What did James Gandolfini say about Sopranos ending?

It was the ending that left fans confused, baffled and outraged.

But now even James Gandolfini, the actor who played Tony Soprano in the hit TV series The Sopranos, has admitted he did not like it either.

The actor said that when the screen suddenly went black as he sits down to dinner with his family he thought: ‘What the f***?’
He later came to accept the conclusion yet his initial reaction was: ‘It’s over like that?’

In an in-depth article in Vanity Fair magazine, most of the other cast members and Sopranos creator David Chase also speak candidly about the multi-award winning show.

Chase reveals that even though he had written a mob drama he ‘hated’ having characters killed and it left him feeling like a real-life mobster.

Just like the real Mafia the actors were also paranoid they were going to be bumped off as they did not know the scripts in advance.

But five years after The Sopranos ended, it is still the ending itself which everybody is talking about.

Fans at the time called it the ‘worst ending in history’ whilst blogs lit up with fans claiming they felt cheated.

Gandolfini told Vanity Fair: ‘When I first saw the ending, I said, ‘What the f***.

‘I mean, after all I went through, all this death, and then it’s over like that?’

Yet he added: ‘After I had a day to sleep, I just sat there and said: ‘That’s perfect.”

Lorraine Bracco, who played Dr Jennifer Melfi on the show, also revealed she did not like it at first either.
She said: ‘I would have wanted it to end differently. But God knows we’ve talked about that ending for five years now – we’re still talking about it.

‘People stop me in the street. ‘Did you get the ending? Did I miss something?’ I thought it was very, very shrewd.’

The Vanity Fair article includes rich detail about the show, which ran from 1999 to 2007 and lasted six seasons, winning a slew of Emmys, Golden Globes and Directors’ Guild Awards.

Drea de Matteo, who played Adriana La Cerva, reveals that she hated her fake New Jersey and that even today people still come up to her and say: ‘Just give me one Chris-ta-fuh.’

Edie Falco, who played Tony Soprano’s wife, got so involved in her character that she felt like a real life mob moll, even feeling possessive about Gandolfini.

She said: ‘It was weird to sit down at a table and read with the actresses playing Tony’s girlfriends. Occasionally I would get a sharp twinge at the back of my neck.

‘Even years later, I remember when I saw Jim in ‘God of Carnage’ on Broadway, and he was Marcia Gay Harden’s husband, and I had this ‘How come I have to be OK with this?’ kind of feeling.’
In another twist, Gandolfini himself admitted that he still has feelings for Falco, who played his wife Carmela for all six seasons of the show.

Gandolfini also told the magazine that even now he’s still in love on screen wife Edie Falco
Gandolfini also told the magazine that even now he’s still in love on screen wife Edie Falco

He told Vanity Fair: ‘I’m still in love with Edie. Of course, I love my wife, but I’m in love with Edie. I don’t know if I’m in love with Carmela or Edie or both. I’m in love with her.’

All the actors also only found out they were about to be killed off when the scripts were handed out – leading to tense moments on the set.

Steve Schirripa, who played Tony Soprano’s bodyguard Bobby ‘Bacala’ said: ‘If it’s time for your character to go, it’s time for your character to go. It doesn’t matter who you are.

‘I mean, this wasn’t ‘Friends.’ This was a real worry.

‘You know, we would talk. ‘Did you hear anything?’ You’re asking the writers. Nobody’s telling you nothing. Each time the script arrived, you go to the front, you go to the back, looking.’

The only time this caused tempers to really flare was on the day that Vincent Pastore’s character Sal ‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero was killed – with cast members shouting at each other because they felt such a mixture of raw emotions.

Chase is the most candid of all and says that the ending was such because ‘ambiguity is very important to me’.

He compared it classic films like ‘Raging Bull’ in which boxer Jake LaMotta played by Robert de Niro talks to himself in the mirror before the screen goes black with a quote from The Bible on screen.