Drea de Matteo Slams How Sopranos Doc Portrays James Gandolfini

Drea de Matteo took half within the new HBO documentary Smart Man: David Chase and The Sopranos, however that doesn’t imply she’s proud of the way it turned out.

De Matteo, 52, took concern with how the movie portrayed her late Sopranos costar James Gandolfini, saying that it made the late actor appear like “a beast.”

“After I noticed the movie at Tribeca and I noticed the half about James Gandolfini, I used to be appalled. I actually was disgusted,” she solely informed Us Weekly whereas selling the relaunch of her attire line, ULTRAFREE. “Why decide the bottom hanging fruit on Jim’s character and take that and run with it, and flatten him out to a one dimensional character that’s not a lot completely different from Tony Soprano, when that’s not who he was.”

De Matteo performed Adriana La Cerva, girlfriend of Tony Soprano’s nephew, Christopher (Michael Imperioli), on the hit HBO sequence. She appeared within the first 5 seasons from 1999 to 2004, and remembered Gandolifini as “a implausible actor who would by no means, ever do something lower than utterly go the place he wanted to go to play that character.”

Gandolfini died of a coronary heart assault in 2013, six years after The Sopranos concluded. De Matteo noticed how he was portrayed within the documentary as one other approach for HBO to revenue off the late actor’s work.

“[They] painted him out to be type of a beast, and I discover that disgraceful,” she continued. “They took the actor that made that community thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of {dollars}, modified the face of tv, and sensationalized him to make one other f–ing greenback off of him.”

The documentary delved into Gandolfini’s psychological and emotional struggles all through the sequence, pertaining to his substance abuse and his behavior of “quitting” the present or not displaying as much as work, solely to be satisfied to return.

Edie Falco, who performed Gandolfini’s on-screen spouse, Carmela Soprano, speculated in Smart Man that the Emmy-winning actor might have ended up “taking [his] work dwelling” with him. Present creator David Chase shared an identical sentiment, evaluating Gandolfini to the character he performed.

Associated: ‘The Sopranos’ Most Iconic Visitor Stars Throughout All 6 Seasons

The Sopranos premiered on HBO in January 1999, and all through its six-season run launched viewers to actors who would ultimately go on to turn into main stars. The late James Gandolfini starred as New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano for the whole lot of the long-lasting present. Followers introduced Tony and his household — Carmela Soprano (Edie […]

“He was actually man and actually difficult,” Chase mentioned. “You may say, and I’m unsure about this, perhaps there was extra Tony there than he needed to confess. That it was too straightforward for him.”

De Matteo doesn’t keep in mind it fairly the identical approach. She informed Us about Gandolfini’s dedication to his character and the present, including that it’s not truthful to criticize him now, 11 years after his dying.

“He’s not right here to talk for himself and all of us are,” she mentioned. “And we will all inform you that all of us partied like loopy, however nobody had the respect he needed to be there each single day and provides a top-notch efficiency that may rattle America. And it was such a disservice, I assumed, and so disrespectful.”

Us Weekly has reached out to HBO for remark.

Like her character, de Matteo is unafraid to talk her thoughts. It’s mirrored within the messages she promotes by ULTRAFREE, which she says is about “making an attempt to make freedom cool once more” at a time the place a lot of America is break up alongside ideological traces.

“The entire idea of freedom these days has kind of been pushed over to the precise of politics when it was all the time on the left,” she mentioned “We have to get again collectively and be within the center and maintain fingers and huddle down and keep in mind that this complete political mess, it actually simply begins with us.”

Smart Man: David Chase and The Sopranos is accessible now on HBO and Max.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi