-Our next guest is the Emmy-winning writer and creator
of "The Sopranos."
His prequel film to the iconic series,
"The Many Saints of Newark," is in theaters and on HBO Max.
Let's take a look.
-Where is he? -Downtown.
-He's downtown, where he might get burned to death?
What are you people thinking? -[ Crying ]
-Janice, shut up with that!
W-What were the two of you doing at that card game?
-Dad took Janice to ride the rides while he played cards.
But he wouldn't take me because I pass gas,
so he was eating lunch.
-Get inside, both of you!
-Please welcome to the show David Chase.
Welcome, David. How are you?
-I'm okay. How are you? -I'm doing wonderful.
I love this movie.
I, of course, was a huge fan of the show.
When you were making it, did you think to yourself,
"This is a reward for all my fans"
or "this is an entry point for new fans"
or did you just have a story to tell?
-Uh...none of those. -Okay.
-Warner Bros. wanted to do it.
And they had been coming to me over the years.
And, finally, like 2018, it sort of worked out,
the timing was right, and we came up with the story.
-A lot's been written about how
younger generations are finding this show now.
I -- When I first watched it when it aired,
I thought of it very much as a show about the Mafia.
And then I rewatched it with my wife, who had never seen it,
and I felt it was a show about
a marriage the second time through.
What are you hearing that younger people
are being drawn to about the show?
-I don't know.
I hear a lot of different things.
And then, yesterday, I finally had a lightning bolt
hit me that it's not PC, and they don't get that anymore.
And it seems like, "Wow! Did you hear what he just say?"
I think that might be it.
And the characters are also un-PC.
-Another thing that I feel like, if you never watched the show --
And I think part of this --
I don't know what you think of this theory.
Because of the way the show ended
and how much, then, people put into
trying to take apart and understand how the show ended,
people forgot that it was a deeply funny show.
And I'm wondering if first-time viewers
are so surprised by that, because even I'll admit,
I kind of forgot, until I rewatched it,
how there was never an episode
that wasn't full of comic moments.
-Well, all I can say is that I didn't real--
I didn't -- I made a statement to the effect that
I don't know whether it's a drama or a comedy.
But that didn't really hit me until, like,
the show was almost over.
That's when I realized.
-Were you guys -- When you were writing it,
were you laughing a lot as you were working on the show?
-Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes, we were. We were.
I mean, those characters were just great, you know,
pieces of clay to work with.
They were -- You know, Tony Sirico's funny,
just period.
Everybody was, really.
A.J. was funny. I don't know. It was just -- it was just fun.
It might have been the casting, really, that did it.
-Well, not only do I -- -Junior was a riot, you know?
-And the casting not only was great,
but I would imagine, the longer you wrote it,
the more fun people would have writing the characters,
Because you -- I mean, you must have just gotten to know
them as the show went on.
-Yeah. I heard that from some young woman
at one of the events we went to.
I said, "What do you guys see in the show?"
And she said, "I don't know.
You come home from work into your apartment,
and it's all dark and you're exhausted.
You turn it on, and there they are.
And you feel relaxed
and like you're home, like you're with your family."
As far as I know,
that's what television has always been, right?
In the '50s and '60s, it was that same thing.
Oh, here is that guy that I know,
and he's going to do his stupid line again.
-The other thing I realized watching it again is,
when I watch "Mad Men," I want to have a drink,
and when I watch "The Sopranos," I want a sandwich.
-Yeah. Right. Right.
-But, like, a sandwich that's, like, wrapped in paper.
Like, you almost never even see the sandwich.
I just like that part of it.
-I understand. I get it.
I get it.
-I also want to ask --
Obviously, you know the show had --
You know, music was a huge part of the show.
You know, Tony obviously had music tastes that were very,
you know, specific to his character.
I imagine they overlap with your music tastes a great deal.
But, for me, there are certain songs
that when I hear now, my memory of them
is tied to moments in "The Sopranos."
Like, when I hear "Glad Tidings" by Van Morrison,
I think Tony Blundetto's about to get it.
When I hear "Comfortably Numb,"
I know that's sort of the end of Christopher.
And I'm wondering -- you put those songs there --
can you hear those songs without thinking of those scenes?
-No, I can't.
I mean, I said something about
"Glad Tidings" the other day.
If you said to me "Glad Tidings,"
I wouldn't necessarily think about
Tony Blundetto getting shot.
If I heard it, I would.
I would, because I was very proud.
I never thought we would get Van Morrison to do anything,
and so I was really proud and still am about that.
-And is that a situation where you guys
had to reach out and basically wait to see if
Van Morrison would sign off on it?
-Well, yeah, but it wasn't in the script.
It all -- That all comes during post-production.
The show is put together, and, you know,
we had been thinking about musical things.
And -- I forget.
There was a -- there was a contestant for that,
which was a Lou Reed song.
I don't remember the name, but it was very close.
-You had another contestant for "Don't Stop Believin'",
which obviously now will forever be tied to the show,
because that's how it ended.
And "Don't Stop Believin'"
was not the crew's choice, is this correct?
-No, the crew didn't like it.
I mean, we were prepping the show
and we were riding around in a location van.
It's about 12 people.
And I never did this with the crew before.
But just to break the tedium up, I said,
"Alan and I have been thinking about the last song."
And I was serious.
"And I've got about three contestants.
What do you guys think?"
"Oh, what are they?"
So I told them what the first one was,
which was Al Green's song "Love and Happiness."
"Well, I don't see how that works in."
And then I said -- I forget what the second one was.
And then I said "Don't Stop Believin'".
They went, "Oh, Jesus, God, no. How can you do that?
Don't do that. That's terrible. That's horrible."
So, I said, "Well, that's the one."
And I didn't -- I didn't do that to be mean or --
I just thought, "It is my favorite, actually,
and I think there's something there."
It got such an emotional thing, so, yeah, it was.
-Well, I think if it's your favorite --
-Oh, and Steven Van Zandt was, like -- Just wanted to shoot me.
-Really? Stevie was against it?
-Oh, totally.
Totally against it. -We've been talking about him.
I feel like when that -- When the show started --
And, again, I don't --
You know, I don't remember how I went into it.
I think that maybe the premise of the show,
as it was pitched at the time when it premiered on HBO,
was a little comic -- the idea of, like,
a mobster going to see a therapist.
And Little Stevie, to me, seemed like comic casting,
and then, as the show went on,
I forgot it was Steven Van Zandt.
Like, he just became Silvio to me.
Did he surpass your expectations
for what he would do as an actor in that role?
-Well, it was great watching him develop as an actor.
He was good right from the first.
You've probably heard this, that I thought --
I read him, we auditioned him,
and I thought maybe he could be Tony.
And if he was Tony, it would be a funny --
a different kind of show,
like a live-action "Simpsons" or something.
And we took three guys there --
him and Jim and Michael Rispoli.
You know, and then once you see Jim, it's like, you know,
"Alright, we're spending money on this show, okay?
We are spending millions of dollars on this show.
It's got to be somebody who's acted in a series before."
So, yeah, it was pretty evident.
-I don't want to steal your thunder,
because, again, I love the prequel,
but I did write a prequel to "The Sopranos" before you.
-Oh.
-I wrote an "SNL" sketch called "The Sopranos Diaries."
-I remember that. -There's Bobby Moynihan as Tony.
That's Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Kate McKinnon.
Did you see this sketch?
-I did. I did. That was very funny.
-Alright. -Yeah.
-I'm going to leave it there. I don't really need --
-You wrote the whole thing?
-I wrote the whole thing all by myself.
I mean, I feel like you did a lot of the legwork.
I feel like, in a vacuum, it wouldn't have worked
without "The Sopranos," so I guess co-wrote.
We co-wrote it.
-Alright. It was good.
-You know, the last thing --
You know, we had Michael Gandolfini here.
You know, one of the, really, most magnetic parts
about watching this prequel is watching him play the part
that his father made so famous
and just on the level of mannerisms that are the same.
But, you know, one of the things he told me is that
you had to tell him to be a little bit less angry
in the scenes.
Was that an effort to make sure you left room
for the character to develop
to who we saw in the television show?
-You know, I really don't remember that conversation,
but it might have been he wasn't so good at being angry.
It could have been that.
But there had to be some headroom, somewhere to go
toward the end of the movie.
I think that's what it was.
-Well, he's fantastic. The film is fantastic.
And thanks so much for making time for us, David.
I really appreciate talking to you.
-Thank you. Thank you.
-"The Many Saints of Newark" is in theaters and on HBO Max.