“The Sopranos”' Drea de Matteo Didn't Know Her Character Would Die Until the Episode Aired
A new documentary reveals how de Matteo handled her character's demise and how creator David Chase kept it under wraps
Alamy
When Drea de Matteo’s character died on The Sopranos, it was agonizing for everyone — including the actress, herself.
In the new documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, de Matteo, 52, recalled filming the season 5 episode entitled “Long Term Parking,” in which her character Adriana was killed for being an FBI informant. Creator David Chase kept Adriana’s fate under wraps until the very last minute to avoid any possible leaks to the public.
"David sat me down on set, and he said, 'I'm going to shoot this two ways. I'm going to shoot it where you get away, and I’m going to shoot it where they kill you,'" she recalled. "No one is going to know how it ends until it airs, because we have confidentiality issues on the set. Nobody can know what's really going on. I said, 'But I'm going to be dead, and I’m not going to be on the show anymore. He was like [silence].'"
Anthony Neste/Hbo/Kobal/Shutterstock
Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo on 'The Sopranos.'Not knowing her character’s fate, de Matteo, who won an Emmy Award in 2004 for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for her portrayal of Adriana, took another acting gig as a fallback.
“I took another job, because I didn’t know,” de Matteo continued, adding, “I was scared, and he [David] was f------ pissed, because now it was going to get out. I had to take that job. I thought I’d never work again. I knew that playing Adriana for 5 seasons and being known for that, that that was going to be my life. I knew I was going to be stereotyped forever. So I was like, I’d better just [take] advantage of this right now.”
While de Matteo embraced Adriana’s fate as she “knew that that was how it needed to be,” other actors on the show weren’t as accepting of their characters’ deaths. To lighten the blow, Chase, 79, would break the news to them over lunches or dinners.
Moviestore/Shutterstock
“People were really broken up about it. Some would kind of beg almost, because it’s their job. It’s their livelihood,” said Chase, adding, “But you know what? This is a mob show. People have got to go. And I tried to distance myself from all of it.”
There was one notable exception for The Soprano's creator, however. Chase originally envisioned that Tony Soprano’s (James Gandolfini) mother Livia (Nancy Marchand) would die at the end of season 1 by having Tony smother her. But as the episode approached, Marchand, who had lung cancer and emphysema, asked Chase to “just keep me working.” (Marchand died on June 18, 2000 at age 71.)
“That was changing the whole story,” Chase said. “So we kept her working.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is available to stream on Max. All six season of The Sopranos can be streamed on the same service.
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.
