James Gandolfini: The Real Life of the Man Who Made Tony Soprano (25 page)

Based on a script by novelist Dennis Lehane (
Mystic River, Shutter Island
),
Animal Rescue
is about a pit bull pup found in a trash container outside a mobbed-up bar in Brooklyn. Due out in 2014 from Fox Searchlight,
Animal Rescue
was filmed in the final months of Gandolfini’s life (he was on the set of
Animal Rescue
when
Burt Wonderstone
was premiering). Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace play the leads, but the whole set, according to
The Los Angeles Times
in March 2013
,
buzzed with anticipation for the big star—who got there and ate lunch with the grippers and gaffes instead of retreating to his private trailer. The
Times
said Jim and the crew would gab about “everything under the sun, including dogs, a big theme in the film.”

“There was no star thing with Jim,” says Belgian director Michaël Roskam, whose first feature film,
Bullhead,
also about animals caught up in a criminal subculture, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012. Roskam is young—born in 1972. He studied painting at the St. Lucas Academy of Fine Art in Brussels and worked for a time as a journalist before going into filmmaking. As I write this,
Animal Rescue
is still in post-production, lying in pieces on a table for Roskam to assemble. But it should be in theaters either a little before or after this book is published.

“I, of course, didn’t know what to expect when I met him,” Roskam says, but he quickly picked up on Gandolfini’s unusual attitude toward his celebrity. “It was almost like he would try to hide among all the people, that was how he tried to disappear. And it was an irony, you know, that he was always the tallest guy in the room. He could not hide.”

In
Animal Rescue,
Gandolfini plays the former owner of the bar, uncle to Hardy’s character, who is both nostalgic about once running the place and resentful of his demotion to mere bartender. With very little time between roles to prepare, Jim was characteristically dubious about capturing the part—Roskam remembers him suggesting another actor, true to form. And then, on the first or second day of filming, Hardy and Gandolfini were asked to do a key, very emotional scene almost from a cold start. Roskam had to convince Jim he could do it. Gandolfini kept asking, “Are you serious?”

“He was great, of course,” Roskam says. Like Holofcener, Roskam thought Gandolfini’s physical presence was important; when, during casting, producers worried that the milieu was too much like that of
The Sopranos,
he’d give them the option of hiring Bryan Cranston of
Breaking Bad
. But Jim was always his first choice.

“I don’t know if you are going to deal with this in your book, but Jim suffered from that, from his inability to get away from the role of Tony,” Roskam says. But there was a difference now.

“I experienced him as a man who could deal with his insecurities,” Roskam continues. “You know, we are all insecure. It’s how you handle it.

“We need that vulnerability to make art. But that means an artist lives scared. You have to dedicate yourself to being vulnerable if you’re going to go on making serious art, not just doing what is comfortable. And I thought Jim saw this and had learned how to deal with it.”

“Living scared” is a pretty good description of an actor’s life—a description both Harold Guskin and David Chase would endorse. Roskam describes Gandolfini as someone who was almost comfortable with that psychological state. Susan Aston told Jim in his last year that he would always be able to work as long as he wanted, which for an actor is a rare success. Other friends say he was beginning to accept the truth of that.

And he was growing out of Tony. Roskam says he didn’t even look like Tony anymore.

By the time of
Animal Rescue,
Jim was much heavier than he had ever been. Though he rarely spoke about his health, he had to know something about how delicate it might be. The two knee surgeries must have been preceded by tests to see if his heart was strong enough to endure them. Anyway, the long convalescence may well have exacerbated his weight problem. Roskam recalled one incident during a basement shoot for
Animal Rescue
in Brooklyn when Jim, wearing a leather jacket and surrounded by a large crew and hot lights in a cramped space, complained that he was short of breath. He had to step outside.

Roskam says he was briefly worried. But when Gandolfini came back after a few minutes, he did the scene perfectly. He was, after all, just fifty-one.

Gandolfini was undergoing more than just a physical change in those last months. After
Enough Said,
he was learning how to disappear into his roles again. He had a future, and it wasn’t as the guy who ambled down his driveway to pick up
The Star-Ledger
in a polar bear’s bathrobe every week.

He was becoming an elder in his tribe, a Hollywood hand.

“I think we had a strong professional relationship that had evolved, in the end, to be a real professional friendship,” Roskam says. “And the reason I say that is that Jim told me at the end of shooting that he was planning his trip to Rome, and he thought he might expand it, you know, see a little bit of everything. And he said he’d decided to spend three days in Brussels, where I’m from, and he wanted me to recommend good hotels, maybe suggest a friend or two who could show him around. It was very sweet.”

Roskam says the “business side” of making films in the United States is much more prevalent than it is in Europe, and he was finding his way around inside the much bigger system over here. And Gandolfini seemed to understand that.

“He gave me a photograph, a long horizontal photograph of the back of the Hollywood sign, which is all covered with graffiti, you know,” Roskam says. “And you can glimpse, just barely, Los Angeles through the spaces between the letters. I had told him I might move to Los Angeles and I think he was giving me this present as a kind of warning, that this is what the real Hollywood was like—you know, don’t be fooled by the facade, don’t be seduced by what it seems to be. He wrote me a note in his own hand that said so. I thought that was a wonderful gift. A man who can give a present like that, which is beautiful in itself but also carries a message, is an artist.”

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

acting.
See also
characters; roles

with anger

apartments and

with Aston

Aston as coach for

authenticity sought in

Bart on

Bart’s impact on

beast or monster in

childhood

during college

competitiveness in

with famous actors

film and film set

finances and

with Gately

Guskin as coach in

Jacobson impact on

as Mafia

with Meisner technique

memorizing lines and

method

motivation for

paranoia in

partying and success in

philosophy on

physical appearance in

preparation

roles

SAG hours for

self-control in

self-doubt in

as Soprano, Tony

The Sopranos
cast future in

style

substance abuse impact on

as teenager

on television

theater

Travolta and career in

in
True Romance

violence in

actors and performers

acting with famous

identity

Meisner technique used by

New Jersey

New York City apartments and

personality of

relationship with other

for Soprano, Tony

working class

alcohol.
See
substance abuse

Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq

All the King’s Men

Allen, Woody

Alpert, Jon

An American Family

anger

acting with

for Chase

middle or working class

in personality

self-control and

of Soprano, Tony

violence and

Angie

Animal Rescue

Antonacci, Johanna (sister)

apartments

Armstrong, Mark

assimilation

Aston, Susan

as acting coach

acting with

background of

casting by

friendship with

with Gately

9/11 for

physical appearance of

The Sopranos
and involvement of

on television acting

audience

auditions

authenticity or realism

automobiles

awards

Baghdad ER

bars, nightclubs, and restaurants.
See also
Ryan’s

employment in

personality as tender of

Private Eyes within

substance abuse and

Bart, Roger

Batali, Mario

beast or monster

acting as

Soprano, Tony, as

sympathy for

Bellino, Vito

Big El’s Best Friend

biography and biographical nature

of roles

of Soprano, Tony

birth and birthplace

Bloomfield Avenue

bouncers and bouncing

Bracco, Lorraine

Brando, Marlon

business, of Hollywood

California.
See also
Hollywood

career.
See
acting; employment

celebrity.
See also
Hollywood

family on

friends

media and

in New Jersey

personality and

privacy and

as sex symbol

from
The Sopranos

timing of

wealth and

character

characters

beast or monster

death on
The Sopranos

hitmen

ideal

morality of

notes for

paranoia over death of

suffering

tough guy

weakness in

working class

charity and charitable causes

Chase, David.
See also The Sopranos

on acting and paranoia

anger for

in audition for Soprano, Tony

on auditions and writing

on commercialism in television

as father-figure

funeral eulogy from

Italian heritage and assimilation for

Italian mother of

New Jersey roots of

Not Fade Away
from

personality of

The Rockford Files
of

Soprano, Tony, and

in
Sopranos
management

Sopranos
money for

on
Sopranos
success

as writer

childhood

acting during

boating in

Italian heritage in

in New Jersey

of parents

in Park Ridge

personality

physical appearance in

children.
See
Gandolfini, Liliana Ruth (daughter); Gandolfini, Michael (son)

Christie, Chris

“Christopher” episode

Cinema Verite

A Civilian Action

college

acting during

apartment after

automobile in

courage and physical strength in

criminal behavior in

education

friends and friendship

nickname

personality in

physical appearance after scar in

romantic relationships in

substance abuse and

“College” episode

“Columbus Day”

Comarato, Ann

comedy

competition and competitiveness

cooking

courage

crime and criminal behavior

Crimson Tide

crying

culture.
See specific topics

Davis, Geena

de Matteo, Drea

death.
See also
funeral

friends and family actions

of Gandolfini, James, Sr.

of Gandolfini, Santa

on Italian vacation

Jacobson’s

media on

New Jersey impact of

open projects at

The Sopranos
and character

The Sopranos
film and

weight and cause of

world’s reaction to

Di Ionno, Mark

divorce

documentaries

doubt.
See
self-deprecation and doubt

Down the Shore

drama

drugs.
See
substance abuse

economics.
See
money;
specific topics

Eddy

education

8MM

Emmy Awards

employment

of Antonacci

of Aston

in bars, clubs, and restaurants

as bouncer

in construction

of Gandolfini, James, Sr.

of Gandolfini, Leta

of Gandolfini, Santa

for immigrants

Lowell’s

at Private Eyes

of Somoza

Enough Said

episodes,
Sopranos

estate

Falco, Edie

Fallen

family.
See also
Gandolfini, James, Sr.

of Batali

on celebrity

crisis in

death and actions of

documentaries

as entertainer for

at funeral

Gandolfini, Michael (son)

Gandolfini, Santa (mother)

gangster life and receding

of Gately

immigration of

Italian heritage and

of Jacobson