Photos courtesy of Gabriella Piazza (@gabriellapiazza)
SEPTEMBER 2 0 2 1 I BOROMAG.COM 27
Photo by Barry Wetcher
Photos by Francis Hill
before, but not to the point where I was
really prepared for this audition, so I sat
down and watched it and truly fell in love
again with the show David Chase had
created,” Piazza said. “And I just felt really
good about it. I’m Italian — I’m also Dominican
— but the Italian side of my family
is just so close to my heart. I just got it.
So I went in there and did my job — what
I thought would work.”
And it did. About four months later,
she was standing in a stairwell at her restaurant
job on the phone with her manager.
Piazza smiled at the memory:
“She said, ‘You’re Joanne in “The Sopranos”!’
I just started bawling … I remember
going to the hostess at the time
and being like, ‘Jen, can you pinch me?’
It was crazy.”
She described walking into the first
table read as nerve-wracking but welcoming.
“They say that James Gandolfini was
the nicest guy and made everyone feel
like family on set, and Michael Gandolfini
filled those shoes beautifully. He
came right up to me and introduced
himself, and that opened the door for
me to have enough confidence to introduce
myself to the incredible Vera Farmiga,
Jon Bernthal and the man who plays
my husband, Alessandro Nivola. Just
sitting as an actor with these incredibly
talented — and Ray Liotta! — these incredibly
talented actors ... I was just like, ‘How
did I get in here?’ From there we just felt
like a family.”
The production faced the difficult task
of staying true to the show everyone
knows and loves, while also forging a
tale that could stand on its own.
“It was sort of daunting in a sense
because fans of ‘The Sopranos’ have
their hearts set on these characters,”
Piazza said. “But because it’s a prequel,
there’s a freeness around the roles that
we were given.”
Joanne Moltisanti only appears in the
original show a handful of times, which
allowed for some creative freedom.
Piazza conducted her own character
research, using her mother and grandmother
as resources to get a sense of life
in New York and New Jersey at that time.
On set, the cast was given vocal direction
from professional dialect coach
Kohli Calhoun. A team of talented set
and costume designers brought 1960s
Newark to life. In fact, a lot of scenes
were shot right here in Queens.
“I’ve walked past sets living in Queens
and New York,” Piazza said, “but when
we would shoot outside, everybody
would be on the street with lawn chairs
and it felt so ‘New York.’ People would
sometimes clap at the end of takes! To
be on the other side of that as a young
actor was just such a cool New York experience
to be part of.”
Piazza credits Astoria and the surrounding
areas with introducing her to
a close-knit arsenal of talented creatives
with whom she still regularly collaborates.
“It almost feels like we have a community
network of people who are so
invested in that creative bubble,” Piazza
said. “I know people call it ‘Act-oria,’ but
it really feels like there’s somebody for
really any type of creative outlet that you
need. It’s been really wonderful to build
that bubble together, and we’re all still
here, still making movies.”
You can catch Piazza in “The Many
Saints of Newark” when it premieres
on Oct. 1.
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