Michael Gandolfini Never Watched 'The Sopranos' Prior to His Audition for 'The Many Saints of Newark'

Michael Gandolfini never watched a minute of “The Sopranos” prior to his audition with the show’s creator, David Chase, who, in 2019, was casting for Young Tony in the upcoming prequel film “The Many Saints of Newark.”

Gandolfini got the part, and in an interview with Esquire he discussed sitting down for the first time and watching the groundbreaking HBO mobster series from beginning to end:

“It was an intense process. Because, as an actor, I had to watch this guy who created the role, to look for mannerisms, voice, all those things I would have to echo. But then I’d also be seeing my father. I think what made it so hard was I had to do it alone. I was just sitting alone in my dark apartment, watching my dad all the time. I started having crazy dreams. I had one where I auditioned for David and I looked down at my hands, and they were my dad’s hands.”

Michael, born in 1999 when the hit show originally debuted, had just turned 14 when his father, James Gandolfini, passed away at age 51 from a heart attack in Rome in 2013.

To help cope with his father’s loss, Michael began taking acting classes to heal. It worked, and now the rest is history.

Chase’s Sopranos’ film is set in the explosive era of the Newark riots, when rival gangsters began to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family’s hold over Jersey. A trailer has not yet been released, but a handful of shots from the project have been released.