00:00There was a line that A.J. says, I forget what it was, but something, and he says,
00:05what, no f***ing ziti? People out of, you know, out of the blue come up to me and say that. I'm
00:09like, what? Hello, I am Edie Falco, and today I will be breaking down some of my most iconic
00:15characters. This is Building Character. I'm Diane Whittlesey. This is Joe Mineo.
00:23Don't be late again. This is Officer Diane Whittlesey from Oz. Tom Fontanner,
00:28the creator of the show, had seen a movie I had done and offered me the part, sight unseen,
00:35which was a shocking thing to happen at that young an age for me. I could not believe my good fortune.
00:41So all we had was real. You felt me for a moment. To talk about Diane Whittlesey's style, I'm trying
00:49to think if you ever saw her in, like, civilian clothing, but the uniform was hectic. There were
00:54a lot of parts to it and pieces to it, and the belt was really heavy, and I knew that I had
00:58to act as if it wasn't heavy because she was wearing this every day. It was not the most
01:03comfortable fabric, if I recall. I must say, I felt pretty tough having it on, and also to be
01:08working opposite mostly men. It felt like it sort of gave me more of a sense of camaraderie,
01:13community, part of something bigger than myself. So it was a little easier to be less afraid
01:18because she's dressed like all these other badass guys.
01:22Something I gotta confess.
01:26What are you doing?
01:27Getting my wine in position to throw in your damn face.
01:29This is Carmela Soprano from Sopranos. I did an audition at the Mayflower Hotel. I was acting
01:35opposite Johnny Ventimiglia, who ended up playing Artie Bucco. He was playing Tony Soprano. For the
01:42auditions, I was deeply confident that I would not get this role because I didn't think I looked
01:48Italian enough. So I went in there knowing that I knew exactly who I thought this woman was and
01:53knowing that I wouldn't get it.
01:54You had the best Italian Jersey accent. What went into the pairing for that?
02:01That was called Growing Up on Long Island. I did four years in a conservatory acting program
02:06to get rid of that accent and then two weeks to put it back on. I'm sorry you're under a lot of
02:12pressure, Meadow. But it's still no excuse. I have to say the fittings for Carmela Soprano were
02:17some of the funner ones I've ever been at. Like me and Juliet Polska, who designed the costumes,
02:22did a lot of laughing as we tried stuff on, knowing it was absolutely perfect for her and just what fun
02:28it was to put that stuff on my body. A lot of gold, a lot of a lot of jewelry, a lot of blingy kind of
02:35things. She liked a lot of patterns. We called it melon or coral, but that was a color that she
02:42wore a lot of. Bright colors and lots of bling. It says with pulp. You like it with pulp? Not this
02:50much. I like the one that says some pulp. The fuck was that for? I'll write you up a list.
02:58The truth is I wasn't very close to Jim Gandolfini. I mean, I adored him, but I didn't know it. We
03:04didn't socialize. We had very different outside lives and I didn't know much about his. He
03:09didn't know much about mine. We didn't socialize together. So basically when I looked at that
03:13man, what I saw was my husband. The characters between Carmela and Tony were very easy because
03:19of that. What do fans of the show quote to you the most? Oh gosh. There was a line that AJ
03:27says, I forget what it was, but something and he says, what? No fucking ziti? So what? No fucking
03:33ziti now? Hey! People out of, you know, out of the blue come up to me and say that. I'm like,
03:38what? But for some reason people thought that was funny. I did too. Jack, this is your executive
03:44dining room. Are you trying to get me killed? This is Cece from 30 Rock. Do you remember how this
03:49role came to you? I got a call. My agents said they, you know, wanted me to do this part on 30 Rock,
03:56which of course I was thrilled to do, though I don't do that kind of show. I don't know how to do
04:01that kind of show, which is why I couldn't wait to get to it. Being on the set of 30 Rock was really,
04:06really hard for me because I didn't know how to do it. And I wanted to see, can I just sort of step
04:11into this and figure it out? I felt like the answer was no. I watched these masters, you know,
04:17Alec and Tina Fey. Look at what they're doing. It's like speaking another language. And I just
04:23never felt like I found my footing. I remember I had to sing. I think I had to sing something for
04:29the life of me. I can't remember. I feel like I dreamt it, because how does that make sense?
04:32Anyway, I thought to myself, I wish I had like three months on this job, because I think I could
04:44do this. I think I could end up feeling a little more capable. I didn't have that luxury, but I
04:49did the best I could. Oh, I see. Is this part of the new image? The top 25 New York fucking douchebag
04:53doctors? Please don't be such a Boy Scout coop. You know that if this guy lived in a different state,
04:58he'd be able to get a prescription for medical marijuana so he could at least try it.
05:01This is Jackie Payton from Nurse Jackie. Jackie was no nonsense, hardworking, morally ambiguous,
05:09her behavior when it came to getting things done, but really was, I think, a good-hearted person.
05:15And if you tell anybody this, I will deny it and string you up and bleed you out. I think
05:20you are a good doctor. I, on a personal level, have a great deal of experience with addiction,
05:30addiction, with loving addicted people, with the ramifications of addiction, trying to get free
05:36from addiction. So I wasn't wandering into territory I didn't know about. And because of that, I felt a
05:42tremendous amount of responsibility to treat it respectfully and with as much truth as I knew
05:48there to be. I wanted the Nurse Jackie audience to walk away with the understanding that if you are an
05:55addict and you do not put your sobriety and your recovery first, you will lose it. Frankly, it's risky
06:03to put you on the stand. You make any mistake, no matter how small, they're going to drag out those
06:07tapes. Even your comment about the yellow sweater could be enough to turn the jury against you.
06:11This is Leslie Abramson from Law and Order, True Crime, The Menendez Murders.
06:17How did this role come about? Did your agent call?
06:19No, that's not what happened. Dick Wolf took me to lunch. And what he said to me was,
06:25I know you don't do network television. I was like, I don't. I never said that. I'll do whatever
06:30comes my way. But he said, I think you should do this and this is why. And he explained it to me
06:35and he really kind of pushed for it. And so I was like, yeah, sure. I got to say, it's not my
06:41favorite thing to play a character based on a real person because it's not about trying to bring the
06:47truth of an individual to a story. It's about accurately portraying someone who actually
06:52existed or exists. Very different work. The perm, although I think her hair was legitimately curly
06:59like that, but it was a perm I desperately wanted. It was a look I wanted in that time. And my mother had
07:04it too. My mom had the really little curls. In fact, my high school yearbook photo was after I had
07:10had my hair permed like that, but my hair was too short to be permed like that. So yeah, there's that.
07:17We were open with you before we even started this campaign. It was not easy, but we told you about
07:25Bill's past. This is Hillary Clinton from Impeachment American Crime Story. I originally took the job
07:32out of a sense of protectiveness for her. I said when I spoke to Ryan Murphy early on was that if
07:38this is a hit job on the Clintons, that I'm not interested in that. I mean, if it's about honestly
07:43portraying what that period of time was like in their lives without, you know, judging it, I would
07:49like to do it. There was intense pressure leading up to shooting for me, self-imposed. Clive Owen played
07:56Bill Clinton. And on the first day we met, he said to me, well, I mean, at least nobody knows who
08:02these people are. So I thought to myself, we're going to do just fine. And Clive and I worked in
08:08very different ways. Like he really sounded like Bill. He listened to a lot of tapes. He had to do
08:15a speech on camera that existed on video. And it was verbatim. And I really didn't want it to be about
08:24that for me. I didn't want it to be about, well, she doesn't look like that. Or, you know, she
08:28wouldn't have walked like that. Or I kind of wanted to have it be less that and more about who she was
08:33and who she married and what her belief system was. All of this is conjecture. Nobody knows what her
08:39life felt like during that time, but her. This is my castle now. Do we understand each other? This is
08:46Nina Hobbs from the mayor of Kingstown. If I could tell you how many times my agents called me and said,
08:51well, it's a part written for a man. With Nina Hobbs, I think she has a job that is oftentimes
08:57held by a man. It's a very powerful person in a very tense, aggressive, dangerous place.
09:04You know, I was a tomboy. I grew up a tomboy. My friends were always boys. I was always barefoot
09:10and, you know, beating up the neighborhood boys. I'm not proud of that. But I actually, yeah,
09:16I actually sent a kid to the hospital. We were wild. It's not like parenting in the
09:212000s. You know what I mean? I liked the confidence that she has without like showboating.
09:26I don't think she's proud that she's as good at her job as she is. And she just is. And there
09:31was something about the isness of her place in that world that was appealing to me. I kind of felt
09:36early on that I knew who this woman was, that I knew what she would feel like. And it was pretty
09:41true to that. I mean, who knows where she might go from this point on? Because a lot happens during the
09:46course of the season. But for most of the season, she just had a job to do and she was going to get
09:51it done. Period. Come hell or high water.
09:54Thank you for watching. Please be sure to check out Mayor of Kingstown on Paramount Plus.
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