“The Sopranos” actor Michael Imperioli has revealed his initially mild takeaway about the acclaimed HBO TV series and said he thought it “was okay” at first.
Imperioli, who starred as Christopher Moltisanti in the iconic drama, told The A.V. Club that the series’ idea didn’t “have any prestige to actors at all at that time” and recalled reading the pilot’s script.
“I wasn’t like ’This is gonna change television,” said “The White Lotus” actor, who added that the pilot was “okay.”
“I’m not being facetious, really, I wasn’t sure if it was a spoof, is this a comedy? It’s on HBO, where there were no series… no one’s ever going to really see this.”
Millions, though, wound up tuning into “The Sopranos” as the show would have 11.9 million viewers by its series finale, according to Nielsen data.
Imperioli, who earned a Primetime Emmy Award for his role in 2004, said that involvement in the series “didn’t really” interest him as he had mostly been in movies and plays.
“But I thought [Moltisanti] was kind of interesting in the pilot, he had some interesting things to do and I really liked who they were casting, a lot of people who I had worked with before and who I knew,” said Imperioli, who noted the involvement of “Goodfellas” star Lorraine Bracco.
His initial “okay” takeaway of the series, however, slowly turned into an increased interest as it gained more episodes.
“When we started doing the episode two, episode three, every script was better and more complex,” he said.
“Then we really started seeing ‘Whoa, this is really special.’”
