“The Sopranos” actor Michael Imperioli has revealed his initially disappointed impression of the HBO series before it was acclaimed.
Imperioli, who played Christopher Moltisanti in the iconic drama, told The AV Club in an interview published Thursday that the idea of doing an HBO series “didn’t have any cachet for actors at the time.”
“I didn’t say, ‘This is going to change television,'” said Imperioli, who recently starred in the HBO series “The White Lotus.” The pilot, he said, “was fine.”
“I’m not kidding, really, I wasn’t sure if it’s a fake, is it a comedy? It’s on HBO, where there were no series. … No one will ever really see it.
Millions of people, however, ended up tuning in to “The Sopranos” after its premiere in 1999. The series reportedly had 11.9 million viewers by the series finale, according to Nielsen data.
Imperioli, who won a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in 2004, said she was “not interested” in the series at first because she was mostly into movies and comedies.
“But I believed [Moltisanti] it was pretty cool in the pilot, it had some great things to do, and I really liked who they were casting, a lot of people that I had worked with before that I knew,” said Imperioli, who noted the involvement of the “Good Guys” . “.” protagonist Lorena Bracco.
His initial impression of “OK” slowly turned into a growing interest with each episode, he said.
“When we started doing Episode 2, Episode 3, every script was better and more complex,” Imperioli said.
“Then we really started to see, ‘Wow, this is really special.'”
