A Rock Musician Almost Starred In HBO’s The Sopranos Before James Gandolfini

If you’re a big Sopranos fan, you may already know that Steven Van Zandt never intended to be an actor. He was a rock ‘n’ roll musician through and through, a vital member of the famous E Street Band, touring the country and the world with Bruce Springsteen for years. But the creator of “The Sopranos,” David Chase, saw something in him and chased Van Zandt to convince him to take a shot at acting. In an interview with Fox News, the actor-musician recalled that Chase initially cast him as Tony Soprano before HBO intervened. Van Zandt explained, “As it turns out, [creating Silvio Dante] was collaborative because [David Chase] cast me as Tony and HBO said, ‘Are you out of your f***ing mind? This is the most expensive show we’ll ever do, we can’t have a guy that never acted before.'”

Although Van Zandt surprised many with how effective he was as Tony’s number two, Silvio Dante, it’s hard to argue that HBO made the right call in pushing Chase to cast a seasoned actor as the lead. The musician has said he fully agreed with the final choice. “Wiser heads prevailed, thankfully, and one of the greatest actors ever, Gandolfini, got the gig.”

It’s a well-known fact that Van Zandt never studied acting or received any professional training before becoming a regular cast member on “The Sopranos.” He’s been very conscious of that from the get-go, and it was the reason he resisted and hesitated to accept Chase’s offer in the first place. He talked about that in detail when he appeared on “The Howard Stern Show” in 2007. The musician explained, “He [Chase] said, ‘I want you in the show,’ and I said to him, you know, I gotta tell you the truth, I feel a little bit weird taking on an actor’s role. These guys worked their whole lives, they were going to school.” Then he added, “Once I said that to David about taking an actor’s job, he said, ‘You know what, I’ll write you in a part so you’re not taking anybody’s job.’ Which was nice.”

Silvio became a pivotal character on “The Sopranos,” appearing in 84 of the show’s 86 episodes between 1999 and 2007. In the role, Van Zandt balanced wisdom, humor, and brutality when the character demanded it. He gave us a flesh-and-blood mobster in a performance that became iconic in pop culture history.

After the HBO drama ended, Van Zandt continued acting, starring in the thematically similar but smaller-scale series “Lilyhammer,” which allowed him to show off his comedic side. He also appeared in Netflix’s 2018 hit holiday movie, “The Christmas Chronicles,” alongside Kurt Russell, and Martin Scorsese’s highly acclaimed crime masterwork, “The Irishman.” Although he didn’t personally appear in “The Sopranos” prequel film “The Many Saints of Newark,” his character, Silvio Dante, was featured as a younger man played by John Magaro. For someone who never planned on becoming an actor, it’s an impressively solid resume.