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"He's Mr. Smooth, that's his job."
HBO
The game is called The Sopranos®: Road to Respect™. How do you get respect in the Soprano's
world?
VAN ZANDT
[LAUGHS] Show up on time for work, and know your lines. It's the same as the fictional world of
the Mob that we all, of course, know, doesn't really exist. This particular storyline is a guy earning
his way, by whatever means necessary. [LAUGHS] It's a sick world, but we live in it. [LAUGHS]
HBO
Kind of, the more you whack, the higher you go?
VAN ZANDT
Well, it has its own rules, just like the Mob - from what I hear. It's very loosely based on, that kind
of thing, yeah.
HBO
Can you give us an overview of Road to Respect and how you fit in it?
VAN ZANDT
My role is a consigliere to the family. I'm the main adviser to the boss, Tony Soprano. There's this
new kid comin' up... Big Pussy's illegitimate son. [LAUGHS] He's just makin' his way through... if
he does the right thing, you win. [LAUGHS] If not, you don't.
HBO
What advice would you give to the players who want to win?
VAN ZANDT
[LAUGHS] follow the instructions and... hope your eye to hand coordination is functional...
HBO
Don't get whacked.
VAN ZANDT
Yeah, well that's good advice in general, isn't it? [LAUGHS]
HBO
What was it like recreating Silvio for the game?
VAN ZANDT
It was good to catch it right after the season. We only stopped a few weeks ago. At this point, it
comes back pretty quickly.
HBO
You said, "I gotta get the mouth right, okay?"
VAN ZANDT
I can't talk like him without the mouth. And I can't see my reflection, because if I see it's me, it
doesn't work. I gotta be this other guy.
HBO
Being made is one of the goals of anyone living in the world of The Sopranos. How do the
characters decide when to make somebody?
VAN ZANDT
It's sort of a bizarre parallel. There's that thing in life, in all facets of our culture -- going from boy
to man. All cultures had it, and in some ways this version of the Mob keeps similar traditions alive.
Being made is ... [LAUGHS] ... where you achieve a status - in culture it would be an adult, in the
Mob it would be a soldier.
HBO
What do you have to do to attain that status?
VAN ZANDT
From what I understand, in the old days it was killing somebody ... and that graduated you to the
next level. At the same time, it kind of married you irrevocably to the Mob, because now you
were a murderer, so you got nowhere to go, you're there forever, which is what they intended.
HBO
What's Sil's approach of talking in the world of The Sopranos®? Is he a tough guy? Or a smooth
talker?
VAN ZANDT
He's Mr. Smooth, that's his job. As consigliere, he has to keep a cool head under the most
serious of circumstances. Which is why when David Chase and the writers put that character
flaw in Silvio of completely losing his cool when it comes to sporting events or, card games that
was quite a funny element of his character ... He's a bit extreme which I find quite humorous.
When it comes to his daughter's soccer game, he'll threaten to kill the ref, or card games, he's
going to assassinate the kid cleaning up. But when it comes to real life and death issues, he's,
he's very very cool.
HBO
And one of your lines today, just said that perfectly. "The badda-bing is a place of business."
VAN ZANDT
Yeah, he takes it very seriously which, again has a lot of humor in (it), I think. He fancies himself
as a part of show business. Doesn't matter that it's the lowest rung ... [LAUGHS] He's a bit of a
diplomat, a bit of an ambassador, he's always looking for legitimate ways for the family to expand,
the whole strip club thing is real ... it could be on Broadway, it's the same thing for him. He takes
it that seriously.
HBO
What do the fans say to you when they see you on the street? What's the first thing they want to
know?
VAN ZANDT
Well, I've had a nice comfortable low level of celebrity most of my life, after twenty-five years in
the music business, and was in two weeks of the show being on, every cliche about television,
came true. The power of that medium, it was staggering, Seven out of ten people stopping me on
the street, became all about The Sopranos®, after two weeks vs. twenty five years, okay? ... it was
especially shocking, since I thought I was absolutely unrecognizable in the show. I went to great
pains to be unrecognizable. I ended up gaining sixty, seventy pounds. I know it sounds like a
cliche, with Bobby DeNiro doing it, in Raging Bull, but... it really worked for me. I had no other
acting experience, so, I figured I had to transform myself physically. When you're thin you're
whole life and you gain weight all of a sudden you walk differently, you talk differently. (There
were) an amazing amount of people, on the street, (who) stopped me right away.
HBO
Is your reconcilability and instant TV fame helping you now in your rock and roll revolution, your
real heartfelt issue?
VAN ZANDT
Yeah. I think all these things add up. Your life's work ends up being cumulative really. It never
seems to really pay off in some quick way - even with the success of Bruce Springsteen and the
E Street Band. It makes people friendlier and you can usually get somebody on the phone or get
in the door a little easier than most people. I think that's obvious. But that's about it ... It's still a
fight, it's still a struggle, but ... yeah, The Sopranos thing certainly notches up your celebrity
capital a few points - although celebrity capital rises and falls, unless you're Tom Hanks or
whoever... [LAUGHS] It's just a matter of what you do with that celebrity capital. I chose to invest
it in this radio show and trying to bring rock and roll to the next generation, because it doesn't
exist. It didn't exist six years ago when we started. There's no format for rock and roll, there was
no rock and roll band signed to major labels, it was gone. I think The Sopranos® thing, absolutely
helped a little bit.
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