Drea de Matteo Got the News About Adriana on a Kerb, in a Neck Brace
Show spoilers
Adriana La Cerva, the mob wife played by Drea de Matteo, got killed in the woods in The Sopranos' fifth season.
De Matteo found out while sitting on a kerb with showrunner David Chase. She was wearing a neck brace at the time, having just filmed a car crash scene with James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano.
Filming the death itself was not the hellish experience people assume, she says: with so little dialogue, it was a relief. The job came down to sitting in the car and crying, which she says she knows how to do.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
A famous television killing, and the actor's memory of it is relief at how little she had to say. That is the least romantic account of a death scene imaginable, and the most believable: the work was to sit in a car and cry.
Crying to order is still a skill, not a shortcut. Treating it as technique is healthier than the model where performers are expected to dredge up real grief on cue. Calling it a relief is what makes it sound like a scheduling victory, though — the audience is watching a woman realise she is not leaving those woods.
The bit I would put on a poster is the setting: she learned her character was going to be whacked while sitting on a kerb. In a neck brace. A woman in a neck brace being told the woods are waiting is a very Sopranos sentence.