Michael Imperioli

The Viall Files

E870 - Traitors w/ Wells, Baldoni Keeps Suing, Matt and Rachael Breakup, RHOSLC Finale + Michael Imperioli

Thank you very much.

The Viall Files

E870 - Traitors w/ Wells, Baldoni Keeps Suing, Matt and Rachael Breakup, RHOSLC Finale + Michael Imperioli

Well, I just played a couple of concerts with my band this last week in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. And then we have another one next week that's a benefit for the relief, you know, for the victims of the fires in Los Angeles here in New York City.

The Viall Files

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Incredible experience on every level, both in terms of the production and being there, just as a visitor to Sicily and being in Sicily. in those amazing cities in Sicily. And as an actor, the material and the cast and Mike White, who directed everything and wrote everything, it was pretty much a dream gig for me because I love being in Italy and working there is really, really fun and exciting.

The Viall Files

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Four months. Okay. I wish it was longer.

The Viall Files

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I definitely got to know the actors that I worked most closely with best, but we spent a lot of time together as a group because we were all living in the hotel where we were shooting most of the show. And the hotel was closed, so it was just the cast and crew and the hotel staff in this beautiful hotel. So we had dinners together and some parties and stuff.

The Viall Files

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got to spend a lot of time wandering around the streets there. It was a really lovely vibe among the cast and crew.

The Viall Files

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Yeah, we knew, but we were definitely sworn to secrecy. And that's how it was on the Sopranos as well. Like we all knew what was going on, but it was really important. To everybody. It's just more fun that the audience can get surprised. We kept it a secret as much as we could.

The Viall Files

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I think so. You think so? Okay. I've always thought that, yeah.

The Viall Files

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I usually watch it once, which is enough. Maybe more than enough. Less and less over the years do I enjoy it. Just gets me in my head a little bit too much.

The Viall Files

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It's a little better if it's been done for a while and I can see it. I don't like watching playback on the set, which some people do and they find it very helpful for their performance. I don't find it helpful, so I avoid it. I just get in my head and start focusing on the wrong things. I pretend that nobody's going to see it except the crew and the other actors.

The Viall Files

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I live in a little bit of a fantasy world that millions of people aren't going to be watching this in a couple of months.

The Viall Files

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Yeah, something like that. Or like, it's also really hard to be objective. Like, are my choices working or not? It's really hard for me to know what's being communicated. So you have to really leave that up to the director.

The Viall Files

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Yeah, much, much, much easier for me to... Turn that over to the director and then I just focus on trying to do the best within the takes rather than judging the last take and stuff and, you know, let them adjust and make adjustments.

The Viall Files

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No, I never watched Survivor. No, but he brought some of the people he did Survivor with. They did some background work in Sicily. He keeps, I guess, in contact with them, and he's friends with a lot of them, and they visited the set in Italy.

The Viall Files

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Well, Murray Abraham has become one of my closest friends, to be honest. I mean, he lives in New York, as do I, so we see each other quite often, and our families have kind of become friends as well. And Adam... DeMarco played my son I keep in touch with. I just saw him a couple of months ago when he visited New York. Sabrina Impacciatore I keep in touch with and Simona Tabasco. A good bit.

The Viall Files

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But once in a while I hear from, you know, quite a bunch of them. So I have really fond memories of it all and have formed some good friendships.

The Viall Files

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you know i mean to be honest shooting in a place like that really can spoil you because having this suite overlooking the mediterranean sea you know because we were living there so you're kind of experiencing a bit of that as well and it was very exclusive because the place was closed yet there was this whole staff right in the hotel working there also the town itself is a seasonal mostly a summer resort town and we got there at the end of february so for the first couple of months the town itself was very quiet

The Viall Files

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So the restaurants and bars and little shops that we went to, they all knew who we were and what we were doing there. So there was a bit of exclusivity to that too. And that was really kind of fun. you know, to have that connection to the people in the town as well.

The Viall Files

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Well, this was, you know, a movie that we did in the 90s, you know, kind of the height of American independent cinema, you know, and really the beginning of the Sundance generation of films. Jim McKay is the director and Lily Taylor, who was one of the stars.

The Viall Files

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We were a part of a theater company and had done some, you know, independent off-off-Broadway theater that our friend Tom Gilroy was writing and we were producing stuff together. And this kind of came out of that vibe and that community.

The Viall Files

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You know, the important thing about this restoration and re-release of the movie and a place like IFC showing it is that a lot of these movies, because nobody really makes or has DVDs anymore. I mean, very few people do. And if they're not on the streamers, you can't find these movies. Yeah.

The Viall Files

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If they're not making new DVDs and if you're not a collector who has them, the streamers have a limited amount of movies that they keep. A lot of these movies that were made back then, you can't get them, you can't see them, you can't find them. I think this one is a pretty important one because it's really a precursor to the whole Me Too movement way before that actually happened.

The Viall Files

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That's a little easier because it's so long ago. It's like... another lifetime ago, but I do tend to avoid it. I kind of have this game with myself. Nobody really sees what I do. Kind of silly, but I guess it makes it a little bit easier to go in front of the camera all the time. I don't know.

The Viall Files

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From actually working? You know, De Niro was a big influence. I was such a big fan. And then when I got an opportunity to work with him so early in my career, I obviously was watching him very closely. And, you know, what I learned from him was how to economize, not dissipate your energy with distraction, because shooting a movie are long hours, you know, and you're on set for a long time.

The Viall Files

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There's a lot of distractions. And then. we're rolling, everything has to be concentrated and intensified into this little moment that you're creating. And you may have some important closeup in some really important scene in hour 13 of the day. So you better have something in the tank. And I watched him make sure of that. And I kept that, definitely kept that with me. But just as a fan,

The Viall Files

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or as, you know, a wannabe actor when I was young, Al Pacino definitely was a big inspiration with just what he brought to the screen and what he brought to his characters. And, you know, the honesty that he brought to his roles and the depth that really touched me, made me want to be an actor. That's very cool.

The Viall Files

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Just the benefit, which is next Tuesday, January 28th at Bowery Electric in New York City, which, you know, there's a bunch of, New York bands playing and the money is all going to, you know, to help the victims of the L.A. fires. So you can go to Barry Electric's website and get tickets if you want. Awesome.