Talking Sopranos Ep #92 "Catching Up" and a Big Announcement!

Talking Sopranos

Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa catch up on their lives and careers since their time on The Sopranos. They discuss recent professional

Key takeaways

• Steve Schirripa recently completed a successful four-month, 135-performance run on Broadway.
• Schirripa is set to appear in the upcoming film 'Song Sung Blue' alongside Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.

Main topics

• The Sopranos legacy
• Recent acting projects

Notable quotes

Sopranos was a once in a lifetime experience.

Conclusion

A nostalgic and heartfelt reunion that celebrates the enduring impact

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Amazon Great Indian Speaker 1 (0:02) Festival is here. The festival of all the greats is here. The Speaker 3 (0:10) phone Speaker 1 (0:10) has Speaker 3 (0:10) been upgraded from exchange. The beautiful selfie is here. The Speaker 2 (0:15) great deals on fashion are here. The candle hopping is going on for sure. The Speaker 3 (0:20) home is decorated. India celebrates. Mumbai, Speaker 2 (0:22) Lucknow, Kolkata, Kochi. The festival Speaker 3 (0:24) of all the Speaker 2 (0:24) greats is here. The Amazon Great Indian Speaker 3 (0:27) Festival is here. From 8th October. Speaker 1 (0:33) Michael, what's happening, pal? Speaker 2 (0:35) How are you, buddy? It's been a while. It's been a long time, like years, right? Yeah. Gee, you got old. Speaker 1 (0:42) I look the same. You look the same? You know, I'm going to tell you, you know what's scary? What? Watching the old Soprano clips of the show, and now you're talking 25 years ago, you know, 20 years ago, 25 years ago. It's a little scary. How I've aged. You Speaker 2 (1:04) know, that's Speaker 1 (1:05) it. That's how it goes. What are you going to do? I mean, a long time ago. Speaker 2 (1:09) Listen, I did the pilot in 1997. That's 28 years ago. Speaker 1 (1:14) Yeah. I know. I'm just saying, you know. Forever. People have in their mind. Yeah. You always look like that, like you're frozen in time, you know. Speaker 2 (1:25) Doesn't Speaker 1 (1:26) work that way. You know what I mean. You're here all the time, I remember. I think we were out somewhere one night in a restaurant, and this older lady came up, and she wanted to take a picture, and she said to you, Ma, you got old. Speaker 2 (1:43) Did she really? Did I take the Speaker 1 (1:44) picture? And I'm going, this is back over 10 years ago. And you said, well, it happens to all of us. What would she say now? She'd probably drop dead. How about when a guy goes, hey, everyone says I look just like you? I Speaker 2 (2:00) get Speaker 1 (2:00) that from time Speaker 2 (2:01) to time. Speaker 1 (2:01) Or when they go, is it you? Is it really you? Are you the guy? And I go, Brad Pitt? Yeah, that's me. How do you answer that? Speaker 2 (2:13) Has anyone ever told you you look like the guy from The Sopranos? Speaker 1 (2:17) Yeah, I get that. I always go, yeah, I hear that all the time. You know, it's it's the response is a little. I mean, I love the fans. I love that they still acknowledge us. You know, they'll get me wrong, but it is sometimes it gets a little awkward. Speaker 2 (2:37) Sometimes it gets awkward. Depends on the person. Most people are most people are great. Speaker 1 (2:43) Oh, 99.9%. But then you always got a jack off. Speaker 2 (2:47) Can't help it. That's the world, though, too. In general. Oh, Speaker 1 (2:52) no. In general, there's more than the percentage. There's a lot higher percentage of jack offs. I'm going to go a good 30, 35. Speaker 2 (3:01) Lately? Is that recent or has that always been? Speaker 1 (3:06) I think always, but it's gotten worse. It's gotten worse. Either that or my tolerance is much lower. In the normal population of life, 35 % of the people are jackals. Really? You think it's that much? Yeah, and it spans all races, religions, you know, clans, money. You know, it's all across the board. It's not like just this group or that group or this group. Across the board, 35%. Speaker 2 (3:35) Wow, that's a high percentage. You don't think so? I don't know. I mean, I think it's a little less. Speaker 1 (3:43) So if there's 100 people in a room, 35 of them are jack-offs? Speaker 2 (3:47) No, I think it's less. I'm an optimist. I'm a glass-half-full guy. You ever had glass-half-empty? I'm an Speaker 1 (3:54) empty guy. But you hang out with different people. Maybe you hang out with better people, but... Speaker 2 (3:59) Unnecessarily. Speaker 1 (4:02) Have you seen any ghosts lately? Ghosts? I know you were into the ghost thing. Speaker 2 (4:07) I was never into ghosts. I mean, I've had experiences, but not lately. Those are rare things. Those don't happen very often, thank God. Since Speaker 1 (4:14) our last podcast, no ghosts. No ghosts, no. Have you? No, I've never seen a ghost. I don't believe in ghosts. I don't think they exist. I don't Speaker 2 (4:24) believe aliens exist. I mean, of course they exist. That's been documented, isn't it? By who? The Catholic Church. Exorcism. Ghosts exist? Well, they do exorcism. Isn't that a ghost? A spirit? Evil spirit or whatever? Speaker 1 (4:39) Well, I don't know. They're full of shit. What do I know? I haven't seen a ghost. I've never seen one. I know you have. Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:48) you haven't seen one yet. They're rare. They're not around all the time, but lots of people have seen them. Speaker 1 (4:54) And what's their purpose? What do you think a ghost's purpose is? To scare you? What is the purpose? I Speaker 2 (5:02) think they're trapped. They're trapped. Their essence or energy is tied to a place. They're stuck. They're attached to a place. Couldn't let go of it. Speaker 1 (5:15) Really? Speaker 2 (5:15) Yeah. That's why it's good not to get too attached to any place. Speaker 1 (5:20) Really? You want to move Speaker 2 (5:21) on, right? You want a fresh start. You don't want to stay after everybody's gone. Speaker 1 (5:26) I guess. I mean, I've never heard this theory. This is some theory. I've never looked into it, but this is a theory, the Speaker 2 (5:34) ghost thing. I think that's correct. Now, what Speaker 1 (5:36) about Buddhists? How's the Buddhist thing going? Speaker 2 (5:39) How's the Buddhist thing going? Speaker 1 (5:41) Well, how's the whole Buddhist? I know you go on the retreats. I Speaker 2 (5:46) do go to retreats, yeah. Speaker 1 (5:48) Now, they don't believe in ghost Buddhists. Speaker 2 (5:51) No, not really. They don't really believe in ghosts, no. Speaker 2 (5:59) But yeah, I go on retreats. Keep my head together, you know. And Speaker 1 (6:04) what do you do? You go there and you pray, you meditate? It depends Speaker 2 (6:07) on the thing. Sometimes you just go to teaching. Sometimes you do a lot of meditation, you know. Speaker 2 (6:18) Yeah, I'm going to go probably sometime this summer. Do you Speaker 1 (6:23) have to take a vow of silence? Speaker 2 (6:26) Sometimes. But it's not really a vow. You just, you know. I mean, people always, when I mention that, like a lot of times, retreat is silent. Oh, my God. That's that's the easiest part of retreat is not having to talk to anybody. The hard part is like, you know, sitting and meditating for long stretches of time. I mean, not talking is I don't see why people think that's hard, you know. Speaker 1 (6:51) Well, I tell you, I could be a Buddhist because I can't. You know me. I'm always talking. I can't. Speaker 2 (6:56) Yeah, but not when you're in that kind of environment. I mean, if you don't have a problem being alone, do you? No. You don't talk when you're alone. Speaker 2 (7:07) You talk to yourself? Speaker 1 (7:09) Talk on the Speaker 2 (7:09) phone. I know you got an iPhone and you have Siri. I Speaker 1 (7:13) finally got an iPhone. Finally. Speaker 2 (7:15) I've seen you, you know, I've seen you yelling at Siri. You know, you. Speaker 1 (7:20) She's a twat a lot of times. And I'll go, hey, Siri, call Michael Imperial. I say, hey, Siri. She'll go, uh-huh. Like she's on the fucking couch and I'm bothering her. She's a twat and I already threatened to replace her. With like that Australian guy or something. So if I have to, I will. Speaker 2 (7:41) You may want to do that. Speaker 1 (7:42) He's got a fucking shitty attitude with me. Speaker 2 (7:44) I'm not joking. Wow. I've never experienced that. I don't use Siri. Why? I just never got into the habit of it. No, I don't. I Speaker 1 (7:53) don't want to text. I'm not a good texter. Hey, Siri, call this guy. Siri, call that guy. Speaker 2 (7:59) As I notice with people that the Siri fucks up a lot. You know, you say, text Steve, let's meet tomorrow at 3 o'clock. And it says, tell Steve, you know, no 3 o'clock or 3 o'clock is, you know, you're a jerk. Speaker 1 (8:16) Well, you got to check it. You got to check it. Speaker 2 (8:18) Well, that's the thing. What if you're in a rush? You don't check it. You send the wrong message to the wrong person. Speaker 1 (8:24) Hey, now I got something I'm very proud of. A Steve Scharippa. Can you see it? Speaker 2 (8:32) Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:33) A Steve Scharippa, Willie Boyd bobblehead. Speaker 2 (8:37) That looks nothing like you. I'm sorry. Speaker 1 (8:40) Come on, it looks exactly like me. And look, even with this little thing, it looks like Christopher when he had the neck brace. Speaker 2 (8:47) Why does it have that Speaker 1 (8:48) thing? Speaker 2 (8:48) What is that thing? Speaker 1 (8:49) Well, that's to protect the head from bobbling. So listen to me. It's a little, they may be a little skinnier, Speaker 2 (8:56) but... Well, that's not the problem. It just doesn't look like you. It looks like someone I know, though. I'm very Speaker 1 (9:04) proud. I've got my name on the back. Very proud of this. It looks like me. Speaker 2 (9:09) No, it doesn't. Speaker 1 (9:10) You're just jealous because you don't have a bobblehead. Now, what have you been up to? You did that play. Speaker 2 (9:17) I did. I was on Broadway Speaker 1 (9:19) last year. That was, and I was, you were nice enough to invite me opening night. That was really something. Tell me about that. I mean, that's a solid six months of your life. Well, it was a month of rehearsal. Right? Speaker 2 (9:34) month of rehearsal and then four months of performance but i started prepping probably two months before rehearsal so four five seven months i started heavy duty you know working on learning the text working on the character i worked with a vocal coach because we didn't have microphone we didn't use microphones we just used our voices so i really had i hadn't done a play in a long time so i really wanted to uh work on my voice so i had to yeah you were Speaker 1 (10:04) great i mean the play was great you sold out every show uh that's got to be a big thrill but boy i mean your whole life is the play you get eight Speaker 2 (10:14) shows eight shows a week six days a week for four months we did 135 performances i did it sick i was sick a couple of times during the run and i went on anyway i took some cold medicine and went on and um It was really rewarding, really hard. We sold out every show, 135 shows sold out every night. Would Speaker 1 (10:35) you do it again? Would you do a Broadway play? Yeah, Speaker 2 (10:38) yeah, yeah. I'd do it. I might do a play next year. We'll see. I'm not sure yet. I Speaker 1 (10:43) just got offered Guys and Dolls in Maine. You Speaker 2 (10:47) did Guys and Dolls, right? I did Speaker 1 (10:48) Guys and Dolls one night, Carnegie Hall, my only time that I did a play. You offered me a play at your theater years ago. I didn't think it was time, but I did Carnegie Hall. I'd never been so scared in my life. It was one night only, sold out. Every Broadway producer, every Broadway person was there. It turned out pretty well. And then they just offered it to me again. But it's in Maine. It's six weeks or eight weeks and just bad timing. I appreciate the offer, but it was just not the right time for me. But maybe someday. Speaker 2 (11:25) Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a lot of fun. And then I did... I did a movie. I did two movies coming out. One's coming out Christmas Day. That's called Song Sung Blue with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, directed by Craig Brewer, who did Hustle and Flow and My Name is Dolomite. And that is, yeah, that's getting a Christmas Day opening. I mean, they have a lot of high hopes for it. It's a really good movie. I played a lot of guitar in that movie and sang. I sang in that movie. Speaker 1 (11:57) Oh, all right. That's good. Speaker 2 (11:59) Hugh does a lot of singing, and so does Kate. It's about musicians. I think it's going to be really good. Speaker 1 (12:03) You enjoyed that. Hugh Jackman's a good guy, right? Speaker 2 (12:07) Kate's great. And I just shot a movie in Montreal called The Housewife with Naomi Watts, who's a fantastic actress. That'll probably come out next year. Speaker 1 (12:21) Did you go to Chez Paris, the best strip club in the entire United States? Speaker 2 (12:25) Oh, I did not. Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:27) Come on, don't bullshit me. No. Speaker 2 (12:30) I was looking at my wife the whole time. Because Speaker 1 (12:33) it's nude, you know. Speaker 2 (12:35) It's nude Speaker 1 (12:36) with liquor. Speaker 2 (12:38) That's, yeah. Speaker 1 (12:39) They're beautiful girls. It's nude and liquor. Nude Speaker 2 (12:42) with liquor, yeah. They're more liberal up there than we are in the U Speaker 1 (12:45) .S. Speaker 2 (12:45) And the Speaker 1 (12:45) lap dance is with the exchange rate. You get a good exchange rate with your money. Speaker 2 (12:51) Fantastic. That's good news. Speaker 1 (12:52) Well, I'm just trying to tell you. Don't catch an attitude about it. I'm not. You said you didn't go. You didn't go. What have you Speaker 2 (13:00) been Speaker 1 (13:00) doing? I just did a movie with Joey Pantoliano. Joey Pants. Yeah. Speaker 2 (13:05) Who played Speaker 1 (13:05) Ralphie. On The Sopranos, we have a movie coming out, a Christmas movie. How's Joey? Joey's great. A lot of fun. Always a lot of fun. He's a good guy. We went to dinner. Good place up there called Mulberry. We shot it in Buffalo. The movie's called Holiday Touchdown. It's about Buffalo Bills, you know, romance, you know, Hallmark movie, which I love. This is my second one that I did. I did one in November called Sisterhood, Inc. i was like a valentine's day and uh this one's coming out it's a christmas movie my first one great cast a lot of fun joey's great he said to say hello uh he's been working again you know so that was good uh you did a dexter i Speaker 2 (13:52) heard you did two i did a Speaker 1 (13:53) couple of dexters yeah Speaker 2 (13:55) that's a good show coming Speaker 1 (13:57) out great show Speaker 2 (13:58) It's a reboot, right? Because it was Resurrection. Is that what it's called? That's the Speaker 1 (14:02) Resurrection. A lot of the original cast. I work with Michael C. Hall. I work with David Sehas. Good guys. I did a few Dexters so far. That was good. I got a book coming out. Willie Boy Eats the World. It's a kid's book. based on the famous Willie Boy, who's upstairs. Speaker 2 (14:22) And you rapped Blue Bloods. Blue Bloods Speaker 1 (14:25) rapped a year ago. Speaker 2 (14:26) It Speaker 1 (14:27) was a good run. I did 146 episodes. I think it's all over the world now. It was a good run. Nine years, a lot of fun. Time to move on. Enjoyed the cast and all that. But I rapped last June. Speaker 1 (14:47) We've been doing some live shows, so that was fun. Speaker 2 (14:49) And we did an ad, a series of ads for San Pellegrino Chow. San Speaker 1 (14:56) Pellegrino, I got mine here. What do you like? Speaker 2 (14:59) I like lime and I like blood orange. Speaker 1 (15:02) Well, this is what I got, blood orange. It was great. We shot that in Miami. I don't know if people have seen it. Go to YouTube. They were inspired by the podcast. Speaker 2 (15:12) Yeah, Speaker 1 (15:12) I know. I know. It was great. I tell you what, and I'm not just saying. And Speaker 2 (15:16) this stuff is good. It's really good. I drink it all the time. Speaker 1 (15:19) It's really good. I have a friend of mine puts vodka in it, like a mixture, too. Speaker 2 (15:24) It's really good, right? It's not sweet. You know, but it's but it's tasty and refreshing, you Speaker 1 (15:31) know, and I'm not bullshitting here. You know, we did it. We shot it down in Miami. We were there for two days of shooting and they couldn't have treated us nicer. And I'm not just saying that, really. This isn't a commercial. I mean, they treated us so nice. Everyone. There was a lot of people from Italy and San