Tony Sirico had some firm rules when it came to his lover sopranos character, and he wouldn’t compromise. In fact, he was so upset about one word in a script for the… HBO classic series he lobbied for a rare script change.
Fans’ favorite actor died Friday. He was 79.
Sirico starred in The Sopranos as “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri, a New Jersey mobster who was as deadly as cheap and obnoxious.
On their former popular podcast Talking sopranoshosts and show alums Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperiolic once spoke of Sirico disagreeing with a reference to Paulie in Season One Episode 11, “Nobody Knows Anything.”
“One of the few times an actor influenced a change in the script, and it wasn’t even their way,” Imperioli began, preparing the moment. “Makazian” [John Heard] didn’t like Paulie. In the original script, he said he didn’t like Paulie. “Paulie was a bully.” Tony Sirico read that and was shocked and very angry that Paulie was labeled a bully. [He] went to [episode writer] frank [Renzulli]maybe David [Chase], and said, ‘Paulie is not a bully! I do not like this!’ So they considered it, thought about it, and said, “What about psycho?” And Tony Sirico said, ‘Fine.’”
Imperioli reiterated that this was one of the few times an actor could influence a script change.
Another popular anecdote that has been floating around for years is that Sirico agreed to do the series as long as Paulie never became a “rat,” aka government informant, because the actor had a criminal past and took the matter seriously. It seems that this is most likely correct, as Schirripa noted that Sirico said, “I will never play a rat.”