i had another panic attack
and i thought i had this [ __ ] beat tony
soprano is going to have
a panic attack in this therapy session
it's going to happen
a little under four minutes from now the
way james gandalfini
builds to that attack is only one reason
why his performance as
tony is probably the greatest acting
achievement
ever committed to the screen small or
big
you could pick a thousand scenes from
this groundbreaking series a thousand
moments to highlight gandalfini's
artistry
but i think this one in particular
demonstrates what he does
so well how he carries us with him
through a complex sequence of emotions
it's not the first time it's happened
recently
i wish you had told me well i wish it
cured it so the scene is all about
tony's
recent panic attacks getting to the
bottom of why they've been occurring
so frequently the most recent one
happened earlier in the same episode
after tony learned that his cousin
tony b was involved in a shooting that
he shouldn't have been
when the attacks first reappeared
what was going on in your life it was
just rebuffed my affections
tony strikes at dr melfi twice blaming
her first for not
solving his psychological problem and
then for causing it
but the way gandalfini plays it you can
see that he's not really convinced
of her culpability and says that with
his tone his eyes
and the tilt of his head here's our
first little foreshadowing of the
agitated state he's going to work
himself into
it's a small thing a hand on the head
but it signals to us that tony
is struggling and in these therapy
scenes when he's confined to a chair
gandalfini has a very limited mobility
to work with
but he makes the most of it when you
actually passed out were you thinking
about me you walked into my house and
the clinton girl was
crying on the phone about a cousin who
went off the road at a mexican
bus rack or something
i remember just feeling inside like i
wanted to [ __ ] choke her cause there
was always something with her
you can hear the musicality in his voice
some
combination of leftover italian rhythms
and a
new york inflected north jersey accent
crying on the phone about a cousin who
went off the road crying on the phone
about a cousin who went off the road at
a mexican
bus rack or something as you'll see in
the scene gandalfini
uses these musical rhythms to build to
larger and larger crescendos
of anger feel inside like i wanted the
[ __ ] choker because there was always
something with her
when did it next happen uh
my cousin tony was up by the house he
went to boston tools and they weren't
there
i was inside talking to carmella and
started to feel that
you know that it passed gandalfini's
rhythmic anger like
waves crashing on the shore is hypnotic
drawing you deeper into his mental and
emotional space
with each new cycle as it intensifies
this push
and pull almost mimics the kind of
breathing that leads
to hyperventilation a key symptom of
panic attacks
you were so concerned about your
cousin's foot
you collapsed on the golf course i worry
about him
he's a grown man isn't he
is he in danger of losing the foot or
[ __ ] his foot it's not his foot
forget the foot
i worry about him he is he's
running a [ __ ] jail okay what's
important here is that
tony is lying to melfi about the cause
of his latest attack
he realizes that his cousin has
something to do with it but
for legal reasons he can't admit the
real cause having to do with the murder
now this prefigures the greater lie he's
about to tell
in a second he went to prison
and he got pitched hijacking a truckload
of beta boxes in 86.
and they hooked him up with a rico and
he got 17 years
and i was supposed to be there the night
of the jacket now here comes the lie
why didn't you go i was jumped by a
bunch of mulligans they were trying to
take
my shoes i fought them off but they cut
my [ __ ] head open a [ __ ] [ __ ]
[ __ ] sucking [ __ ]
forget that so the reason he didn't go
to jail and his cousin
did was because tony was jumped by some
unidentified black males which is
the title of this episode and also
sometimes a code
for when a person is hit or hurt by
mafia members
that can't be named chucky jr was shot
to death
at the bootin projects by drug dealers
tony's racist outburst is ostensibly
directed at whoever beat him up
the only thing is it never happened
that's tremendous guilt to carry
he went to nam i was 4f and that's the
way our friends look at it
one of the amazing things about the
sopranos is
its use of silence and nowhere in the
show is silence more prominent than
in melfi's office i mean it would be
impossible
to score these scenes the script is
asking lorraine bronco and gandalfini to
do things that
music is too blunt to follow after all
tony's anger is complex whether it's
directed at melfi
or his cousin or unidentified black
males the actual target
is himself depression is rage turned
inward
he hates his own failings and he hates
that he's embarrassed by them
he also uses his anger as a shield a
screen to block
deeper self-knowledge the writers are
asking gandalfini to do
all that and at the same time to show
that shield
cracking he does that by responding to
the silence in the office to the hollow
echoes
of his rage his subtle retreating
postures
after an outburst betray his
insecurities right out of the [ __ ]
jail
okay you know i wish it cured it
and that's the way our friends look at
it
no wonder you're having anxiety attacks
maybe if you came clean with him
it's the idea of the truth that finally
triggers it
yeah well yeah
you okay yeah
go on come on come on go on what you
were saying
are you having an attack now no no i had
a huge lunch that's all it's it's gas
watch the way he wrestles and fights
with his own body refusing to accept
what's happening as if words could
overrule reality all right the night he
got pinched i had a [ __ ] panic attack
all right
from my mother god damn it i didn't even
know what it was then
all right just relax focus on your
breathing
it's not that i just i just need some
[ __ ] bino or something
no just please focus
i've got my medical bag in case
gandalfini depicts
the visual symptoms of panic attacks
dizziness shortness of breath
chest pain sweating feeling faint and
through them he confesses to the truth
of why he missed that job all those
years ago he does it in three parts
first with a lingering anger at himself
yelling
through his attack i had a fight with my
mother when i had a [ __ ] panic attack
okay forget that for now come on we're
supposed to come over with some [ __ ]
yarn
for some booties my mother was making
meadow then he seems to
crumple and give in he resigns himself
to the confession
looking defeated notice his posture here
focus on your breathing
i said i said carmela loves you you know
you gotta understand she's got a
three-month-old
finally as his emotion ramps back up it
becomes infused with an intense
vulnerability as if he's on the verge of
tears
she kept [ __ ] she kept going and i i
started screaming at her so i left i
walked out the door i went over to the
car open the door
boom cut my [ __ ] head open
and your cousin doesn't know this oh i
lied what am i gonna tell him
what am i gonna tell all of them
i had a fight with my mother and i
fainted that's why i missed a job
it's gandalfini's ability to convey
these deep inner reserves of
vulnerability and insecurity to let us
glimpse the tender source of his
destructive passions
that make him a sympathetic character on
which
the entire series depends you know
actors don't always get the gift of
great writing but when they do
it's not just an opportunity it's also a
responsibility a challenge
to meet the nuance of the words with
nuance in performance
what the writers asked gandalfini to
navigate in the scene would be difficult
for any actor but he pulls it off with
power
and precision and he had to do the same
for nearly
every scene in all 86 hour long episodes
it's a remarkable legacy sometimes what
happens in here is like taking a [ __ ]
yes okay although i preferred to
think of it more like childbirth trust
me
it's like taking the [ __ ]
[Music]
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