James Gandolfini: Tribute to a Friend Page #2

---

"This guy holds up the show.

If this show is grand,

it's because of James Gandolfini. "

And everybody in the cast

understood what I meant.

Doing a show like that...

do you know how much work it is?

For him, for a lead

on any of these shows

these people worked,

they're in it all the time.

And I never saw anyone work

so hard at each scene,

analyzing it, working on it.

I find it to be tremendous,

the trouble he's gotten himself into.

I'm not trying to be difficult.

Out of the hard work

came something transcendent.

It doesn't look like hard work.

It looks like magic.

Where is she?

Where the f*** is she?

Where is she?!

In those moments when you're going,

you're going all the way.

Going all the way.

We're gonna empty ourselves.

No, please,

don't make me do it.

I can't do it.

I can't do it.

All right.

- I can't!

- All right, all right.

- I can't do it.

- I'm gonna take care of it.

He did that all the time.

- He made you do it.

- All right.

Made you wanna do it.

Like a sculptor

works in marble,

his raw material was emotion.

And he was just really good

with working with it.

He did things with a blink.

He could play a scene

with his eyes

and you knew exactly what the hell

his character was going through.

When you got eyes like that,

you know something's special

burning inside.

The defining emotion,

I guess, about him

or about his eyes

was kind of sadness.

That's why when he laughed

or smiled, it was so powerful.

I don't think anybody else

could have played Tony Soprano

and made him that character.

I mean, it's... so much

of who Jim was, was Tony.

Tony Soprano had

all the best qualities

of Jimmy.

And it's why

we loved him so much.

- By the time I was there,

- I think there was a frustration

about what kind of person

Jim was and what kind of person Tony was.

That's a lot of pressure.

Everything you do on-screen

sticks to you,

and even though he was beloved,

he was cruel and brutal and...

I'm talking about Tony...

and Jim was not like that.

I think it was

hard for Jim sometimes

to go to dark places.

- I loved you.

- What happens I decide, not you.

Now... f***!

This f***ing turning thing

doesn't work.

It's okay.

It's okay, cut it.

This was really,

really deeply emotional

and sometimes deeply disturbing

and you really had to get

in touch with the part of yourself

that if you did not feel the words you

were saying, it just wasn't gonna work.

What happens I decide, not you.

Now, you don't love me anymore,

well, that breaks my heart,

but it's too f***ing bad

'cause you're not gonna love me.

But you will respect me.

Tony Soprano had

a very, very, very dark side.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes