Lin-Manuel Miranda recalls how James Gandolfini helped him out during his appearance on The Sopranos
Yeah, you remember him, right? The bellhop in season six, episode fifteen?
Aux News Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda recently took a moment to look back on his first television role from 2007. Like Lady Gaga—who appeared in the show’s third season as a young actor—Miranda ended up landing a small but sweet role in the sixth season of the Emmy-winning series The Sopranos.
“I went on lots of voiceover auditions and acting auditions, and the only thing I booked was The Sopranos, as a bellboy; I say, ‘I don’t know’ twice,” Miranda tells Judd Apatow for his latest book Sicker In The Head: More Conversations About Life And Comedy.
“I’m so green you can see me look down at my mark. Watch it if you get a chance, because now people are like ‘Lin-Manuel’s cameo on The Sopranos!’ It wasn’t a cameo. I wasn’t even in the union yet.”
In the short scene, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and Paulie Gualtieri (Tony Sirico) pull up to a hotel and ask Miranda’s character a few questions while on a road trip from New Jersey to Florida. This proves unhelpful as the bellhop does not know if the hotel he works at is new or if there used to be a motel there.
In Apatow’s book, Miranda also shared some insight into his experience working with the late Gandolfini, who stayed later than he needed to in order to help Miranda shoot his scene.
“My one story about Gandolfini was that he stayed and did his sides even though it was the end of the night. He had no need to do that,” Miranda says. “He stayed and did the scene for the scared-shitless Puerto Rican kid in the bellhop outfit.”
Miranda would then go on the appear in episodes of The Electric Company, Modern Family, and House before eventually becoming a household name with Hamilton.
20 Comments
That was nice of Mr. Gandolfini.
Hey, these a-celebrity-did-something-nice-and/or-terrible-15-years-ago pieces are important. They bolster my sense of self-worth in a way that is completely organic and has nothing to do with algorithms and demographic targeting. I click therefore I am, dammit!
I think you mean “before eventually becoming a household name with Hamilton In the Heights, which was nominated for 13 Tonys and won 4, including Best Musical.”
I guess that other musical is pretty well-known too, but it was decidedly after ITH put him on the map.
I mean, theatre nerds surely knew who he was from In the Heights, but I feel that it’s more than fair to say Hamilton made him a household name.
This – had no idea who he was and had never even heard of “In the Heights” until Hamilton became huge.
In the Heights made him famous amongst people in the theatre scene Hamilton made him a household name. There’s really no debating that.
Yeah that’s fair. Just seemed weird to skip that extremely important step on the way between “two-line non-union role on TV” and “global megastar” is all.
I was aware of ITH but not LMM. Hamilton made him a household name.
I’m always happy to read things like this. Gandolfini didn’t even have to talk to Miranda if he’d been that kind of actor. Glad he wasn’t.
Everything I’ve read about him suggests he was an utmost professional and kind.
By all accounts the man was awesome. I wouldn’t say he was an utmost professional all the time. All of which had long since taken its toll by the winter of 2002. Gandolfini’s sudden refusals to work had become a semiregular occurrence. His fits were passive-aggressive: he would claim to be sick, refuse to leave his TriBeCa apartment, or simply not show up. The next day, inevitably, he would feel so wretched about his behavior and the massive logistic disruptions it had caused—akin to turning an aircraft carrier on a dime—that he would treat cast and crew to extravagant gifts. “All of a sudden there’d be a sushi chef at lunch,” one crew member remembered. “Or we’d all get massages.” It had come to be understood by all involved as part of the price of doing business, the trade-off for getting the remarkably intense, fully inhabited Tony Soprano that Gandolfini offered.So when the actor failed to show up for a six p.m. call at Westchester County Airport to shoot the final appearance of the character Furio Giunta, a night shoot involving a helicopter, few panicked. “It was an annoyance, but it wasn’t cause for concern,” said Terence Winter, the writer-producer on set that night. “You know, ‘It’s just money.’ I mean, it was a ton of money—we shut down a fucking airport. Nobody was particularly sad to go home at nine thirty on a Friday night.”Over the next twelve hours, it would become clear that this time was different. This time, Gandolfini was just gone.From this book:https://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Men-Creative-Revolution-Sopranos/dp/0143125699/
It looks a little like PeeWee’s cameo in PeeWee’s Big Adventure.
i love how he’s silently mouthing the words to the other actor’s part
“Miranda would then go on the appear in episodes of The Electric Company, Modern Family, and House before eventually becoming a household name with Hamilton.”
How I Met Your Mother as well.
The actors in A Few Good Men have said after Jack Nicholson finished filming his part, which only required him to be on set for a few days, he stuck around to do his side of the scene, even though the camera wasn’t going to be on him. I guess that’s what professionals who give a shit about their work do.
“I guess that’s what professionals who give a shit about their work do.”
Pretty much. Beverly Hills Cop 3 and Blade 3 are both famous for stories of actors doing most of their sides with the directors reading for the leads because Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes wouldn’t stay on set for longer than it took them to do their shots.
I guess that’s what professionals who give a shit about their work do. It’s also how a professional ensures that the other performers do their best work, elevating the entire production. That’s how you build the kind of career that Nicholson has.
Comparable to Octavia Spencer’s part in Spider-Man.
LOL, I can’t tell if his acting was so wooden that they ended up having to react to it or if they purposely wrote his bell boy to be like that.
LOL, I can’t tell if his acting was so wooden that they had to write that they ended up having to react to it or if they purposely wrote his bell boy to be like that.