Interviews¶
See Video Library for the link-rot caveat.
David Chase¶
Chase and Edie Falco, twenty years on. A 2019 conversation on how the show changed television, and — inevitably — the ending. Useful because Falco is in the room, and she is consistently the least reverent person on any Sopranos panel. — The New York Times
Chase on the finale (2015). One of the interviews in which he discusses the ending's intention — the feeling he was after — while declining to state what happens. Compare against the full chronology of his statements on The Ending, which is the point: his position has moved.
Talking Sopranos finale, with Chase. Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa's rewatch podcast reached "Made in America" with the creator as guest. Long, discursive, and the closest thing to a comprehensive Chase interview about the whole run. — Talking Sopranos
On 'Chase explains the ending' videos
A large number of YouTube uploads claim Chase confirmed Tony's death — mostly downstream of a November 2021 Hollywood Reporter piece that was widely misreported. Chase's own response to that coverage was: "Everybody who believes I said Tony is dead in a Hollywood Reporter article: works for me." He clarified again in 2024 that the scene implies Tony could die, not that he does.
Treat any video titled "Chase finally reveals" with suspicion, and check it against the dated chronology on The Ending.
James Gandolfini¶
The cost of playing Tony. On what the role took out of him — the sleep deprivation, the stone in the shoe, the disappearances, the apologies afterward. Gandolfini was, by every account, nothing like the character and found inhabiting him genuinely difficult.
Gandolfini on Tony's anger. Him talking about where the rage came from and how he reached it. Notable mostly for how uncomfortable he is discussing his own work — a shy man being asked to explain the most frightening performance on television.
The cast on losing him. Recollections after his death in June 2013, aged 51. The recurring theme is his generosity — including the widely reported occasion when he distributed a substantial cash gift among the crew.