Michael Imperioli gained immense stardom after starring as Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos. He played the immature cousin and protégé to James Gandolfini’s lead Tony Soprano in the series and gained a massive fan following. Surprisingly, Imperioli was almost fired from the show after he hid a vital piece of information in his audition and caused an accident on set.
Besides being the hot-headed cousin to Tony Soprano, Moltisanti also occasionally acted as the driver to him. However, Michael Imperioli did not reveal at first that he could not drive and crashed a car with him and James Gandolfini inside. While Imperioli was sure he was going to get fired from the show, Gandolfini responded with a surprising response.
How did James Gandolfini react to Michael Imperioli’s blunder?
The Sopranos is considered the torchbearer of the Second Golden Age of Television. Most of the stars in the show were unknown before but had a successful career after it. Michael Imperioli was also desperate to get his role of Christopher Moltisanti and lied about his driving, which was an important aspect of his character.
Speaking to Page Six for an interview in 2020, Michael Imperioli revealed that during the filming of a scene, he crashed the back of his Lexus on a tree.
“I didn’t tell them that because I wanted the job and in one of the takes I actually back up into a tree and smashed up the back of the Lexus. We all jumped forward, the air bags came out, smoke, it was a big disaster and I was thinking [Gandolfini] must be thinking I’m an idiot, this is going to be a disaster, they’re going to fire me.”
Although he was sure that his lie would lead him out of the show and James Gandolfini would hate him, the latter’s reaction to the incident proved him wrong. The Tony Soprano fame looked at him and both of them ended up laughing at the entire scenario.
“And he just looks at me and starts cracking up laughing and we both just broke down hysterically and I thought, ‘Ok this is going to be a good ride.'”
Michael Imperioli described that it was an adorable moment for both the stars and ensured a good start- “That was a bonding moment.” He went on to play the role of Christopher Moltisanti till the conclusion of the series in Season 6 and also reprised his role in the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
James Gandolfini reprised his role of Tony Soprano in 2010 for a bizarre reason
The Sopranos presented one of the most surprising endings for a show ever. It left the fans with a massive mystery pondering the question if Tony Soprano was alive or dead. A newly resurfaced clip shows the events after 2 years following the HBO crime drama and confirms that both Tony and Carmela are well, alive, and living in New York.
For a long time, fans were exploring the depths of the internet to dig out this clip until Pablo Torre’s Finds Out podcast finally showed a glimpse of it. The short clip was made to convince basketball legend and the then-free agent LeBron James to join the New York Knicks.
Earlier the Carmela actress Eddie Falco admitted in a 2021 interview (via Variety) that she never thought the late actor would agree to reprise his role for such a bizarre reason- “We got those requests all the time back then and [James] Gandolfini, he did nothing.” Falco assumed that Gandolfini must have been an ardent Basketball fan.
Sadly, even after so much, the video did not work as LeBron James decided to skip the New York Knicks and join the Miami Heat.
