As you might expect, the wikipedia page for tonight’s Sopranos 86th and final episode, “Made In America,” has been locked until tonight at midnight due to vandalism.
Apparently leaked spoilers were posted, but it’s not a huge surprise with such a hugely anticipated cultural event (at least for millions of TV audiences) that someone would try ruining it or mess with people, by posting fabricating fakes. Spoilerbuzz has noted some of what was taken down (but we’re not reading it).
Incidentally, apparently some publicist ruined the finale for the gossip whores over at Gawker. If this is indeed true we feel a major sense of schadenfreude that warms our cockles.
Every media publication is obviously doing their obligatory goodbye piece, but the New York Times’ final interviews with the cast is pretty notable.
Here’s the best excerpts.
Edie Faclo, 43: Carmela Soprano
She admits to being in denial. “We’ve taken many breaks,” Ms. Falco said. “So I can still fool myself that this is just another break.”
Steven R. Schirripa, 49: Bobby Baccalieri
Apparently really tried to amp up the weight angle at first and made Baccalieri wear a fat suit that made him bigger. Bruce Springsteen really liked Tony and Bobby’s fight. “[We] decided to make the fight as real as we could,” Schirripa told the Times. “It was sloppy…two fat guys having a sweaty, drunken fight. [Gandolfini] was choking me, pulling my hair. We didn’t use stuntmen until he crashed into the table. At a charity event Bruce Springsteen told me it was the best TV fight he’d ever seen.”
Michael Imperioli, 41: Christopher Moltisanti
A writer for the show, Imperioli knew about his death a year before it happened and had to feign knowledge of upcoming plot points to the rest of the cast. “People wanted to know about being killed. I kept pretending I didn’t know,” he said.
Tony Sirico, 64: Paulie Gualtieri, a k a Paulie Walnuts
Sirico said a return of the infamous Russian was in the works, but in the end Chase decided not to shoot it. “We had a scene this [final] season when Chris and I are talking in the bar about whatever happened to that Russian guy. And in the script we were supposed to go outside and there he was standing on the corner. But when we went to shoot it, they took it out. I think David didn’t like it. He wanted the audience just to suffer.”
Steven Van Zandt, 56: Silvio Dante
Van Zandt thinks he was cast by Chase because he could see that his daytime role wasn’t dissimilar from the characters. “I’d been playing consiglieri and best friend to Bruce, and this guy was the same thing to Tony Soprano. David could see that.”
Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 26: Meadow Soprano
The episode that resonated with her the most was from the first season when Tony drives her to college and whacks a turncoat he finds living in Maine. Gandolfini symbolically welcomed her by letting her sit in his chair. “He told me, ‘This is your episode.’ ”
Lorraine Bracco, 52: Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Bracco was pleased that her character never reenacted revenge on her rapist via Tony’s potential reckoning noting the show would have been lost had the “moral through line of the series” gone astray. She chalked up working next to Gandolfini as sparing with one of the greats. “I got to play with Muhammad Ali. I really got James at his finest.”
James Gandolfini, 45: Tony Soprano
The only one without any sense of fear or regret seems to be Gandolfini. “Obviously this changed my life, but I’ve separated. I’m relieved.” Apparently after his notorious salary holdout, Gandolfini presented his colleagues with sizable checks and said, “Thanks for putting up with me.”