Stars of 'The Sopranos' prequel reflect on the complex mobsters they portray

In his long and fruitful career, Ray Liotta has played his share of gangsters on the big screen, perhaps most notably in Martin Scorsese’s “goodfellas”.

In “The Many Saints of Newark," which tells the origin story of Tony Soprano from HBO's award-winning show “The Sopranos,” Liotta plays another one --Hollywood Dick Moltisanti.

Liotta explains some reasons that he saw on why the complicated men he has portrayed act that way. "Just really out of greed. A lot of it, they don't really want to, you know, take the time to go to school or learn and learn something. They’d just rather take it from other people, kind of like little boys when they don't get what they want, they whine. Or shoot somebody."

The actor says acting opposite the movie’s outstanding ensemble cast was fulfilling."It was great. There's nothing more fun than playing pretend with people who like to have fun to make these situations seem like it's real, and every scene is a different emotion unto itself. It wasn't the same thing, it wasn’t just like a one-note that you had to play all the time. It was a little bit of everything."
Alessandro Nivola who plays 'Dickie,' the son of Liotta’s character, says the character is someone who keeps getting dragged back down. "He's somebody, who's the product of a violent upbringing, whose dad hit him and you know, who watched his mother get beat up by his dad and you feel like he's sort of longing to somehow reinvent himself in a nobler way."

Meanwhile, Michael Gandolfini knew he had big shoes to fill. He plays the young version of Tony Soprano, the character made famous by his own father, the late James Gandolfini who played it for six seasons on the HBO series.

"It began as a slow process where at first I didn’t want to audition. And then as the audition process sort of kept going, the more I fell in love with Tony, the more I became afraid that I wasn't gonna get the part. And that usually is a sign that you're beginning to really sort of love and get close to the character," Gandolfini shared.

“The Many Saints of Newark's” all-star cast includes Leslie Odom Jr. and Vera Farmiga.
It’s out in US theaters and HBO Max beginning October 1, 2021.

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