Michael Imperioli says It Wasn't Easy for Him to Act Abusive on "The Sopranos"

[JamesG]

Michael Imperioli says Acting Abusive on "The Sopranos" was "Brutal"
by Zack Sharf
August 14, 2023


Michael Imperioli was recently asked by The Guardian to name the most brutal scene he’s ever had to film in his acting career, and his answer was any time his character on “The Sopranos,” Christopher Moltisanti, abused his fiancée, Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo).

“The most brutal, difficult stuff for me is when Christopher had to be physically abusive with Adriana, for obvious reasons,” Imperioli said. “On a technical level, you’re trying to be really careful so you don’t hurt the person. But having to get to that point of violence toward a woman, you have to go to some nasty places to get there.

Sometimes it’s very immediate. Sometimes it’s something present in your life that you can tap into. Sometimes you have to go someplace from the past. And sometimes you have to go to someplace imaginary.”




“It’s much easier shooting a mobster or shooting heroin,” he continued. “That stuff to me is not difficult. But that stuff with her was.

Sometimes you’ll use stunt doubles, sometimes not. And even then, it’s one thing to choreograph and rehearse it, then when you act it full-tilt with all the emotion, it’s easy to not have as much control as in the rehearsal. So you really have to be quite careful.”

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/mic...ty-1235695616/