Enough Said promised to be the most commercially successful of the five feature films Holofcener has directed (she’s also worked as a director on Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, and Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation). Holofcener says she was surprised when Gandolfini told her that he knew her other films, and liked them. He gave her the impression that he especially liked her attitude toward class in films like Friends With Money.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think Enough Said meant a lot to Gandolfini. Here he was, playing an adult at last, a kind of Mitch—only in this movie, Mitch was the lead. His character roles had finally grown up. Sooner or later, we all do—it’s the play actor in us that never does.
“He had a real thing going with the prop lady on the production,” Holofcener remembers. “She was very thin, a kind of California girl, into health foods and everything, and on the day we were to shoot the scene where he greets Julia at his door in pajama bottoms, [the prop lady] wore blue jeans and this tiny orange tube top. Jim was kidding her about it. You know, like ‘What’re you hiding,’ silly jokes. And Jim is wearing this black T-shirt, it’s actually the shirt I picked out for him to wear.
“But my cinematographer starts saying, ‘Oh no, I can’t shoot you, darling, you are like a wall of black to me, I can’t do it.’ And Jim says he knows what to do, give him a second and he’ll change.
“So he goes to his trailer, and when he comes back, he’s wearing the tiny orange tube top, and the prop lady is in his tent of a black shirt, and it was just hilarious. You had to see it—I have a picture of it, on my cell phone, which absolutely no one will ever see—I think that’s just for me.
“Jim was like that. That’s what I’ll always remember.”
But Gandolfini’s posthumous career didn’t end with Enough Said. In March of 2013, immediately after wrapping his first performance as a romantic lead in a major release, he plunged into a project that took him back once more to the working-class, hard-bitten suburbs of New York City and the criminal culture they spawn.
Based on a script by novelist Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island), Animal Rescue is about a pit bull pup found in a trash container outside a mobbed-up bar in Brooklyn. Due out in 2014 from Fox Searchlight, Animal Rescue was filmed in the final months of Gandolfini’s life (he was on the set of Animal Rescue when Burt Wonderstone was premiering). Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace play the leads, but the whole set, according to The Los Angeles Times in March 2013, buzzed with anticipation for the big star—who got there and ate lunch with the grippers and gaffes instead of retreating to his private trailer. The Times said Jim and the crew would gab about “everything under the sun, including dogs, a big theme in the film.”
“There was no star thing with Jim,” says Belgian director Michaël Roskam, whose first feature film, Bullhead, also about animals caught up in a criminal subculture, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012. Roskam is young—born in 1972. He studied painting at the St. Lucas Academy of Fine Art in Brussels and worked for a time as a journalist before going into filmmaking. As I write this, Animal Rescue is still in post-production, lying in pieces on a table for Roskam to assemble. But it should be in theaters either a little before or after this book is published.
“I, of course, didn’t know what to expect when I met him,” Roskam says, but he quickly picked up on Gandolfini’s unusual attitude toward his celebrity. “It was almost like he would try to hide among all the people, that was how he tried to disappear. And it was an irony, you know, that he was always the tallest guy in the room. He could not hide.”
In Animal Rescue, Gandolfini plays the former owner of the bar, uncle to Hardy’s character, who is both nostalgic about once running the place and resentful of his demotion to mere bartender. With very little time between roles to prepare, Jim was characteristically dubious about capturing the part—Roskam remembers him suggesting another actor, true to form. And then, on the first or second day of filming, Hardy and Gandolfini were asked to do a key, very emotional scene almost from a cold start. Roskam had to convince Jim he could do it. Gandolfini kept asking, “Are you serious?”
“He was great, of course,” Roskam says. Like Holofcener, Roskam thought Gandolfini’s physical presence was important; when, during casting, producers worried that the milieu was too much like that of The Sopranos, he’d give them the option of hiring Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad. But Jim was always his first choice.
“I don’t know if you are going to deal with this in your book, but Jim suffered from that, from his inability to get away from the role of Tony,” Roskam says. But there was a difference now.
“I experienced him as a man who could deal with his insecurities,” Roskam continues. “You know, we are all insecure. It’s how you handle it.
“We need that vulnerability to make art. But that means an artist lives scared. You have to dedicate yourself to being vulnerable if you’re going to go on making serious art, not just doing what is comfortable. And I thought Jim saw this and had learned how to deal with it.”
“Living scared” is a pretty good description of an actor’s life—a description both Harold Guskin and David Chase would endorse. Roskam describes Gandolfini as someone who was almost comfortable with that psychological state. Susan Aston told Jim in his last year that he would always be able to work as long as he wanted, which for an actor is a rare success. Other friends say he was beginning to accept the truth of that.
And he was growing out of Tony. Roskam says he didn’t even look like Tony anymore.
By the time of Animal Rescue, Jim was much heavier than he had ever been. Though he rarely spoke about his health, he had to know something about how delicate it might be. The two knee surgeries must have been preceded by tests to see if his heart was strong enough to endure them. Anyway, the long convalescence may well have exacerbated his weight problem. Roskam recalled one incident during a basement shoot for Animal Rescue in Brooklyn when Jim, wearing a leather jacket and surrounded by a large crew and hot lights in a cramped space, complained that he was short of breath. He had to step outside.
Roskam says he was briefly worried. But when Gandolfini came back after a few minutes, he did the scene perfectly. He was, after all, just fifty-one.
Gandolfini was undergoing more than just a physical change in those last months. After Enough Said, he was learning how to disappear into his roles again. He had a future, and it wasn’t as the guy who ambled down his driveway to pick up The Star-Ledger in a polar bear’s bathrobe every week.
He was becoming an elder in his tribe, a Hollywood hand.
“I think we had a strong professional relationship that had evolved, in the end, to be a real professional friendship,” Roskam says. “And the reason I say that is that Jim told me at the end of shooting that he was planning his trip to Rome, and he thought he might expand it, you know, see a little bit of everything. And he said he’d decided to spend three days in Brussels, where I’m from, and he wanted me to recommend good hotels, maybe suggest a friend or two who could show him around. It was very sweet.”
Roskam says the “business side” of making films in the United States is much more prevalent than it is in Europe, and he was finding his way around inside the much bigger system over here. And Gandolfini seemed to understand that.
“He gave me a photograph, a long horizontal photograph of the back of the Hollywood sign, which is all covered with graffiti, you know,” Roskam says. “And you can glimpse, just barely, Los Angeles through the spaces between the letters. I had told him I might move to Los Angeles and I think he was giving me this present as a kind of warning, that this is what the real Hollywood was like—you know, don’t be fooled by the facade, don’t be seduced by what it seems to be. He wrote me a note in his own hand that said so. I thought that was a wonderful gift. A man who can give a present like that, which is beautiful in itself but also carries a message, is an artist.”
Index
The index that appeared in th
e print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
acting. See also characters; roles
with anger
apartments and
with Aston
Aston as coach for
authenticity sought in
Bart on
Bart’s impact on
beast or monster in
childhood
during college
competitiveness in
with famous actors
film and film set
finances and
with Gately
Guskin as coach in
Jacobson impact on
as Mafia
with Meisner technique
memorizing lines and
method
motivation for
paranoia in
partying and success in
philosophy on
physical appearance in
preparation
roles
SAG hours for
self-control in
self-doubt in
as Soprano, Tony
The Sopranos cast future in
style
substance abuse impact on
as teenager
on television
theater
Travolta and career in
in True Romance
violence in
actors and performers
acting with famous
identity
Meisner technique used by
New Jersey
New York City apartments and
personality of
relationship with other
for Soprano, Tony
working class
alcohol. See substance abuse
Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq
All the King’s Men
Allen, Woody
Alpert, Jon
An American Family
anger
acting with
for Chase
middle or working class
in personality
self-control and
of Soprano, Tony
violence and
Angie
Animal Rescue
Antonacci, Johanna (sister)
apartments
Armstrong, Mark
assimilation
Aston, Susan
as acting coach
acting with
background of
casting by
friendship with
with Gately
9/11 for
physical appearance of
The Sopranos and involvement of
on television acting
audience
auditions
authenticity or realism
automobiles
awards
Baghdad ER
bars, nightclubs, and restaurants. See also Ryan’s
employment in
personality as tender of
Private Eyes within
substance abuse and
Bart, Roger
Batali, Mario
beast or monster
acting as
Soprano, Tony, as
sympathy for
Bellino, Vito
Big El’s Best Friend
biography and biographical nature
of roles
of Soprano, Tony
birth and birthplace
Bloomfield Avenue
bouncers and bouncing
Bracco, Lorraine
Brando, Marlon
business, of Hollywood
California. See also Hollywood
career. See acting; employment
celebrity. See also Hollywood
family on
friends
media and
in New Jersey
personality and
privacy and
as sex symbol
from The Sopranos
timing of
wealth and
character
characters
beast or monster
death on The Sopranos
hitmen
ideal
morality of
notes for
paranoia over death of
suffering
tough guy
weakness in
working class
charity and charitable causes
Chase, David. See also The Sopranos
on acting and paranoia
anger for
in audition for Soprano, Tony
on auditions and writing
on commercialism in television
as father-figure
funeral eulogy from
Italian heritage and assimilation for
Italian mother of
New Jersey roots of
Not Fade Away from
personality of
The Rockford Files of
Soprano, Tony, and
in Sopranos management
Sopranos money for
on Sopranos success
as writer
childhood
acting during
boating in
Italian heritage in
in New Jersey
of parents
in Park Ridge
personality
physical appearance in
children. See Gandolfini, Liliana Ruth (daughter); Gandolfini, Michael (son)
Christie, Chris
“Christopher” episode
Cinema Verite
A Civilian Action
college
acting during
apartment after
automobile in
courage and physical strength in
criminal behavior in
education
friends and friendship
nickname
personality in
physical appearance after scar in
romantic relationships in
substance abuse and
“College” episode
“Columbus Day”
Comarato, Ann
comedy
competition and competitiveness
cooking
courage
crime and criminal behavior
Crimson Tide
crying
culture. See specific topics
Davis, Geena
de Matteo, Drea
death. See also funeral
friends and family actions
of Gandolfini, James, Sr.
of Gandolfini, Santa
on Italian vacation
Jacobson’s
media on
New Jersey impact of
open projects at
The Sopranos and character
The Sopranos film and
weight and cause of
world’s reaction to
Di Ionno, Mark
divorce
documentaries
doubt. See self-deprecation and doubt
Down the Shore
drama
drugs. See substance abuse
economics. See money; specific topics
Eddy
education
8MM
Emmy Awards
employment
of Antonacci
of Aston
in bars, clubs, and restaurants
as bouncer
in construction
of Gandolfini, James, Sr.
of Gandolfini, Leta
of Gandolfini, Santa
for immigrants
Lowell’s
at Private Eyes
of Somoza
Enough Said
episodes, Sopranos
estate
Falco, Edie
Fallen
family. See also
Gandolfini, James, Sr.
of Batali
on celebrity
crisis in
death and actions of
documentaries
as entertainer for
at funeral
Gandolfini, Michael (son)
Gandolfini, Santa (mother)
gangster life and receding
of Gately
immigration of
Italian heritage and
of Jacobson
Loud
loyalty to friends and
media and access to
money for
Park Ridge home of
privacy of
sisters in
The Sopranos and
television and
time for
with Wudarski
fathers. See also Gandolfini, James, Sr. (father)
films and film set. See also specific films
acting on
for children
death and The Sopranos
documentaries
early
favorite
financing for
first role in
New Jersey setting for
New York City
with Scott
The Sopranos and better
television and
finances and financing
Foderaro, T. J.
food
Friedkin, William
friends and friendship
with Aston
Bart
with Batali
celebrity
college
Di Ionno
with Foderaro, T. J.
at funeral
loyalty from
loyalty to family and
money for
New Jersey
with Richardson
from Ryan’s
The Star-Ledger and
The Frog and Peach
funeral service
Gandolfini, James, Sr. (father)
automobile for
background of
death of
employment
military service of
money for
privilege and
Gandolfini, Leta (sister)
Gandolfini, Liliana Ruth (daughter)
Gandolfini, Michael (son)
Gandolfini, Patricia (cousin)
Gandolfini, Santa (mother)
Gately, Kathryn
acting with
Aston with
family of
food and meeting with
Meisner technique from
James Gandolfini: The Real Life of the Man Who Made Tony Soprano Page 19