Why Lorraine Bracco Turned Down the Role of Carmela On 'The Sopranos'
"The Sopranos" could have been very different.
— -- Everyone remembers Lorraine Bracco in the iconic role of Dr. Jennifer Melfi on "The Sopranos."
But things could have been very different for the actress and the show. The show's creator David Chase actually wanted Bracco, 60, to take on the role of Tony's wife Carmela, but Bracco had second thoughts because she had just done "Goodfellas" and played the mobster's wife.
"I fell in love with David [Chase] the minute I met him, when I walked into the room. I said, 'I like this guy. And I said, 'Look, I don't think I should play Carmela because I did it, I did it in a Scorsese movie, I got an Oscar nomination. I really don't think I'm going to bring so much to this for you that I haven't done already,'" she told HuffPost Live on Monday.
She continued, "I said, 'But I really love this script, and I want to play Mefli.' ... And he agreed with me that I'd done it already and it wasn't really incredible creative casting for him. He said, 'You want to play Melfi?' And I said, 'Yeah, I want to play Mefli'" So I left on that, and he gave it to me."
As fans know, Edie Falco ended up playing Carmela and the chemistry between her and James Gandolfini -- and Bracco's chemistry with the male lead, but in a different way -- made the show an instant classic.