Not So Tough?
It wasn’t until James Gandolfini himself portrayed Tony that David Chase saw him as ruthless. When speaking with Tom Fontanta for Written By magazine, David Chase explained how he came to understand Tony’s true nature. He said, “Jim showed me early on how much of a pr*ck that guy would have to be. The first day we shot, there was a scene where Christopher said he was going to sell his story to Hollywood. In the script, it said something like, ‘Tony slaps him.’ But when we shot it, all of a sudden Jim was out of his seat. He picked Michael Imperioli up by the neck, by the collar, had him almost off the ground and said, ‘What?! Are you crazy?’ And I thought, Of course, that man’s a motherf***er. That guy is surviving the mob. He’s really a dangerous person. He’s not a fun guy.”
Not So Tough?
Drawing From Real Life
So Paulie Gualtieri, aka Walnuts, wasn’t all an act for Tony Sirico. In real life, Sirico had some of his own mob connections. Before he started his acting career, Sirico had been arrested exactly twenty-eight times. According to the list published by the LA Times, he has been charged with things like weapons possession and robbery. While he was serving his time, he made the decision to turn to acting after an acting troupe made of ex-cons visited his prison. What a story!
Drawing From Real Life
