagining and getting away and then
Speaker 1: we don't and then I don't get away, and honestly,
Speaker 1: I still didn't know what the end was. Because I
Speaker 1: signed on for the six the sixth season, I wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to take another show. David came to me and said,
Speaker 1: no other shows after this, you know that, And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, but really, like give up my entire career.
Speaker 1: I can't do that. But they did sign me on
Speaker 1: for three episodes to do flashbacks and also to shut
Speaker 1: up um. But I still had to take the other
Speaker 1: show because I had to. But if the news got
Speaker 1: out that I had taken it, so that everybody kept
Speaker 1: saying and the press that I was that I was done,
Speaker 1: that I was dying, and I flipped out. He called me,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. I was bond Street Sushi in Manatan
Speaker 1: with my with my ex, and he was like, we
Speaker 1: need to talk. And I felt like I had done
Speaker 1: the biggest betrayal of my life by taking that show.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how the news got out there,
Speaker 1: but it fucking leaked, and I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: fix it, don't worry. So I got my publicist to
Speaker 1: get me on some talk shows. I wish I could
Speaker 1: find it. I don't even know which one it was,
Speaker 1: but I basically went on one of those shows and
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I not died, and I didn't
Speaker 1: take jolly. What the fund is? Jolly? You know, was
Speaker 1: gonna get friends and offer to people. Crazy. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: Brando's and and and and friends unite, Like, give me
Speaker 1: a fucking break, you know what I mean. I had
Speaker 1: to fake it until I until the show came out.
Speaker 1: I felt so guilty that had got nowt so crazy?
Speaker 1: Uh you went the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for
Speaker 1: that season? What does that mean to you? So many things?
Speaker 1: You know, looking back now as a fifty year old,
Speaker 1: I think I was in my twenties when I won
Speaker 1: that award. At that time, I didn't want to be there.
Speaker 1: I was petrified of awards. I hated the Awards season.
Speaker 1: I hated being there. It was a lot to get
Speaker 1: me to show up to any of them. I don't
Speaker 1: like a red carpet, I don't like getting dressed. I
Speaker 1: don't like any of it. But I really had a
Speaker 1: focus on the fact that, like I was being recognized
Speaker 1: and I and that it was important and I was
Speaker 1: up against people who I fucking adore. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it was like Robert Robert Wyger, uh Clamity Jane
Speaker 1: Deadwood at that part that she had played was really
Speaker 1: something else, Like it was really out there, and then
Speaker 1: they stopped her channing. Um so the Emmy didn't mean
Speaker 1: a lot to me now as an adult, you know,
Speaker 1: and then I was a child in my mind. But
Speaker 1: I also was very afraid to win the award because
Speaker 1: I felt like every woman that had won an award
Speaker 1: for playing a role like that had a really hard
Speaker 1: time coming back, like Mersa Tomay and Maria Swarbino, like
Speaker 1: all these girls who who could salt like this it's
Speaker 1: really good and can like do that whole thing, and
Speaker 1: they want to know word for it. It's like they
Speaker 1: got to work extra hard to break out of that
Speaker 1: after And these were film stars, so it's definitely easier
Speaker 1: for them. But then you're a TV star doing that
Speaker 1: and now everyone's U see you living in their living
Speaker 1: room with them. I mean, you know, I'm sure people
Speaker 1: when they see you, man, they know you. You You were
Speaker 1: in their house having dinner with them every single night.
Speaker 1: It's not like Brad Pitt or fucking Charlie's and everyone's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, look it's Brad picture I was. They're like, no, hey,
Speaker 1: what's up. Come on, what's gonna sit down there with you?
Speaker 1: You know? And I'm soy. I never I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: let's take a picture. Yes, I could be crying having
Speaker 1: a moment with my family and someone is like, you
Speaker 1: know what, this is it? This is my moment with you,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, it's fine. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: but here's the thing. I never put the in the out.
Speaker 1: It lived on the floor in my guest bathroom for
Speaker 1: years of your guest bathroom. Yes, and so the floor
Speaker 1: of the closet. I used to joke around I was
Speaker 1: going to throw it off a Laurel Canyon because I
Speaker 1: always felt like I felt like life was best when
Speaker 1: I was on Sopranos. I felt very fortunate to continue working,
Speaker 1: for sure, But nothing ever felt like the Sopranos to
Speaker 1: me ever. Working in New York. You know, my people,
Speaker 1: my world, my heritage, like everything that I come from
Speaker 1: and everything that I believe, you know, in in great
Speaker 1: writing and structure, all that stuff. It all existed in there.
Speaker 1: I never ever had a moment where I was like, no,
Speaker 1: this sucks. I don't feel like saying this. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say Christopher all the time, but but I
Speaker 1: really was very appreciative to you mentioned well, you mentioned
Speaker 1: having to lie about it. Eventually you do join Joey,
Speaker 1: which is uh going to be the next big NBC
Speaker 1: comedy show. You're moving from comedy. You talked about your
Speaker 1: dad and Matt LeBlanc telling you you had to do it,
Speaker 1: that it was time for you to get out of
Speaker 1: that world. Was it difficult for you? This is just
Speaker 1: what occurred to me when I started looking at the dates.
Speaker 1: It was hard for me to remember. Was it difficult
Speaker 1: for you that your old family was still working on
Speaker 1: the Sopranos and you were doing something so different, so
Speaker 1: far away? Yes, I stole in the p a from
Speaker 1: Sopranos to go with me and moved to California. Um,
Speaker 1: so that felt good. She left the show and came
Speaker 1: with me. They wanted to kill me. I mean, when
Speaker 1: I tell you this is not just a regular p A.
Speaker 1: You know how it is on set. I mean this
Speaker 1: world that came every she became everyone's life there on
Speaker 1: this woman ginger and now she's a you know, going
Speaker 1: off to become a producer at some point. But so
Speaker 1: I felt like I had that connection to the world
Speaker 1: still because she was still so in touch with everyone. Um.
Speaker 1: But it was exciting, man, it was. It was still exciting.
Speaker 1: And I adored Matt so much. I remember being at
Speaker 1: the Awards and I think he was there. I think
Speaker 1: he was at the Emmys that year. It felt good too,
Speaker 1: you know, I loved him like I I. We all
Speaker 1: hated that experience while we were doing it. We were
Speaker 1: all very unhappy because there was so much pressure on us. Joey, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I couldn't focus on what was going on with the Sopranos.
Speaker 1: At that time. I was done. I was moving on
Speaker 1: to a new chapter in my life. If I was
Speaker 1: leaving New York. I bought a house in California. It
Speaker 1: felt like all my dreams were coming true, you know,
Speaker 1: like this was the next place to go. I was
Speaker 1: making a lot of money. It felt fantastic. Matt and
Speaker 1: I could not stop laughing for two years. But and
Speaker 1: we still had fourteen million vieers by the way. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just have to say that we were pitted that
Speaker 1: we didn't have seventeen million, because that's what friends had.
Speaker 1: We fourteen million, not too fucking shabby, but that was
Speaker 1: considered a fail back then, and we were suffering through
Speaker 1: that to a large degree. And we didn't like the writing.
Speaker 1: We didn't the writing was up too far. Um. I
Speaker 1: was a miserable because I didn't think I belonged there.
Speaker 1: I felt like a fake. I was nervous all the time.
Speaker 1: My Great Dane was dying, which I know, it was
Speaker 1: so crazy, and I needed to have him with me
Speaker 1: all the time because he was going through chemo and
Speaker 1: he's a two hundred pound dog. So he was on
Speaker 1: that Friend six. We had a friend stage. We were
Speaker 1: all I was in Jennifer and since room that I
Speaker 1: was across the hall from me with my giant dog
Speaker 1: shitting everywhere, and no dogs allowed on stages because at
Speaker 1: nine eleven there was all this, all these new regulations
Speaker 1: in place. So we would sneak a two hundred pound
Speaker 1: Great Dane in and their doctors and they would do
Speaker 1: keemo there on set. It was insanity. So thinking about
Speaker 1: the sopranos and what those guys were doing at that point,
Speaker 1: and god knows how long it took them to finish
Speaker 1: finished this season, those seasons because they took these crazy hiatus.
Speaker 1: Is you know, at least I felt like I was
Speaker 1: on a regular schedule for the first time. I didn't
Speaker 1: love being on that schedule. Um, the Sitcom schedule. It
Speaker 1: wasn't for me. Matt tried to sell it to me,
Speaker 1: It's gonna be great, you know if you have kids.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't have kids, bro. I am like,
Speaker 1: you know, I need to sleep until twelve. What this
Speaker 1: I gotta be a work at eight in the morning.
Speaker 1: So you were not happy? No, I wasn't He wasn't happy.
Speaker 1: All we did, all of us, was complained on stuff,
Speaker 1: which was ridiculous because we all had it made, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think if we all sat down and talked
Speaker 1: about it now, we'd all laugh about it. But we
Speaker 1: did last whether we were happy or not. We didn't
Speaker 1: know what the hell, you know, we were coming off
Speaker 1: so much success on both of our shows. It was
Speaker 1: going to be a weird transition. But I was so
Speaker 1: happy that it was with him first of all. And
Speaker 1: I hope he was happy that it was with me
Speaker 1: because we were like immediate brother and sister for sure,
Speaker 1: Like we couldn't have had better chemistry and report with
Speaker 1: each other, like we just got each other. Yeah, obviously
Speaker 1: you've done a ton of other shows Desperate Housewives to
Speaker 1: mention another big Emmy Award winning show, I have another
Speaker 1: personal favorite. I I got into it late and then
Speaker 1: I did do the like thing that you need to
Speaker 1: do on the office and I went back and watched
Speaker 1: what felt like eighty seven seasons of Sons of Anarchy
Speaker 1: and I and I was a fan of the show,
Speaker 1: and I watched it. I haven't watched all the other spinoffs,
Speaker 1: and it's continued in various forms, I think. But it
Speaker 1: occurred to me on that show that unlike the Sopranos,
Speaker 1: in that show, you do get to ride off in
Speaker 1: the sunset at the end and and kind of I mean,
Speaker 1: as difficult as as your character was, the struggles that
Speaker 1: she went through, uh, and not always the nicest of
Speaker 1: people are best of people. Um, that you get redeemed
Speaker 1: in that show and get to write off in the sunset,
Speaker 1: I thought was was very nice. Did you have a
Speaker 1: nice experience working on that? I did. I was happy
Speaker 1: about that. I mean, my, my, it was unique, my
Speaker 1: my whole deal with that show. I always marvel at
Speaker 1: the fact that, like I've known for all of these
Speaker 1: shows that never really paid me, never money on these shows,
Speaker 1: and it's mine blow. People think I'm made of you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of cash over here, you know, so friendly
Speaker 1: as we don't get residuals period sons. I was a
Speaker 1: cameo in the pilot, that's it. Always friendly with the
Speaker 1: producer through a friend of mine, and I was in
Speaker 1: the pilot and I die, that's it. They paid me
Speaker 1: a decent chunk of change to do that because I
Speaker 1: was the only you know, it was me and Katie Seagal.
Speaker 1: It was just us that people knew really that well
Speaker 1: from television. So I was I was like, it's a
Speaker 1: fun cameo whatever. And then they said, wow, we didn't
Speaker 1: know she would actually do it. Can we keeper as
Speaker 1: a regular? And I said, fun, Yeah, I would love
Speaker 1: to be a regular. Just tell me where you want
Speaker 1: to go with the story because right now, I'm a
Speaker 1: super villain. I've never played a super villain. I've only
Speaker 1: played vulnerable. So when they tested the show, the show
Speaker 1: tested through the roof, and they came back and said
Speaker 1: to me, we don't need to pay you because we
Speaker 1: have a show here. We don't need your TV as
Speaker 1: I need your celebrity. We're gonna be good with nowity,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna cut your paying. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: well I'm leaving then see later. And I left and
Speaker 1: I moved back to New York. I remember me. I
Speaker 1: got back to New York fifty boxes in a truck
Speaker 1: and the minute I get there, my agent calls and goes,
Speaker 1: you need to come back because you're gonna do Desperate
Speaker 1: Housewives instead. And I was like, wow, okay. So I
Speaker 1: took Desperate house but I wanted I wanted an out
Speaker 1: after a year. I didn't want to stay. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be tied into the show in case
Speaker 1: I didn't love it. So I took a really low
Speaker 1: pay for that too, because I just wanted that contract
Speaker 1: to give me that one year out. Then I watched
Speaker 1: the I started watching Sons of Anarchy with my AX
Speaker 1: and I when we had the I had the flu
Speaker 1: and I wrote Kurt, and I go to you gotta
Speaker 1: bring me back because all my friends were riding me.
Speaker 1: Try and come back and do something crazy. I go,
Speaker 1: you want to bring me back for me back, I'll
Speaker 1: come back for nothing. He felt bad that EFFECTS had
Speaker 1: tried to cut my pay in half. It wasn't him
Speaker 1: when he told me that early on. So we'd stayed
Speaker 1: in touch, and I wrote him and Katie and I
Speaker 1: was like, guys, I'm loving the show. You guys are
Speaker 1: crushing it. I think it was the Ireland episode and
Speaker 1: I said, bring me back. I'll come back. I'll do whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't care how much you pay me. And I
Speaker 1: did so for years. I was going back and forth
Speaker 1: and doing Sons, but I wasn't really getting paid until
Speaker 1: last season. He came to me and said, I want
Speaker 1: to do this with your character, but you can't leave
Speaker 1: California because I'm gonna need you. And I said, when
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to pay me and make me serious
Speaker 1: right here, and I'll stay because I would go back
Speaker 1: and forth to New York and if I wasn't available,
Speaker 1: I couldn't been on the show whenever they'd ask me.
Speaker 1: And that was how it worked. That's how my job,
Speaker 1: my life. Everyone thinks I'm a series regular on suns
Speaker 1: and I never I never was. I was just like,
Speaker 1: if she's in town, she'll probably do something kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So the last season, I said, fine, I'll stay in
Speaker 1: one place, let's just shoot it out. So I was
Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved to go back and that
Speaker 1: capacity in the very end. It was nice to have
Speaker 1: that character more fleshed out, because she wasn't really fleshed out.
Speaker 1: There wasn't She was never an intentional character for the show.
Speaker 1: She was supposed to die on the pilot. It was
Speaker 1: like Adriana. Adriana was never written into the Sopranos. She
Speaker 1: became a part of the Sopranos because she showed up
Speaker 1: and that's who they went with. Eventually they liked me.
Speaker 1: I got fucking lucking. The same thing happened with me
Speaker 1: on Suns So I definitely feel really chant So it
Speaker 1: was cool to end like that, And it was cool
Speaker 1: to close out the show for them and to do
Speaker 1: all the press at that time and to be the
Speaker 1: voice of what was going on in the end. It
Speaker 1: was cool. And then I got to you know, I
Speaker 1: was sexy with Turling on him. Everybody wanted that, pretty
Speaker 1: wanted that. I got to do it. I could talk
Speaker 1: to you all day. I won't take up any more
Speaker 1: of your time, but I want you to know how
Speaker 1: much I appreciate. Oh, Paradigm City, are you coming back
Speaker 1: season two? Are you shooting that? I mean, that was
Speaker 1: the most fun thing I've done since Sopranos. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to put that out there because this is a
Speaker 1: fucking guy who's a record label owner. He's John Avoldson's
Speaker 1: estrange son. This guy built up a life so that
Speaker 1: his father would see that he was doing something with
Speaker 1: his life, right, but on his own he has a
Speaker 1: record label. He's extremely successful. He has saved all This
Speaker 1: is the filmmaker. He saved all his money and then
Speaker 1: got investors to create his own TV show. I don't
Speaker 1: know how many episodes without a studio, without a network,
Speaker 1: without any talent, and he put together a cast of
Speaker 1: YouTube influencers and Disney stars and then basically part of
Speaker 1: the cast of Sons of Anarchy, which is Me Boone
Speaker 1: and Marian Herbst and makes a goddamn and rock stars
Speaker 1: and makes this fucking TV show. I mean literally, there
Speaker 1: would be scenes set up at the Roxy that were
Speaker 1: so elaborate and we wouldn't get to them, and he'd
Speaker 1: be like, oh, yeah, we'll do it next week, like
Speaker 1: it was not even an issue like his I don't know,
Speaker 1: is abody to use one of my New York because
Speaker 1: you words, his Huts book was so fantastic, Like I
Speaker 1: couldn't get over this guy. I was like, I'm signing
Speaker 1: on because I want to see somebody do this. I
Speaker 1: want to see this guy and make this happen. Um
Speaker 1: so he blew me away. I don't know what he's
Speaker 1: gonna do it again. He sold it to Amazon and
Speaker 1: it came out in the pandemic and it was perfect timing.
Speaker 1: I never watched it. I never watched any I've only
Speaker 1: watched The Sopranos, if anything I've been on because I
Speaker 1: was a super fan of Sopranos, I don't even relate
Speaker 1: to having been that character. Sometimes I watched it and
Speaker 1: I don't thought it was me. That's cool, It's like,
Speaker 1: it's so awesome. I got to be on that show.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, it's crazy. I'm gonna I can't wait to
Speaker 1: watch The Office. I'm gonna watch it with the kids.
Speaker 1: But I do have a movie that's coming out September second,
Speaker 1: and one is outright now. The one out right now
Speaker 1: is called Collide, and that's with Ryan Philippi and Cat
Speaker 1: Graham and Jim Gaff again and Jim is fucking unbelievable
Speaker 1: in it. Um. I think it's streaming now wherever you can.
Speaker 1: Jim is playing like a really serious character. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's it is out streaming wherever you stream things. I
Speaker 1: am so excited to see this when I knew I
Speaker 1: was going to be talking to you, congratulations on that.
Speaker 1: And Ryan is an old buddy of mine, so I
Speaker 1: hope he was good behaved himself. I never got to
Speaker 1: meet him because I played Jim's wife Gaff again, which
Speaker 1: is not and he seems like he could be somebody
Speaker 1: that would have been on the office, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Yes, yes, for sure. And then the other
Speaker 1: movie coming out September two, One Way, which just cool.
Speaker 1: That's a machine gun Kelly, Kevin Bacon trap. I did
Speaker 1: it because of Travis Fimmel, because I alre he was
Speaker 1: just the hardest actor on the planet. When I watched
Speaker 1: Dances with Wolves, I was like, who is this guy?
Speaker 1: So when they asked me to come do it, I
Speaker 1: was like I said to Travis when I met him,
Speaker 1: I said I would travel three thousand miles to put
Speaker 1: a gun to your head any day, and that's basically
Speaker 1: what I did. So I play a really bad guy
Speaker 1: in that one, a real bad guy, a real gangster.
Speaker 1: So I get to be the real asshole this time.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see it. Dretta, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for talking to me. I so appreciate it and
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. I'm a big fan and I wish you
Speaker 1: nothing but continued success and uh, everybody will go and
Speaker 1: check out One Way September second to see you play
Speaker 1: a super villain. Awesome. Thank you man, it was great
Speaker 1: meeting you. Nice to meet you. Thank you, Dreya, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming on the podcast. It was
Speaker 1: so much fun for me to hear your story. And
Speaker 1: let's face it, I for one will never be able
Speaker 1: to get enough of the sopranos. Your insight incredible, So
Speaker 1: thank you, and listeners, thank you as always for stopping by.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to follow us on at Off the Beat
Speaker 1: on Instagram, leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Please
Speaker 1: subscribe to the podcast wherever you like to listen and
Speaker 1: have a fan freaking tastic week. All right, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be back before you know it, and Oh, it
Speaker 1: will be awesome. Off the Beat is hosted an executive
Speaker 1: produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Speaker 1: Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
Speaker 1: our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 1: performed by my great friend Greed Bratton