For Millennials. By Millennials.
One of the reasons why ‘The Sopranos’ was so great was because of the incredible performances. However, the two performers who stood out the most were James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. But, the two of them were very different in their nature. Edie Falco was especially a very easy actress to handle and brilliant to work with. That is what one of the directors of The Sopranos, Allen Coulter, revealed.
Edie Falco was more professional than any of the cast of ‘The Sopranos’
Allen Coulter recently showed up on the Talking Sopranos podcast, hosted by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa. There, Coulter talked about his experience of working with different actors of the HBO Original. The one actor that Coulter complimented especially was Edie Falco.
He recalled this one incident on the set of ‘The Sopranos’ where Edie Falco truly showed her dedication to her profession. Coulter said that Falco was “easy” to handle. Coulter recalls:
They’re in the living room and Carmella is watching this go on and she gets upset and she leaves the living room and walks back into the kitchen and she breaks down crying, you know. It’s a very interesting moment for her. And I remember saying to her, I was using the Steadicam, I said, ‘Don’t break down until you get to the kitchen,’ and she said okay.
However, what Coulter recalls later truly shows what made Edie Falco truly remarkable as an actress compared to the rest of the cast of ‘The Sopranos’. They did seven takes, and Falco managed to break down in all of them! Coulter recalls:
We did seven takes, I remember, and every time she would hold it back and then she would break down. And the camera would squeal around and she would get to where she couldn’t be seen and she would break down. And when we got to the seventh, I was thinking about another take. She said I don’t think I can do it again.
The fact that she could do seven takes and still control her emotions as well as she did the first just goes to show how good Edie Falco was as Carmela Soprano. She symbolizes professionalism.
Edie Falco – The lunchbox actress
In addition to this dedication, Coulter also revealed what it was like to work with Edie Falco on ‘The Sopranos’, calling her one of the greatest actresses of her generation:
Edie, I always said, was like a lunchbox actress you know. The one that shows up, puts (lunchbox) down, puts a time card in, waits, goes on, does her part, leaves, you know. Not cold-blooded… I think she is truly one of the greatest of her generation of American actresses for sure.
That is a huge compliment to Edie Falco, which she rightfully deserves. And what’s even more baffling is that HBO almost missed out on Falco at the start during casting. David Chase initially wanted Lorraine Bracco to play Carmela Soprano. But, Bracco refused because she had already played that kind of role in ‘Goodfellas’. Afterwards, Edie Falco auditioned for Carmela Soprano and the rest, as they say, is history.