The Sopranos is an HBO program about a fictitious mob family in New Jersey. Producers had come up with a character named Furio Giunta, an Italian brought over to do work for the family. Producers found Federico Castellucio to be perfect for this role.
In Season 2, the crew heads to Italy and there's a sudden wave of new sights and sounds. When the crew arrives in Naples in the episode "Commendatori", Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli singing in the background, Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri (Tony Sirico) and Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) start commenting on the interesting area
Christopher tells Paulie and Tony (James Gandolfini)"You know what I noticed on the plane? Even the skanks ain't worth f---ing." Inside the hotel, Tony meets their Italian point of contact Furio Giunta, played by Federico Castellucio. Later that night, at dinner, Tony notes Furio's ability to manage things well. It's also noticed that Furio can handle potential threats. When talking a deal in Naples, Tony includes Furio in on things as one of the terms of his negotiation. That episode introduced a new character for the next few seasons of The Sopranos. Writer-producer Terry Winter stated that Castellucio would be perfect as Furio right from the beginning
During a visit to the July 27 episode of the podcast Talking Sopranos, Terry Winter talked about the auditions for the character of Furio Giunta. The character required an actor who not only spoke fluent Italian, but could also handle himself and would serve as the love interest for Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco). During his interview on the podcast, Winter recalled "We went through so many guys. And everybody sounded like Mr. Bacciagalupe from Abbott & Costello. It was horrible." When Castellucio walked in, it was like fate. He was perfect from the beginning
Winter continued. "I said this to Federico and it's the God's honest truth: He is exactly what I thought about when I wrote the character." He wasn't ready to commit to anything until he saw Castellucio in action. "I worked on The Great Defender and we had an actor who had to throw a punch in a scene. We didn't think to ask the guy to let us see him throw a punch. On the day [of the fight scene], it was clear he never threw a punch before." Winter had Castellucio throw a punch. Despite seeing some actors' worst fighting skills, Castellucio impressed all who seen his work. Winter said "Holy s---. This is the guy." Since TV shows don't shoot in sequence, Winter refers to an episode titled "Big Girls Don't Cry", where Furio goes through a New Jersey brothel. This was shot prior to going to Italy for the "Commendatori" episode. It was clear Federico Castellucio got the role of Furio even before the crew went to Italy
No comments:
Post a Comment