“The Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli suggested that the characters in the HBO crime drama would “probably” be supporters of Donald Trump if the show were made today.
“The show is about the American dream, especially through the eyes of immigrants,” the actor said during an interview with The Independent this month.
“I think that would be one of the big themes if it was made today: the current climate in the US and what they’re doing to immigrants,” he went on. “The fact is that these characters are all immigrants, but I think a lot of them would probably be Trump supporters, oddly enough. So how do they reconcile those things? When Italians came over – and people forget this, or they don’t want to see it – a lot of them were undocumented,” the actor went on.
Imperioli is best known for his starring role as Christopher Moltisanti in the iconic series, which many consider to be one of the greatest television shows ever made. “The Sopranos” ran for six seasons from 1999 to 2007, telling the story of mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) trying to balance family life with his violent career path.
Imperioli was nominated for Emmy Awards four times, winning once for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama.
This isn’t the first time Trump has been mentioned in conjunction with “The Sopranos.” In 2019, series creator David Chase said Gandolfini wouldn’t be a Trump fan.
“He would think the guy was full of [expletive],” he told The New York Times at the time. “Whether he thought he was a good president or not — I don’t know that Tony thought much about that question at all, with anybody who was in office. But I know Tony would have thought Trump was penny-ante, in terms of his lying and presentation.”
The television exec also noted that A.J. Soprano, played by Robert Iler, would have been part of the first Trump administration.
“He might be the new chief of staff,” he told the outlet. “He’d be buddy-buddy with Stephen Miller, I know that.”
Imperioli’s comments are in direct opposition to what he was saying in 2020 when the actor posted several memes about “Sopranos” characters being Biden supporters.
“I’m taking ownership of the confusion between myself and the character and trying to control that narrative instead of letting it get away from me…. Taking these memes and the politics and just trying to say, ‘the Sopranos are woke now, and they’re campaigning for Biden,’” the actor told Vanity Fair at the time.
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