S20E17: James Gandolfini
Trashy Divorces
Hemlock Creatives
4.5 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When The Sopranos premiered on HBO in 1999, no one knew how thoroughly it would change television for a generation. Mob boss Tony Soprano, portrayed so ably by actor James Gandolfini, was a complex anti-hero who was capable of both shocking violence and everyman confusion and ambivalence about his role as a father, husband, son, mobster, and human being. Gandolfini himself may have been the perfect actor for the role, but becoming Tony Soprano was harder than the public knew. He battled his own demons throughout the series run, including during his divorce from his first wife, while the few years he had remaining post-Sopranos at least seem to have represented a fresh start.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to trashy divorces, everybody's favorite good podcast about bad |
| 0:07.2 | relationships. My name is Stacey. |
| 0:09.8 | Hey, friends, Alicia here. Thank you for joining us for today's tale of Marital Misadventure. |
| 0:15.6 | Alicia, I know you were pretty taken by Kissinger delaying the beginning of the premiere of The Godfather just by being a |
| 0:23.8 | famous guy present. So you have another TV mobster for us? I have got a Godfather connection. |
| 0:29.9 | I am bringing you this week from your Godfather of government last episode to the Godfather of the Sopranos this week. I have the story of |
| 0:41.0 | James Gandalfini. Oh, sure, Tony Soprano. It will become a television legend through that portrayal. |
| 0:48.4 | Tony Soprano, the leader of the mafia family in HBO's The Sopranos, a terrific show considered one of the greatest |
| 0:56.2 | television shows of all time, but at what a cost to James Gandalfini. |
| 1:01.9 | As Tony Soprano, Gandalfini perfectly showed the complexity of his character, making audiences |
| 1:09.4 | go between, loving him, fearing him, hating him, being |
| 1:13.3 | amused by him, and sometimes even feeling compassion for him. |
| 1:18.3 | It was through mostly his enormous talent and charisma that he was able to make a murderous |
| 1:24.1 | in scheming and sometimes diabolical character, one of the most understandable |
| 1:28.5 | and even beloved anti-heroes ever possibly written. |
| 1:33.6 | Many critics credit the Tony Soprano character is paving the way for what we would call |
| 1:39.5 | morally dubious television protagonists that would become popular in later television shows like Breaking |
| 1:46.8 | Bad, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Mad Men. |
| 1:51.6 | We do love a good, muddled hero, don't we? |
| 1:55.2 | Ah, anti-hero, so good. |
| 1:57.5 | Gandalfini was undoubtedly the leader of a remarkable ensemble cast that would end up in the |
| 2:03.7 | run of the Sopranos being nominated for 308 awards. Wow. Winning 91 of them. Oh my God. I did not |
... |
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