Drea de Matteo¶
At a glance¶
- Born
- January 19, 1972, Queens, NY
- Role
- Adriana La Cerva, 1999–2004
- Emmy
- Supporting Actress, 2004
- Trained
- NYU Tisch
From one line¶
She was originally cast as a waitress with a single line in the pilot — a small day part, no name attached.
Chase and the writers liked what she did with it enough to build a character around her. Adriana becomes Christopher's girlfriend, then his fiancée, then the emotional centre of the show's most devastating storyline.
It's the clearest example of how the writers' room worked: nothing was locked, and a performer who was interesting got more.
Adriana¶
The performance's achievement is that Adriana is never played as smart or as stupid — she's played as out of her depth, consistently, for five seasons, which is much harder and much sadder.
She's loud, funny, and materially ambitious in a completely ordinary way. She wants a club and a wedding. She has no appetite for violence and no understanding of the world she's standing in until it's far too late.
When the FBI coerce her into informing, de Matteo plays it as pure animal fear — a stress illness, a permanent flinch, a woman who cannot construct a lie well enough to survive.
"Long Term Parking" (S5E64) won her the 2004 Emmy for Supporting Actress, and remains the episode most viewers name as the one they can't rewatch.
After¶
Joey (2004–06), the Friends spin-off, which she left the show for — a decision widely regarded as unfortunate at the time, though her exit was already written.
Then Desperate Housewives, and Wendy Case in Sons of Anarchy (2008–14), which gave her a second substantial ensemble role in another long-running crime series.
She has been open about the personal difficulty of the years following the show, and about her attachment to the character — she has said she grieved Adriana for a long time.