Gandolfini stretches beyond 'Sopranos' role

James Gandolfini in "The Last Castle."

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(October 19, 2001) -- James Gandolfini knows how much he's identified as Tony Soprano, the boss of television's Mafia family.

But his role as The Last Castle's Col. Winters, the insecure, unstable warden of a military prison, has as much in common with Tony Soprano as wienerschnitzel has with linguine.

Finding roles that stretch the actor is part of Gandolfini's plan. He reportedly even squelched an idea to have his Last Castle character smoke a cigar, because it'd be too much like that New Jersey crime boss.

"The best part of being an actor is doing the research and finding out about new things," he says. "In this film, for example, I'm a commandant of a prison. So I got to meet a prison officer. I got to explore different things.

"If you do the same work, over and over, you don't get to do that. And as an actor, you start eating yourself up."

Now 40, Gandolfini is a relative late bloomer.

He was born into a blue-collar family in Westwood, N.J., and earned a degree in communications at Rutgers University. He moved to Manhattan, where he spent a decade as a bouncer, a bartender and nightclub manager.

When Gandolfini was about 25, he accompanied a friend to an acting class and found himself drawn into the process.

"But I found I got very nervous acting, and that (upset me)."

Instead of quitting, Gandolfini found it challenging to do something that unnerved him.

He set a rather modest goal for himself, he says -- and that's been a motto of sorts ever since.

"I decided I wouldn't make an ass of myself."

Before long, the distinctive-looking character actor found himself with work on stage and in film roles, especially as a cop or a thug. By 1995, with Crimson Tide and Get Shorty, he'd become a popular, well-known supporting player.

Then Gandolfini's life changed, after he was cast in the lead role in HBO's hit series The Sopranos.

Gandolfini credits great writing for the show's success and thinks people enjoy his character because outlaws are always popular. He says Tony Soprano is just another variation of "the cowboy in the black suit."

But Gandolfini particularly likes the humor in The Sopranos and considers the show primarily a comedy.

"I knew I loved it the moment I read about Tony in the backyard pool with the ducks," he says, referring to a memorable moment from the debut episode.

In a few weeks, Gandolfini will begin taping the Sopranos' fourth season, which will air next spring.

Gandolfini thinks there may be a fifth season, but doubts that the show's creator, David Chase, will go beyond that. "And without him, I`m not interested."

Tony Soprano will probably be his last portrayal of a Mafia figure.

"Some other kind of gangster, maybe, but not a Mafia role," he says. "I wouldn't have much new to say about a Mafia character."

But like all good actors, he's smart enough to add three more words:

"Never say never."