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American Morning

Actor Vincent Curatola Discusses 'The Sopranos'

Aired December 09, 2002 - 09:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All the Monday morning quarterbacking, though, today concerning last night's season finale of "The Sopranos." Vincent Curatola plays Johnny Sack in last night's season finale, wrapped up, looking toward another season next year.
Johnny Sack is with us now.

Vincent, good morning to you.

VINCENT CURATOLA, "THE SOPRANOS": Good morning to you.

HEMMER: Good to see you. What did you think last night?

CURATOLA: Fabulous.

HEMMER: Really?

CURATOLA: Yes.

HEMMER: With a capital "F"?

CURATOLA: Jim Gandolfini, heart-ripping great act.

HEMMER: I thought the two scenes with Edie and Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini, toward the half hour and during that first hour, were excellent scenes, on behalf of both, and really showed their strength and probably showed the core of "The Sopranos," when it's at its best.

Now the criticism you've taken is that you haven't gone to those moments enough, like this scene right there, last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURATOLA: Poor you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He made me feel like I matter mattered.

CURATOLA: You asked me the other day, what (inaudible) has that you don't have, and I thought about it and it was pretty good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: What do you respond to, when the critics say you know what, you should have gone deeper on relationship scenes like these?

CURATOLA: Well, you know what, I have a really good answer for that. David Chase and our writers write in real-time. And I don't think that any run-of-the-mill guy or woman has an exciting day or an exciting week each and every time. Okay? And at some point, you have to come down to that level of boredom, maybe, with your spousal life, your marital life. I mean, you can't have these fabulous highs constantly.

I mean, this show has never been about who shot J.R. you know, cliffhangers or whatever. They write in what we call "real time."

HEMMER: So, you're...

CURATOLA: If people have seen episodes where there hasn't been a tremendous amount of violence, maybe a tremendous amount of street business by mobsters, I don't think these guys in real life have those peaks every day either.

HEMMER: And so your suggestion is that the script in the past season was more true to life?

CURATOLA: I -- in my opinion, without a doubt.

HEMMER: Now, listen, I know you're not going to give any great secrets away to us, unfortunately, today. When we go to the next season, though, tell us about this conflict that's developing between New Jersey and New York and the family ties?

CURATOLA: OK. The only thing I can tell you is that we don't go back to work for a while until March, and we get scripts on a need-to- know basis, one at a time, so I don't know. I can't -- do you want my prediction?

HEMMER: Sure. We absolutely do.

CURATOLA: Tony Soprano and Johnny Sack go back a very long time -- maybe 20 years as friends and they came up together "in the life," as you can call it. There's a great respect for each other. I would imagine that, come the fifth season, and I hate to take a liberty like this, but you'll see more -- I don't know if I want to call it conflict or more understanding and more reading of each other, both characters, the main goal being: become as rich as possible.

HEMMER: You know, when you're part of the staff and so many others are part of the staff, do you get worried that you're going to be cut out of the script...

CURATOLA: No.

HEMMER: ... do you worry that you...

CURATOLA: No.

HEMMER: Why not?

CURATOLA: Absolutely not. I have such? I have such trust in the writing, that if that's going to happen -- and I might feel, as an actor it was premature in the story line or premature in the run of the season -- I would say, you know what, I had a great run. There's a reason why they're going to do that and the whole is more important. I'll go find another...

HEMMER: Yes, but knowing the success of the series, I mean, I would think, professionally, you don't want to leave this show.

CURATOLA: No, but I'll tell you something, being on it, to this level, is a lot better than having never been on it. So if, at that point they decide something has to happen to my character, either he disappears, he goes to jail, he gets killed, whatever, I was there. And that's a great feeling.

HEMMER: That was really -- you said earlier that you're, what, on a need-to-know basis, in terms of scripts?

CURATOLA: One script at a time.

HEMMER: They only tell you what you need to know.

CURATOLA: Exactly -- that's right.

HEMMER: Well, listen, congratulations on the great...

CURATOLA: Thank you.

HEMMER: ...do you play with the band Chicago sometimes?

CURATOLA: I sing with the band Chicago...

HEMMER: Yes.

CURATOLA: ...when our schedules meld, and I do it as a goof, but people seem to like it and I love them.

HEMMER: Yes. Good for you. Good for Curatola. Good to see you.

CURATOLA: Bill, my pleasure, thank you.

HEMMER: Hang on there for a moment. I got more questions for you during the commercial, by the way.

CURATOLA: OK.

HEMMER: Not enough time, my friend. Thanks, again.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 9, 2002 - 09:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All the Monday morning quarterbacking, though, today concerning last night's season finale of "The Sopranos." Vincent Curatola plays Johnny Sack in last night's season finale, wrapped up, looking toward another season next year.
Johnny Sack is with us now.

Vincent, good morning to you.

VINCENT CURATOLA, "THE SOPRANOS": Good morning to you.

HEMMER: Good to see you. What did you think last night?

CURATOLA: Fabulous.

HEMMER: Really?

CURATOLA: Yes.

HEMMER: With a capital "F"?

CURATOLA: Jim Gandolfini, heart-ripping great act.

HEMMER: I thought the two scenes with Edie and Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini, toward the half hour and during that first hour, were excellent scenes, on behalf of both, and really showed their strength and probably showed the core of "The Sopranos," when it's at its best.

Now the criticism you've taken is that you haven't gone to those moments enough, like this scene right there, last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURATOLA: Poor you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He made me feel like I matter mattered.

CURATOLA: You asked me the other day, what (inaudible) has that you don't have, and I thought about it and it was pretty good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: What do you respond to, when the critics say you know what, you should have gone deeper on relationship scenes like these?

CURATOLA: Well, you know what, I have a really good answer for that. David Chase and our writers write in real-time. And I don't think that any run-of-the-mill guy or woman has an exciting day or an exciting week each and every time. Okay? And at some point, you have to come down to that level of boredom, maybe, with your spousal life, your marital life. I mean, you can't have these fabulous highs constantly.

I mean, this show has never been about who shot J.R. you know, cliffhangers or whatever. They write in what we call "real time."

HEMMER: So, you're...

CURATOLA: If people have seen episodes where there hasn't been a tremendous amount of violence, maybe a tremendous amount of street business by mobsters, I don't think these guys in real life have those peaks every day either.

HEMMER: And so your suggestion is that the script in the past season was more true to life?

CURATOLA: I -- in my opinion, without a doubt.

HEMMER: Now, listen, I know you're not going to give any great secrets away to us, unfortunately, today. When we go to the next season, though, tell us about this conflict that's developing between New Jersey and New York and the family ties?

CURATOLA: OK. The only thing I can tell you is that we don't go back to work for a while until March, and we get scripts on a need-to- know basis, one at a time, so I don't know. I can't -- do you want my prediction?

HEMMER: Sure. We absolutely do.

CURATOLA: Tony Soprano and Johnny Sack go back a very long time -- maybe 20 years as friends and they came up together "in the life," as you can call it. There's a great respect for each other. I would imagine that, come the fifth season, and I hate to take a liberty like this, but you'll see more -- I don't know if I want to call it conflict or more understanding and more reading of each other, both characters, the main goal being: become as rich as possible.

HEMMER: You know, when you're part of the staff and so many others are part of the staff, do you get worried that you're going to be cut out of the script...

CURATOLA: No.

HEMMER: ... do you worry that you...

CURATOLA: No.

HEMMER: Why not?

CURATOLA: Absolutely not. I have such? I have such trust in the writing, that if that's going to happen -- and I might feel, as an actor it was premature in the story line or premature in the run of the season -- I would say, you know what, I had a great run. There's a reason why they're going to do that and the whole is more important. I'll go find another...

HEMMER: Yes, but knowing the success of the series, I mean, I would think, professionally, you don't want to leave this show.

CURATOLA: No, but I'll tell you something, being on it, to this level, is a lot better than having never been on it. So if, at that point they decide something has to happen to my character, either he disappears, he goes to jail, he gets killed, whatever, I was there. And that's a great feeling.

HEMMER: That was really -- you said earlier that you're, what, on a need-to-know basis, in terms of scripts?

CURATOLA: One script at a time.

HEMMER: They only tell you what you need to know.

CURATOLA: Exactly -- that's right.

HEMMER: Well, listen, congratulations on the great...

CURATOLA: Thank you.

HEMMER: ...do you play with the band Chicago sometimes?

CURATOLA: I sing with the band Chicago...

HEMMER: Yes.

CURATOLA: ...when our schedules meld, and I do it as a goof, but people seem to like it and I love them.

HEMMER: Yes. Good for you. Good for Curatola. Good to see you.

CURATOLA: Bill, my pleasure, thank you.

HEMMER: Hang on there for a moment. I got more questions for you during the commercial, by the way.

CURATOLA: OK.

HEMMER: Not enough time, my friend. Thanks, again.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com