Tony Hale Looks Back on "The Sopranos"

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Tony Hale Recalls his Near-Disastrous Guest Spot on "The Sopranos"
by Lester Fabian Brathwaite
October 26, 2022


When Tony Hale was still a struggling work-a-day actor, his nerves nearly got the best of him while working on the biggest show on TV at the time - "The Sopranos". Hale guest starred in a 2001 episode, "Second Opinion," two years before his breakout role as Buster Bluth on "Arrested Development".

On a recent episode of SiriusXM's Pop Culture Spotlight with Jessica Shaw, Hale recounted how his hands were "violently shaking" while playing a nurse oncologist who inserts a tube into Uncle Junior's (Dominic Chianese) arm.




"I'll never forget on The Sopranos — because of my anxiety, my nerves will manifest itself in my hands; my hands will start shaking," Hale told Shaw. "And I was a nurse oncologist to Uncle Junior, and I'll never forget my hands were violently shaking about to put a tube into his arm."

Hale says "by the grace of God" his hands calmed down, and he was able to go on with the scene. He continued, "Can you imagine Uncle Junior, 'Who's this guy giving me chemo treatments and his hands are violently shaking against my skin?'"

https://ew.com/tv/tony-hale-the-sopranos-guest-spot/