Michael Gandolfini shares the one thing his dad, Tony Soprano star James Gandolfini, hoped he’d do

Son of the late James Gandolfini, Michael Gandolfini is an American actor known for playing the young Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark (2021), a prequel to The Sopranos. His father led The Sopranos with his iconic character, and therefore, for his son, the experience of playing the same character was personal.

Michael shared in an interview with The Wall Street Journal a heartfelt reflection on his early experiences visiting the set of The Sopranos and what that meant for his journey into acting.

Michael Gandolfini revealed how his father was deeply protective, and prevented him from getting exposed to violent and graphic scenes. Read on to know in detail about what he said in the interview.

Here is what Michael Gandolfini revealed about his dad, The Sopranos star

Michael Gandolfini emphasised in the interview how his father always wanted him to explore acting on his own and not through his father's perspective. Moreover, his parents always protected him from witnessing violent scenes on set and encouraged him to play with toys.

"Being excluded on set drove me crazy. My parents were protective and wanted me to enjoy being a kid," he said. "From my father’s perspective, if I was going to follow him into the business, he wanted me to discover acting on my own."

Michael Gandolfini's decision to become an actor, and eventually portray the young Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark, turned out to be quite a personal experience.

"To play Tony as a teen, I had to get a full sense of him, but I’d never watched an episode of The Sopranos. Going through the series to prep wasn’t like watching home movies," he said.

The Many Saints of Newark, the prequel film to The Sopranos, was released on October 1, 2021. It premiered both in theatres and on HBO Max simultaneously. Because he was not much allowed on sets by his parents, Michael believes that he experienced the characters from the perspective of a regular viewer. This allowed him to bring his own idea of Tony, and how his younger self would be, without any past influences.

This is also what his father meant when he told him to find out his meaning of acting, and refrained from imposing any preconceived notions. The actor also mentioned that he had a trailer filled with toys, and that is what the set was all about for him.

“When I’d visit him on the ‘Sopranos’ set, I’d hang out in his trailer. I had my own little drawer of toys and things to keep me occupied. My parents didn’t want me outside on set, exposed to the show’s violence and language.”

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The Many Saints of Newark is set in the 1960s and unfolds the events that transform the young Tony Soprano into the mob boss we see in the original series. James Gandolfini, the actor behind the iconic character, died in Rome at the age of 51, on June 19, 2013, due to cardiac arrest.

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