There were many reasons for Alessandro Nivola to be apprehensive about playing the lead in The Many Saints of Newark. The Boston-born actor was charged with carrying the long-awaited prequel film to The Sopranos, arguably the best and certainly one of the most scrutinised TV shows in history. He was playing a character, Dickie “Gentleman” Moltisanti, who was much talked about but never featured in the mob series, and who gives the movie its name (Moltisanti translates as “many saints”). And he was working with David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, who co-wrote the film and suffers fools about as gladly as Tony Soprano did FBI informants.
Nivola is no fool; quite the opposite. His portrayal of a British orthodox Jewish
