- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
[This story contains spoilers for The Many Saints of Newark.]
David Chase was able to liberate Alessandro Nivola in an instant when it came to portraying his Many Saints of Newark character, the legendary Richard “Dickie” Moltisanti.
Spoken of with tremendous reverence in The Sopranos, the Mafia soldier and father of Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) was never actually portrayed until Nivola got a call from Chase to be a part of his film that would be something of a prequel to the iconic and now-concluded HBO series, which wrapped its run in June 2007.
Nivola told The Hollywood Reporter he never felt handcuffed by the show’s tales of Dickie; the veteran actor was able to explore the complicated character and make the mobster his own, mostly thanks to advice he was given by creator-writer Chase.
Related Stories
“David said to me early on, ‘Don’t pay any attention to what any of the characters in the series said about your character because they’re all liars,'” Nivola says with a chuckle. “Despite David being very particular about the language in his script, I didn’t find him prescriptive at all about my performance.”
Having an unheard six months to prepare for the role, Nivola met with director and series alum Alan Taylor several times to discuss the project while also working with dialect coach Kohli Calhoun. His version of Dickie would shatter the image Sopranos die-hards had in their mind. That is exactly what Chase wanted, Nivola notes.
“One of the basic facts of this story is that Tony [Soprano, played by Michael Gandolfini] completely misunderstands who Dickie is. And like a lot of people, he only sees the side of Dickie that he presents to the world, which is one of being in complete control of his life and totally at ease with himself,” Nivola says. “But in fact, he’s an emotional wreck and unraveling as the story goes on. My main intent was to show the audience what no one knew about Dickie, what Tony never knew. So that was liberating but challenging.”
And just like the series, there are moments with a great deal of ambiguity — a Chase staple — such as when Dickie visits his uncle Sal “Sally” Moltisanti, played by Ray Liotta, in prison. (Liotta pulls double duty in the film, also portraying Aldo “Hollywood Dick” Moltisanti.)
“Those scenes are working on many different levels at once,” Nivola says, excited there will be debates over interpretations. “You have the face value that Sally is exactly who he says he is and Dickie is going there for some kind of penitence. Or you can see Sally as a figment of Dickie’s imagination, his conscience. Or you can see him as a proxy for Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) in the series. Or you can see Sally as his priest.”
And, yes, Nivola knows the details concerning the demise of Dickie are going to be a flashpoint for some Sopranos‘ fanatics — but that’s kind of the point.
“It was a hilarious bait and switch that David pulled off with the story, where it appears there is going to be this showdown between Dickie and Harold [McBrayer, played by Leslie Odom Jr.]. And then instead, it comes from absolutely nowhere when he is not paying attention, for something totally petty and pathetically personal,” Nivola marvels. “There is also something about his dying with such a whimper. Throughout the series, he was called ‘the great Dickie Moltisanti.’ He has this legendary status, and the way he goes — he’s like a little old man by the end of the movie, he’s just shuffling around, pulling stuff out of a car and then boom. It’s over. And there isn’t even anyone there to see it. It’s kind of pathetic and sad.”
Some of the most disturbing scenes in the film are when Dickie flies into a fit of murderous rage. It was those moments that gave Nivola the best insight into how he would portray the elder Moltisanti.
“The thing about Dickie, unlike a lot of mob characters in other movies, [is] his violence is almost exclusively crimes of passion,” the actor explains. “And they all erupt out of a moment of rage as opposed to a calculated mob hit, which is all business. That set the character on a different path. My first clue as to how to approach him was to understand his moral confusion and suffering.”
The Many Saints of Newark arrived on HBO Max the same day it landed in theaters. Chase has been vocal about his disappointment over the Warner Bros. decision due to the pandemic, which impacted several huge titles, including Dune and The Matrix Resurrections. Nivola acknowledges both sides of the topic in sharing his two cents.
“David felt all along that the movie had a particular handicap for a day and date release that other day-and-date releases don’t have, and that is people are so accustomed to watching the series on TV that there is less incentive for them to choose to watch it in the cinema,” Nivola explains. “His ambition was to make a movie and have it be more cinematic than the show and tell the story in a different kind of format.”
Nivola then confesses his opinion: “I don’t feel conformable telling people who are worrying about their health to see it in a theater or don’t see it at all. I want as many people as possible to see it. And if they feel frightened about being around other people in the theater for health reasons, then I am not going to be attacking them for it.”
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day