Long Island roots to iconic Jersey role: How Edie Falco captured essence of Carmela

Here’s a little‑known fact about Edie Falco, the most famous fictional New Jersey wife
from the most famous fictional New Jersey family: She has never actually lived in the
Garden State.

Falco did, however, spend a decade working here, playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s
landmark series The Sopranos — a role that earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards
and, this year, a place in the N.J. Hall of Fame.

Falco, at the Hall induction ceremony Friday night, said she felt her lack of New Jersey
roots wasn’t an issue on the show. Drawing on her upbringing in New York was more
than enough preparation for the role, she said.

“It felt like home,” Falco told BINJE. “I’m from Long Island, which is not so different:
Suburbia, winding roads, trees, shopping malls. I certainly was familiar with what New
Jersey was like.

“I knew these women. I grew up with these women. That’s what I drew from.”

Falco said she is proud of the fact that she’ll be known for her role as Carmela — and
appreciates its staying power in pop culture. The show’s last episode aired in June of
2007, nearly 20 years ago.

Falco, however, said she didn’t grasp the show’s enormous popularity when she was
working on it.

“I’m never good at that stuff,” she said. “I always have to be told numbers by the people
around me because I don’t have my finger on the pulse of anything. I have liked a lot of
stuff that I’ve worked on, and no one else has, and vice versa.”

For Falco, it’s all about the work.

“I just try to enjoy whatever it is I’m working on — and do the best I can while we’re
working on it,” she said. “Whatever happens after that is out of my hands. But, at some
point, when they kept renewing us, I was like, ‘Oh, I guess people like us.’”

Part of the show’s success came from a unique twist: While the show was about a
fictional family, its ability to put the cast in real-feel family moments helped separate it
from other shows.

When asked to recall her favorite scene of the series, she mentioned one that even the
biggest fan likely wouldn’t remember: A time when she and James Gandolfini (Tony
Soprano) were in the kitchen.

Doing nothing.

“Jim went to the refrigerator to get something — but there were no words spoken, and
the scene went on for a long time,” she said. “It showed how two people who are very
familiar with each other don’t always talk.

“I remember thinking that was very cutting edge.”