Lorraine Bracco Still Isn’t Sure About The Sopranos Ending but Admits David Chase Knew What He Was Doing: People ‘Still Talk’
The actress addressed headlines that reported she was disappointed with how the hit crime drama ended in 2007
Lorraine Bracco may have been underwhelmed by how The Sopranos came to an end, but she can acknowledge that creator David Chase made a lasting impact with the finale.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on May 6, the actress, 70, was asked to confirm whether or not several headlines about her most iconic roles were true. When host Jimmy Fallon asked if she was actually dissatisfied with how the crime drama ended, she looked back at the moment she watched the series finale in 2007.
“Well, I’ll tell you the truth. I was sitting next to Jimmy Gandolfini, and he just went like this, ‘That’s it? That’s it?’ And you know how he always used to push his hair back, and he just walked out,” Braco, who played Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the hit series, recalled with a laugh. “He couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘Yeah, I guess that’s it.'”
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Though Bracco wouldn’t confirm if she thought The Sopranos should have ended another way, she noted that Chase’s creative decisions had people still talking about the finale 18 years after it aired.
“The only thing I can say is people are still talking about it, so I guess David did do something interesting,” she admitted.
In the final scene of the HBO drama, Tony (Gandolfini), Carmela (Edie Falco), Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and A.J. (Robert Iler) all meet up for a meal at Holsten’s diner. Then, a hit man in a Member’s Only jacket sits nearby and makes for the restroom; as Meadow runs from her parked car to the restaurant, the scene cuts to black.
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While appearing on SiriusXM’s The Spotlight with Jessica Shaw in September 2024, Bracco confessed she was unsatisfied with how the show ended things between her character and Gandolfini’s.
The Goodfellas alum recalled feeling “heartbroken” upon finishing her final take on the show. She added that she felt equally unhappy with the series finale.
“I was also not very happy the way [creator David Chase] ended it,” she explained. “I thought it was bad and wrong. I was annoyed. I told him, ‘How do you invest five years into someone’s life and just walk away?’ I said that is not cool.”
