Cast and creator on the show - Radio Times, October 2000

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Cast and creator on the show - Radio Times, October 2000

Bill Hagerty met the creator and stars of Emmy-winning TV phenomenon The Sopranos as the second series began.

On the show being a surprise hit

"Did I anticipate success for the show abroad? I didn't anticipate it being successful anywhere. I saw it as a feature film originally, but was disabused of that pretty quickly. I was told a mob comedy was not a good idea, especially a mob comedy about a guy who goes to see a shrink.

"Little did we know that as we were sitting in that room and I was being told that, someone was out there busily writing Analyze This (the black comedy in which Robert De Niro plays a gang boss who seeks professional help from psychiatrist Billy Crystal). I heard about the film the day after HBO agreed to produce The Sopranos. I thought, 'Oh my God - we're dead.'"
DAVID CHASE, creator

"We said, who's going to watch fat guys from Jersey running around?"
JAMES GANDOLFINI, actor

"We finished shooting the first season, and David said, 'Well, we had fun - too bad nobody will watch it.' And I thought, 'He's the head dude. That's hardly confidence-inspiring at all.'"
EDIE FALCO, actor

"We were so into it and it was so rich and we were having so much fun making it that we thought it couldn't succeed. It's the American puritan ethic - you can't be having too much fun in your work, otherwise something's wrong. Well, we were wrong about that!"
DAVID CHASE, creator

On fame

"The recognition gets you the best tables in restaurants and people are nice to you. It takes a little more energy when you go to the store, but it's nothing to be freaked out about. There have been one or two who wanted to get tough, but I worked in bars a long time and I learned to talk my way out of situations. It's no big deal."
JAMES GANDOLFINI, actor

"I've been doing this acting thing for many years now, and I have done so very anonymously. I'd go and do my night job and walk through the streets and be unnoticed and I miss it terribly. I don't have the luxury of watching people behave as people any more - they are behaving in a certain way because they are around someone they've seen on TV."
EDIE FALCO, actor

On the future

"They won't take an easy way out. They'll find something that will mirror what's going on in people's heads these days. There's a lot of pressure on David [Chase], but he's smart enough to be able to answer it."
JAMES GANDOLFINI, actor

"It is very much a mob show, but it is not just a mob show. It is about greed and ambition and about looking for love in all the wrong places. People in the USA are so caught up with personal happiness and achieving it that it's all they can really think about. There's a lot of selfishness around. The people in The Sopranos have made a deal with the devil. And, so far, I have no idea how it will end."
DAVID CHASE, creator

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Now take a look at our full guide to The Sopranos.

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