Why is Silvio always frowning?
STEVEN Van Zandt, the guitar legend who plays Tony Soprano’s right hand man, Silvio Dante, hints that a wave of extreme violence is about to rock the final three episodes of “The Sopranos.”
“If they were ever considering the idea of doing a [‘Sopranos’] movie, let’s just say it would need to be a prequel,” Van Zandt told The Post.
Van Zandt, 56, is also known as Little Steven from his days with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. He says he was approached by “Sopranos” creator David Chase about 10 years ago to play the level-headed Mafioso – even though he had absolutely no acting experience.
“I guess he saw something in me,” Van Zandt says. Silvio’s recognizable expression, a curled lower-lip frown, was something Van Zandt came up with himself.
“I did everything I could from the outside in to transform myself,” he says. “I didn’t want anybody to look at the show and say, ‘I saw that guy playing Indianapolis once.’ That included a facial transformation. I didn’t want him smiling the same way I smile. I didn’t want anything the same.”
He says he gained at least 50 lbs. for the role. “I was thin my whole life, so when you gain weight, your whole thing changes, you walk differently, you talk differently, you think differently. It’s a big transformation. I wanted to look in a mirror and see someone else. I knew if I could see him [Silvio], I could be him.”
Van Zandt says he plans to work with a trainer at least twice a day now to try and drop the weight. “I gained a bunch of weight which now I gotta lose before I get back on stage – hopefully Bruce [Springsteen] won’t move too fast,” he jokes.
While he’s not ruling out acting again, Van Zandt says he plans to focus mainly on music. He oversees two channels on Sirius satellite radio and is the executive producer of the round-table talk radio program, “The Wiseguy Show,” which is moderated by his old “Sopranos” colleague, Vincent “Big Pussy” Pastore
When David Chase created the series, The Sopranos changed television with a daring, bold, and utterly unique approach to storytelling. Tony Soprano was a protagonist that audiences were interested in, as a mobster dealing with his own mental health issues, but he was also a monster who did irredeemable things. The groundbreaking show won 21 Emmys and was nominated for 111 more and helped establish HBO as a network of prestige television. Part of the reason for the lasting legacy may have been that The Sopranos chose to end while it was still one of the best shows on television.
This isn’t to say there wasn’t some HBO interference, particularly early on. According to interviews in Alan Sepinwall’s and Matt Zoller Seitz’s book The Sopranos Sessions, Chase didn’t want to continue with the show past its second season, but pay raises for himself and his cast made ducking out early a near impossibility. By the time the fourth season was winding down, Chase says, “I thought I had more to give The Sopranos. I wasn’t ready to give up. I was feeling really good, and I wanted to keep doing it.”
