Michael Imperioli on "abusive" scenes from The Sopranos

Michael Imperioli says it was "abusive" for some of the scenes he had to film for HBO TV show The Sopranos. He played a character named Christopher Moltisanti, a member of the Soprano family in New Jersey. He was also a drug addict whose addiction worsened as time went on. His girlfriend was a woman named Adriana, played by actress Drea De Matteo, who gets killed later on when it's discovered she's an informant for the FBI

According to Michael Imperioli, "You have to go to some nasty places." In a recent interview with The Guardian, Imperioli said it was "brutal" when he had to be a physically abusive person on the show. "The most brutal, difficult stuff for me is when Christopher had to be physically abusive with Adriana, for obvious reasons." On the show, Christopher was in a relationship with Adriana La Cerva, played by Drea De Matteo."On a technical level, you're trying to be really careful so you don't hurt the person. But having to get that point of violence toward a woman, you have to go some nasty places to get there. Sometimes it's very immediate. Sometimes it's something present in your life that you can tap into. Sometimes you have to go someplace from the past. And sometimes you have to go to someplace imaginary."

The actor, now currently playing Dominic Di Grasso on The White Lotus, continued. "It's much easier shooting a mobster or shooting heroin. That stuff to me is not difficult. But that stuff with her was. Sometimes you'll use stunt doubles, sometimes not. And even then, it's one thing to choreograph and rehearse it, then when you act it full-tilt with all the emotion, it's easy to not have as much control as in the rehearsal. So you really have to be quite careful."

Michael Imperioli appeared as main character Christopher Moltisanti throughout all six seasons of The Sopranos. Originally his character's name was to be Dean Moltisanti, but was changed to Christopher. His character predated the 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.

During his interview with The Guardian, Imperioli also shared that his late co-star James Gandolfini was one of the best on-screen partners he's had. "He's probably the actor I've acted with most. He always put in 110%. He managed to find the intensity and the reality in every moment. That pushed you farther." Unfortunately, while on vacation in Rome, Italy with his family on June 19, 2013, he passed away. His son Michael found him unconscious in a hotel bathroom. When paramedics rushed him to a nearby hospital, his cause of death was declared a heart attack