Edie Falco¶
At a glance¶
- Born
- July 5, 1963, Brooklyn; raised on Long Island
- Trained
- SUNY Purchase, BFA 1986
- Role
- Carmela Soprano, 1999–2007
- Emmys
- 4 — three for Carmela (1999, 2001, 2003), one for Nurse Jackie
- Golden Globes
- 2
Before¶
A SUNY Purchase graduate — the same programme that produced Stanley Tucci and Ving Rhames — who spent the early 1990s in New York independent film, working repeatedly with Hal Hartley and Nick Gomez on almost no money.
Television followed: Law & Order, Homicide, and then a recurring role as corrections officer Diane Whittlesey on HBO's Oz (1997–2000), which is where the Sopranos producers found her.
Tom Fontana's description of her is the useful one: an actress unadorned by any embroidery, who does everything with a simplicity and honesty that is breathtaking.
Carmela¶
She was cast off Oz, and the role is built on a very specific skill: playing self-deception as effortful.
Carmela is not stupid and is not lied to. She knows exactly what her husband does. What Falco does — in a jaw, a pause, a half-second of decision before she changes the subject — is show you the work of not-knowing happening in real time. It's what makes the character sympathetic when the writing alone would not be.
Her best hour is "Whitecaps" (S4E52), the marriage-ending fight, which won both her and Gandolfini Emmys.
Three Emmys for Lead Actress (1999, 2001, 2003) and two Golden Globes.
She has said she never watched the show while it aired, and has been notably unsentimental about the character since — declining, in interviews, to defend Carmela's choices.
After¶
Nurse Jackie (2009–15) — a pill-addicted emergency room nurse, and a fourth Emmy, this time in comedy, for a performance about as far from Carmela as the same actress could get.
Also 30 Rock (nominated), Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (nominated), Avatar: The Way of Water, and a Tony nomination for The House of Blue Leaves (2011).
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 — during production on season five — and continued working through treatment without disclosing it until afterward.