And this, God bless her, is Edie f–in’ Falco. As of Sept. 15, while the actress is baring her body and soul onstage, she’ll also be back on “The Sopranos,” encased in the makeup, big hair and acrylic nails that have always been her armor, checking her reflection in the oven door when Furio swings by and trying to persuade her husband, Tony, to do some estate planning before he gets whacked. The best “Sopranos” episodes have been like miniature movies. The first few episodes of the new season are more scattered and ungainly. But riveting story lines spring up everywhere–Chris becomes acting capo while still shooting heroin between his toes, Adriana befriends a woman Chris believes is a lesbian and is in fact an FBI agent, Meadow gets a therapist who’s clearly going to be 10 kinds of trouble–and there’s a palpable, creeping sense that the water is rising against both Carmela’s family and Tony’s.
Falco’s work on “The Sopranos” has won her every award that isn’t nailed down–and inspired the producers of “Frankie and Johnny” to launch a revival simply because they wanted to be in the Edie Falco business. In an interview in her small, bright dressing room, she seems warm and unaffected. Her dog, Marla, barks at the door, as if something’s trying to get in. “I’m sorry,” says the actress, 39. “She thinks she’s protecting me.” From what? “I couldn’t tell ya.” Falco talks about painful stretches of her life with surprising candor and ease–“I’ve been in therapy a bazillion years”–but it is clear that there’s far more that she’ll never discuss. In “Frankie and Johnny,” she plays a guarded, wounded woman trying to love a guy who may well be delusional. Asked if she herself would trust him, Falco allows as how she might not, because she understands life and relationships a bit better than Frankie. “I’ve been through a lot,” she says. But Frankie’s been through a lot, too. There isn’t even a pause: “Not as much as me.”
Falco grew up on New York’s Long Island, her dad a graphic artist and former jazz drummer, her mom an actress who did local theater. She studied acting at the State University of New York at Purchase. “The other women were pretty ingenue types, and I always got the weirdo parts,” she says. “And, yes, I took it personally and my feelings were hurt. The third year we did [our first big] production. We did ‘Time of Your Life’ and all the girls wanted to be the lead. So we all auditioned and the cast list was put up and I got the part of Lorene Smith. She had, like, two lines, and the only description was ‘an unattractive woman’.”
By graduation, Falco had an agent and some work, but her career didn’t gel. “There were some horrible years,” she says. “You go to college and you go off and do plays and then when the dust clears, you are left alone in your crazy apartment at 4 in the afternoon with no job, no prospects and a waitressing shift to go to. And real, heavy-duty darkness can set in.” She pauses. “I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown, I suppose… Somebody got me a job at a hardware store, and I started having terrible anxiety attacks. I actually went up to the person in charge and said, ‘I have to leave. Something’s wrong.’ I walked to Penn Station in a full-blown attack and–I didn’t know what else to do–I went home to Long Island. My mother was so great. I’d try to sleep, but I’d wake up with a start. And she would just sit there with me. [Someone] once described an anxiety attack–he said it’s like you’re driving and all of a sudden you see a Mack truck crossing the divider and coming at you. And you stay like that. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat.” Did her mother tell her to quit acting? “No, she just talked me through it. Anxiety attacks have been in my family for years. We are sort of a high-strung bunch.”
In the late ’90s, Falco got recognition for her work onstage (playing the alcoholic wife of a jazz trumpeter in “Side Man”) and on TV (a guard on HBO’s “Oz”). Still, she says she couldn’t afford cable until well into “The Sopranos,” and even now it’s clear she’d like a raise. “I have a very good agent, and in the middle of negotiations last year he said to me, ‘Listen, I can make this better for you, but this is what you have to do: you have to walk off the set.’ I’m like, ‘The people we’d be screwing with are the [assistant directors], the directors, the writers–the people I’m in love with. And the people that I’m sparring with are the executives in charge of this s–t. I don’t even know their names.”
Off the set, Falco, who’s single, lives in Manhattan and hasn’t had an anxiety attack in many years. Asked if she seems like a confident person, her costar, Tucci, says, “I never met a confident actor. Show me one. If there is one, it usually means they’re not very good.” For her part, Falco says, “I feel more in control of my life than I ever have.” She laughs, then adds: “I’m not standing on a f–in’ mountaintop, by any means.” No, she’s actually standing on a stage and watching the audience get up and cheer every night. She’s just a little nervous it’ll rain.
TELEVISION American Dreams
What ever happened to the family drama? Television has done a great job turning out shows that can go toe-to-toe with movies: “The Sopranos,” “The West Wing.” But in its drive to produce edgy programs–do we need another gritty cop show?–TV has largely forgotten about dramas the family can enjoy. Meet “American Dreams.” It’s set in 1963 and focuses on the Pryors, a Roman Catholic family in Philadelphia. Jack (Tom Verica) works in an electronics store. His wife, Helen (Gail O’Grady), tends to their growing family. But just as Jack thinks he’s got the perfect life, it starts crumbling. Helen doesn’t want another child. Son J.J. (Will Estes) isn’t sure he wants to play football at Notre Dame. And teenage Meg (Brittany Snow) is sneaking off to dance on–horrors!–“American Bandstand.” The “Bandstand” story is no accident–the executive producer of “Dreams” –is Dick Clark. Yet this isn’t a vanity production. “American Dreams” is a complex, poignant look at a family finding its way as the ’60s rock their world. All that, and the best soundtrack on TV. NBC, Sept. 29.
CSI: Miami Last year “CSI” vaulted past “ER” to become TV’s No. 1 drama. What does it do for an encore? A spinoff, of course. “CSI: Miami” finds the kick-ass crime series in a new city with a new cast, headed by David Caruso. But the setup is the same: a team of crime-scene investigators solve murders using every gizmo and gadget imaginable. If “CSI: Miami” succeeds, can “CSI: New Orleans” be far behind? CBS, Sept. 23.
Push, Nevada “Push, Nevada” has a jittery, noir sensibility that TV hasn’t pulled off since “Twin Peaks.” But that’s not why people will watch. The hook of “Push” is that a viewer can win $1 million by solving the show’s central mystery, which has to do with a nerdy IRS agent (Derek Cecil) on the hunt for missing loot in a strange Nevada town. There’s another hook, too: the cocreators of “Push” are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. They haven’t been shy about promising a “dazzling array” of guest stars. ABC, Sept. 17.
Boomtown"Boomtown" is a cop show with a twist. Each episode follows only one crime, but it’s told in pieces through the overlapping stories of all the participants: the cops, the medics, a reporter, the district attorney and the perpetrator. The result is a cubist-like drama that layers on characters and information in ways that are unpredictable and fresh. The cast is headed by Donnie Wahlberg and Mykelti Williamson, though the real star is the shape-shifting city where “Boomtown” is set–Los Angeles. NBC, Sept. 29.
Life With BonnieThe sitcom is sick. Our list of top new shows includes one comedy, and even that’s hardly landmark television. What makes “Life With Bonnie” worth watching is Bonnie Hunt. She has the sort of quick yet earthy humor that makes her hysterical and immediately likable–kind of like Rosie O’Donnell before she went off the deep end. On “Life With Bonnie,” Hunt plays a talk-show host overwhelmed by work and family. As we said, not the most innovative concept. If we’re lucky, “Bonnie” will rise to Hunt’s level. ABC, Sept. 17.
Also Check Out:
Hack stars David Morse as a cabbie looking to solve crimes and avenge himself for being kicked off the Philadelphia police force. CBS, Sept. 27.
Without a Trace feels like “CSI,” only the cast hunts for missing people instead of murderers. CBS, Sept. 26.
If you want some eye candy, check out Fastlane. It’s cocreated by McG, the director of “Charlie’s Angels,” and focuses on undercover cops with access to an endless trove of fast cars and great homes. Fox, Sept. 18.
Everwood stars Treat Williams as a big-city doctor who chucks his job, grabs the kids and moves to Colorado. WB, Sept. 16.
The ridiculously prolific David E. Kelley is back with Girls Club, about a trio of female lawyers. Sounds like “Ally McBeal” meets “The Practice.” Fox, Oct. 21.
