Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon People

People Feature
Torture by dating
When it came to romance, I'd always broken "The Rules" -- then "The Rules" nearly broke me.
By Jennifer Li Shotz
[01/19/00]

Nothing Personal
Scandal sucking and rumor ducking
Author Jeffrey Toobin tells of a "rockin' ride," a "perverted doughboy" and the thing that Paula Jones "just won't do"; Twisted Sister doesn't wanna rock with John Rocker. Plus: Whitney Houston -- one toke over the luau?
By Amy Reiter
[01/19/00]

Column
Surfzilla vs. the Banzai Pipeline
Hobnobbing with the Pipe Masters at Oahu's G-Shock Triple Crown of Surfing.
By Cintra Wilson
[01/20/00]

Nothing Personal
Marketnolia
Cruise talks dirty; Posh talks trash; Garth talks funny. Plus! Rambo vs. Terminator: May the best muscles win.
By Amy Reiter
[01/20/00]

Nothing Personal
George gorge
Stephanopoulos: Not a journalist but plays one on TV; Boy Pitchman? He'll tumble for ya. Plus: Hillary stands by her man.
By Amy Reiter
[01/21/00]

Complete archives for People

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

In "The Godfather Part II," Chianese -- sans Junior's trademark glasses -- attends the Corleones' Lake Tahoe communion gala as Hyman Roth's "Sicilian messenger boy," Johnny Ola. Even 26 years ago, Chianese was cast in a role the script describes as "an older Italian," though there's a springy elegance to his acting. His hair is already thinning, and he keeps his overcoat on indoors. But in a couple of key improvised moments, when he explains that he's brought a Florida orange for Don Michael (Al Pacino -- "Al" to the Sopranos), or asks for an "anisette," his presence is sensual, courtly and alert. It's Chianese's Johnny Ola who intones, "One by one our old friends are gone. Death, natural or not, prison, deported. Hyman Roth is the only one left, because he always made money for his partners."

As Junior, Chianese plays a wildly different variation on that same old song. Junior wants to see himself as the last of the grand, manly Mafiosi. His nephew considers him a trouble-making mannequin who pulls off petty tricks like taxing this mob's Hyman Roth, Hesh (Jerry Adler), to buttress his own pride. Of course, to Junior, Tony's visits to a psychiatrist and his estrangement from Livia are sources of shame, worry, and woe, as well as opportunity.

During a recent conversation in San Francisco, Chianese savored the many possibilities he explored in a character who's not just scared and vicious but cruelly disappointed in his nephew.

When I asked Chianese what "Sopranos" creator David Chase did to help shape his physical performance, the actor said "He gave me those big glasses. They magnify my eyes." A friend of his who heard his statement observed: "You have kind eyes, and the glasses mask them." I think both are right. Junior struggles to assert cool authority, but can't keep bits of panic and avuncular vibes from shooting out. When I told him I particularly enjoyed the way Junior harps on how Tony, as a kid, had let him down as an athlete, Chianese said, "I love those scenes!"

The cast has sworn not to answer such questions as, "Will Junior Soprano sing?" But Chianese inadvertently divulged a confidence. Although he's usually been cast in harsh urban films and series -- from "Fort Apache, the Bronx" to "Law & Order" -- on stage he has played in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas (like "The Gondoliers") and in "Oliver!" (as Fagin). I asked him whether David Chase would pull a Dennis Potter and have his characters break into musical numbers the way Potter's do in "The Singing Detective." Chianese answered, firmly, "Uncle Junior doesn't sing." Figuratively and literally? "Uncle Junior doesn't sing."

But Chianese does. His dream is to play the lead in "Man of La Mancha."

You were acting in summer stock from the early '50s. What made you want to be an actor in the first place?

It started with me being a kid in New York -- and it really started with Gilbert & Sullivan. I wanted to sing. I knew I could break the mold in my family. Of course, dad was in construction. They were all bricklayers, stonemasons. And I said, "Well, let's see, I'm second generation, I can do something else." So I told myself I was gonna be a singer. I always wanted to sing. So, one day, I was on the bricklayers' bus, and I asked my father if I could get off the bus to go to an audition. After about a ten second deliberation he said, "You want to audition, huh? What is that exactly?" I said, "Well, it's for singing." And my dad said "Ok, get off, you can go to it." And I got the job. So it started that way.

What was that first job?

It was Gilbert & Sullivan. An American Savoyards production of "H.M.S. Pinafore." I was singing and dancing -- and they paid me for it! We toured ten months all over the country. I was hooked by that time. I knew I loved the business. Then I went in and out of it about ten years.

What were you doing when you went in and out of it?

Well, I laid brick again, and I was always a typist; I would go back to college again, I would try to get some credits as I kept wondering what to do.

Did you study acting at that time?

No, I didn't study acting 'til the '60s. All through the '50s I went back and forth. I would try to get some more credits toward a teaching degree because I knew my dad wanted me to be a schoolteacher. See, for the son of an immigrant who is a stonemason, to be a schoolteacher is a very high, glorified position.

Next page | Think the mob's scary? Try acting