Michael Imperioli, who was part of The Sopranos for its entire run, spoke about the show in detail in a new interview. He also said that the characters in the series would probably have been supporters of the current U.S. President, Donald Trump, if the show were made today. The actor referenced the characters’ immigrant roots in relation to the current political climate.
Michael Imperioli makes rare Donald Trump comment
Michael Imperioli, who starred in The Sopranos for 86 episodes as Christopher Moltisanti, spoke about the show and the characters in an interview with The Independent.
While addressing various aspects of the series, Imperioli considered a hypothetical scenario in which The Sopranos was set in the present political climate. He said that the characters on the show would probably have been supporters of Donald Trump if the setting were contemporary.
“The show is about the American dream, especially through the eyes of immigrants,” he explained, “I think that would be one of the big themes if it were made today: the current climate in the U.S. and what they’re doing to immigrants. The fact is that these characters are all immigrants, but I think a lot of them would probably be Trump supporters, oddly enough.”
He added, “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 United States experienced a large wave of Italian immigration from the 1880s to the 1920s. At that time, immigration laws were minimal.
Before this comment by Impeioli, series creator David Chase had told The New York Times in 2019 that James Gandolfini’s character would not have supported Donald Trump. Chase said, “He would think the guy was full of [expletive].” He added, “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 Sopranos remains one of the most popular television shows of all time.
