For Millennials. By Millennials.
The Sopranos cast is unique in the sense that almost none of them were stars before joining the show. Most of the cast were struggling actors with a few gigs here and there, apart from maybe Loraine Bracco and James Gandolfini. But, it looks like Steve Schirripa had a very resume before joining the Sopranos. And it involved stealing weed from rich people’s houses!
Steve Schirripa – the chimney sweep and weed stealer!
As it turns out, Schirripa reveals that during his college days, he was a chimney sweep. It helped him earn some extra cash, back in those days. In the latest episode of the Talking Sopranos podcast, he admitted that it got him access to a lot of rich people’s houses. He said:
In college, I was a chimney sweep… I wore just like coveralls and I had usually a friend with me and I did it mostly on weekends ’cause I was in college during the week. I made a lot of money, I made commission $8 for like a chimney, $9 a boiler, you know whatever it was. Then, we did a lot of rich people’s houses in Manhattan.
Now, Steve Schirripa wasn’t as considerate towards their privacy as you’d expect. He further said:
So, as we were cleaning the chimney, one of us would kinda like open the drawers and see what was happening. No one was home usually.
And when Michael Imperioli asked him did he steal anything, then Schirripa admitted that he would often steal weed!
Ehhh, you know I took weed, and I wasn’t a weed guy. I would give it to my friends, I was never a weed smoker.
He wasn’t scared of the police while stealing weed
But, Steve Schirripa was smart enough to know that he had no reason to be scared of the cops. After all, who would call the police to report stolen weed? That would put those families in a lot of trouble, as Schirripa recalls:
I’m thinking, they can’t call the cops about weed. I remember a couple of times we found big bags of weed, we found vibrators, we would make a sandwich.
Thankfully, he only stole weed and not any vibrators, as Schirripa claims that he wasn’t a thief. Even the weed he stole was for his friends and not himself:
No, no. I didn’t take the vibrators. I wasn’t a thief, I wasn’t going around stealing. The weed, I figured it wasn’t for me I gave it to my friends. You find it once in a while.
Apart from this, Steve Schirripa also worked as a bouncer for ‘wise guys’ in the Garment District of Manhattan. But, he admits that the best job he ever had was working on The Sopranos as an actor. According to him:
Acting was the best job I ever had.