Michael Imperioli has revealed one of the hardest things for him to shoot as an actor was physical abuse towards women.
In his conversation with The Guardian published on Thursday, the actor revealed that his most challenging scene was when his character from The Sopranos, Christopher Moltisanti, abused his fiancée Adriana La Cerva, played by Drea de Matteo.
"On a technical level, you're trying to be really careful so you don't hurt the person," Imperioli said. "But having to get to that point of violence towards a woman, you have to go to some nasty places to get there."
According to Imperioli, an actor in that setting can tap into those "nasty places" in various ways, such as using something in your life as inspiration or tapping into a completely "imaginary."
The 57-year-old also said, "It's much easier shooting a mobster or shooting a heroin," as he didn't find that difficult. However, abusing a woman through acting takes things to another level, and one has to be careful with how the scene could play out.
"Sometimes you'll use stunt doubles, sometimes not," he added. "And even then, it's one thing to choreograph and rehearse it. Then when you act it full-tilt with all the emotion, it's easy to not have as much control as in the rehearsal. So you really have to be quite careful."
Recently, Michael Imperioli responded to a Supreme Court ruling that allowed a web designer to refuse service for same-sex weddings. Imperioli shared a since-deleted Instagram post calling out "bigots and homophobes."
"I've decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching The Sopranos, The White Lotus, Goodfellas or any movie or tv show I've been in," he captioned the photo. "Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don't agree with and am opposed to. USA! USA!"
