Michael Imperioli Recalls How He Almost Got Fired on First Day of Filming ‘The Sopranos’
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He thought he was going to be sleeping with the fishes.
Michael Imperioli is best known as the talent behind one of modern-day TV's most notable characters, Christopher Moltisanti, from The Sopranos. But the actor just revealed that he thought producers were ready to fire him and recast the role at one point.
Thankfully, that day never came.
In a recent interview, Imperioli recalled his first day on the set of the HBO hit–and it didn't go exactly as planned.
In a clip obtained by PEOPLE, Imperioli sat down with journalist Chris Wallace for an upcoming episode of HBO's talk show Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? and disclosed that he was the cause of a pretty bad car accident during the first day of filming for the series.
"The first day of work, I had to drive him. I didn't have a driver's license, you know, but I didn't tell anybody that because I wanted the job; because Christopher's job was to drive Tony," the actor revealed. "But I'm like, well, how hard could it be?"
The actor, now 56, soon learned that operating a motor vehicle is not as simple as it looks, even if it's on a contained production set.
Imperioli explained that he "had to drive backwards down the sidewalk with trees on both sides and extras running out of the way," all while delivering dialogue to Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, and facing forward.
"I mean, that's hard to do, even if you know how to drive–which I do now," he said. "I did it like four times the fifth time. Boom, right into the tree. The airbags go off, Jim's head snaps back."
Imperioli continued: "It's my first day I met the guy. There's smoke, people are running, and I'm like, 'They're gonna fire me, man; this is really bad.'"
Despite the chaos, Gandolfini couldn't help but laugh it off, "I look over, and he's laughing hysterically," Imperioli claimed.
Imperioli's episode of Who's Talking to Chris Wallace? premieres Friday, Oct. 28 on HBO Max and will also air on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET via CNN.
The actor is also set to star in the second season of The White Lotus, which premieres on Oct. 30 via HBO Max and Hulu.
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