Stevie Van Zandt famously played Tony Soprano’s right hand man, but the E Street Band musician says he almost landed the lead.
Van Zandt talked all things Springsteen and “The Sopranos” in an interview with TODAY’s Craig Melvin for the Nov. 3 episode of his podcast, “Glass Half Full.”
Van Zandt told Craig he originally had “no interest” in acting, not even when he first got a call from television writer and producer David Chase. Chase, the creator of “The Sopranos,” saw Van Zandt’s “comical introduction” of The Rascals during their Rock & Roll Hall of Fall induction in 1997, the first time the ceremony had ever been televised.
As Van Zandt tells it, Chase tracked the musician down through his foundation and called him with an offer: “Hey, man, I’m doing a new TV show, you want to be in it?”
“I’m like, ‘No, not really,’” Van Zandt recalled.
Van Zandt had no acting experience at the time.
“He says, ‘Don’t worry. You are an actor. You just don’t know it yet,’” Van Zandt said. “… I had nothing else to do, right?”
Van Zandt, who went on to play Silvio Dante across all six seasons of the mob show, still had to formally audition for the show for Chase.
“I went down there, and he liked what I did so much, believe it or not, he cast me as Tony Soprano,” Van Zandt said.
As a “little formality,” Van Zandt said Chase had him audition again for HBO on the West Coast. When the musician arrived for his audition, he saw James Gandolfini waiting.
Van Zandt had just seen the actor in 1993’s “True Romance.” He said he told a casting director, “That’s the cat that should be playing Tony Soprano.”
“I put it in her head because I said, ‘You know who that is?’ She said, no. I said, ‘I just saw him in a movie. Believe me, he’s the one who should be playing Tony Soprano.’ And she looked at me like I had two heads,” Van Zandt said.
After Van Zandt auditioned again, his casting was vetoed due to the musician’s lack of experience. Chase then told Van Zandt he could “have any other part” he wanted, but he said he started to feel guilty “taking an actor’s job.” Van Zandt’s wife, Maureen, is an actor, and he had witnessed all the work she put into her career.
“He says, ‘OK, I’m gonna write you in a part that doesn’t exist. You ain’t taking nobody’s job,’” Van Zandt said.
Craig asked if Gandolfini, who died in June 2013, ever thanked Van Zandt for his part in his casting.
“I’m not sure he ever knew,” Van Zandt said.
“I don’t know, and I don’t know if I was the only factor there,” he continued. “But once they saw him, I mean, he was just so great. I mean, what a loss.
“Loss, personally, but also, he’s just one of the great actors of all time,” he added. “And he would have been legendary. He is anyway.”
