Lorraine Bracco Says James Gandolfini Was in ‘Shock’ Over Final ‘Sopranos’ Scene: ‘Couldn’t Believe It’
The Sopranos series finale was full of nail biting moments and a dramatic finish that nobody saw coming — not even James Gandolfini.
Lorraine Bracco, who played Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the HBO series for all six seasons, revealed Gandolfini’s reaction to finding out that the show would end in a cliffhanger, famously cutting to a black screen as Tony Soprano sat down in a diner with his family.
“I was with Jim. Jim said, ‘That’s it? That’s it?’” Lorraine, 69, said in the new HBO documentary, Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos. “He couldn’t believe it. … I think he was in shock like everybody else.”
Gandolfini died on June 19, 2013, at age 51 from a heart attack.
Drea de Matteo, whose character was killed off the show in season 5, was completely shocked by the way the series ended, with Journey's “Don’t Stop Believin’” blaring in the background. All eyes were on creator David Chase, as many wondered if the black screen meant Tony met his fate at the hands of a mysterious man in a Members Only jacket.
“Yo, did my TV just go out?” Drea remembered watching the finale. “And I’m thinking to myself, This is David. This is f--king David. This is exactly how he wanted to end the show. He doesn’t want anyone to know what’s going on right now.”
In the documentary, David explained his decision to end The Sopranos in such an unexpected way, with that particular song chosen as the final soundbite.
“It wasn’t just to be contrary. The more I was working with it, I started to hear one of the lyrics in that song: 'The movie never ends. It goes on and on and on,'” he reflected. “I think what I was thinking about was the universe goes on and on. You may not go on and on, but the universe is going to go on and on. The movie is going to keep going.”
David has notably spoken out about the series finale a number of times in the past, as many loyal fans of the show still have questions about the fate of their favorite character.
“I had no idea it would cause that much … of an uproar,” David said in a November 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? That bothered me.”
The TV producer admitted that he initially was thinking of ending the show in a different way.
“The scene I had in my mind was not that scene,” he said. “Nor did I think of cutting to black. I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car. At the beginning of every show, he came from New York into New Jersey, and the last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed.”
Ultimately, he decided to go ahead with an ending that nobody saw coming.
“I think I had this notion — I was driving on Ocean Park Boulevard near the airport and I saw a little restaurant," he said. "It was kind of like a shack that served breakfast. And for some reason I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’ Why? I don’t know. That was, like, two years before.”
