Before starring on HBO's hit prestige drama "The Sopranos," Steven Van Zandt's claim to fame was as a solo artist, hit songwriter, activist, and member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. He scored the memorable role of the wingtip-wearing consigliere Silvio Dante on "The Sopranos" despite no acting experience. As advisor to crime boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), Van Zandt's Dante is more than a wise guy caricature; Silvio is among the most level-headed members of Tony's crew, mediating meetings and executing orders but unafraid to tell his boss the truth (which Van Zandt compared to working with The Boss). In Brett Martin's "The Sopranos: The Complete Book," Van Zandt describes Tony's lifelong friend as "the only member of the family who was happy where he was" with few ambitions beyond those in his backstory – a background created by Van Zandt himself.

Co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa...

The production of "The Sopranos" is littered with unrealized castings of characters. Imagine a world where Lorraine Bracco played Carmela Soprano instead of Dr. Jennifer Melfi or Robert Funaro (aka Eugene Pontecorvo) played Ralph Cifaretto and we didn't get Joe Pantoliano's Emmy winning two-season turn. Those are both worlds that came quite close to fruition.

One of the earliest "what could have been" castings goes back to the pilot. Georgianne Walken and Sheila Jaffe, the series' casting directors, revealed on an episode of the "Talking Sopranos" podcast that the original pick for Herman "Hesh" Rabkin was a different Jerry. Instead of Jerry Adler, they were looking at Jerry Stiller. However, Stiller made a last minute decision to appear in a commercial that was shooting the same time as the "Sopranos" pilot. This last-minute back-out led to a minor crisis, as Stiller had been set to start shooting "The Sopranos" in two days' time.

If you ever wondered how such a blatantly Irish kid landed the part of Aj in "The Sopranos," you aren't alone. The HBO series broke television convention in a lot of ways, particularly for its cinematic exploration of a mafioso's subconscious, but it was also known for its unexpected casting choices. Robert Iler never thought he would get a call back after his "Sopranos" audition, but his hilarious improvisation made him stand out from the other candidates. It didn't matter that Iler didn't look the part — he was a perfect fit.

When Iler's mother saw the other actors auditioning for Aj, she was sure that her son would never land the part. "It was a roomful of a hundred Italian kids, and they all had the slicked-back hair, leather jacket, and they were trying to be like 'The Sopranos.' Little Italian mob guys," Iler recalled (via Woke Up...

For those who like some reading with their gabagool, "Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos" provides a comprehensive collection of memories and insights from the cast and crew of one of the greatest TV drama series of all time. The book was inspired by the robust success of their definitive and thorough re-visit podcast "Talking Sopranos," the groundbreaking HBO series' stars Michael Imperioli (who plays Christopher Moltisanti) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri) and brings incisive and often surprising behind-the-scenes history of the show's 86 episodes. Trending often in the HBO streaming app, "The Sopranos" remains one of the most binged TV shows fifteen years after its final episode aired in June of 2007.

In the book, casting director Georgianne Walken remembers how mesmerized she was by the incredible memory of showrunner David Chase, who incorporated his lifelong fascination with the mafia into the show's observation of an Italian-American mobster,...

Two decades ago, a twentysomething Vera Farmiga auditioned for a role on The Sopranos. She didn’t watch the show at the time, because she couldn’t afford cable and also liked to spend her Sunday nights studying lines for Monday morning’s auditions. But she knew the series was a big deal, and she had a good relationship with its casting directors, Georgianne Walken and Sheila Jaffe. They brought her in during the groundbreaking HBO Mob drama’s fourth season to read for the role of Valentina La Paz,...

Los Angeles, April 4: Actor Christopher Walken prefers to live a quiet life and doesn't own gadgets.

"I don't have any of those things (mobile phone or computer). I just prefer to live a quiet life. But my wife does, so I can still access them," femalefirst.co.uk quoted Walken as saying.

The 70-year-old is married to casting director Georgianne Walken. He has been in more than 100 movies and appeared in music videos by recording artists such as Madonna, Fatboy Slim and Journey.

Walken has also been studying the Shakespeare play "The Tempest" to perfect the portrayal of sorcerer Prospero.

"I like to study.

Christopher Walken doesn't own a mobile phone or computer. The 70-year-old actor has been in more than 100 movies and appeared in music videos by recording artists such as Madonna, Fatboy Slim and Journey but the film star admits that when he's not working, he prefers to live a ''quiet life'' and study ''film scripts'' and is a self-confessed technophobe. Speaking to the Metro Newspaper, Walken - who is married to casting director Georgianne Walken - said: ''I don't have any of those things [mobile phone or computer]. I just prefer to live a quiet life. But my wife does,...

Christopher Walken doesn't own a mobile phone or computer. The 70-year-old actor has been in more than 100 movies and appeared in music videos by recording artists such as Madonna, Fatboy Slim and Journey but the film star admits that when he's not working, he prefers to live a 'quiet life' and study 'film scripts' and is a self-confessed technophobe. Speaking to the Metro Newspaper, Walken - who is married to casting director Georgianne Walken - said: 'I don't have any of those things [mobile phone or computer]. I just prefer to live a quiet life. But my wife does, so I can still access them.' The screen icon shows no sign of slowing down despite his advancing years...

Christopher Walken is glad he never had kids. The 'Seven Psychopaths' star - who has been married to casting director Georgianne Thon for almost 50 years - is content without having become a father as it would have affected his acting ambitions. Asked if his career would have been possible with children, he told The Guardian newspaper: 'Absolutely not. I'm sure many of the kids I knew as a child would have continued in showbusiness, but they had kids of their own [and] had to do something dependable. I didn't, so I could get by even in periods of unemployment.' The 69-year-old actor is used to playing eccentric characters, but says his own 'conservative' lifestyle is much more unremarkable. He...

Christopher Walken is glad he never had kids. The 'Seven Psychopaths' star - who has been married to casting director Georgianne Thon for almost 50 years - is content without having become a father as it would have affected his acting ambitions. Asked if his career would have been possible with children, he told The Guardian newspaper: ''Absolutely not. I'm sure many of the kids I knew as a child would have continued in showbusiness, but they had kids of their own [and] had to do something dependable. I didn't, so I could get by even in periods of unemployment.'' The 69-year-old actor...

Christopher Walken has made so many movies playing psychos and weirdos, he can't remember half of them. But in his latest film, A Late Quartet, he's been cast against type as a cellist with Parkinson's. He says why he'd be happier playing it straight

Christopher Walken will tell you what irritates him. "Quite often, I'll be sent a script for a movie," he says. "And I find that I like it, so I say I'll do it. But then they rewrite it for me. They make it quirky. Odd. I find that rather annoying. I call it Walkenising."

He chuckles, then stops dead. There is silence. We are on the phone, so that when he speaks it is hard not to wonder what else he might be doing. "I'm in Connecticut," he says when I ask, at the rural home he shares with his wife.

The irony is that the film he's promoting,...

Imagine a movie in which the actors are interchangeable, each the same gleaming-toothed, perfectly coiffed, spray-tanned mannequin. Would you be able to follow the story? Would you even care? That's exactly the problem that casting directors, such as the award-laden Sheila Jaffe, work to circumvent."It's a really important job, and I think it gets forgotten because it is the first job [on a production]," Jaffe says of her behind-the-scenes role. "So by the time the movie is out or the TV show's aired, everybody forgot how it started. But there is an art to assembling a cast. It's like painting a canvas."Jaffe has more than two decades of experience and more than 120 credits to her name, including recent films "MacGruber" and "Rocky Balboa" and a new CBS drama pilot starring Dennis Quaid, Michael Chiklis, and Carrie-Anne Moss. With casting partner Georgianne Walken, she won a primetime Emmy Award in...

Susan Paley Abramson and Justine Hempe have partnered on a new casting venture, Back Stage has learned.Paley Abramson was the casting director for HBO comedy "Entourage," which ended its eighth and final season in September. She started on the show as an assistant in its first season, working for casting directors Sheila Jaffe and Georgianne Walken. She was promoted to associate for the second season, and to director when Walken left in 2008. She also continued to rack up associate credits on Jaffe's film projects, including "Secretariat" and "Rambo."After Entourage wrapped it's final season, she stayed with Jaffe to cast "40," an HBO pilot project from "Entourage" writer/executive producer Doug Ellin.Hempe was a longtime associate in the office of Margery Simkin. Most recently, she worked with Simkin on Warner Bros.' sci-fi epic "Pacific Rim," which is currently in-production. In recent years she's also worked on bird-watching comedy "The Big Year,...

(Christopher Walken, above.)

[We continue with our postings of some of the best interviews from the previous decade that have thus far only appeared in print, but not on our site. This interview was conducted by our good friend in New York, filmmaker Michael Wechsler. It originally appeared in Venice Magazine in 2003. Walken was just coming off a terrific performance in Catch Me If You Can. This is one of the better talks Walken has ever given. He speaks a lot about his process, in very entertaining fashion, making this a must-read for any aspiring actors.]

Christopher Walken: Dancer in the Dark

by Michael Wechsler

He dances. He can carry a tune. He has become a regular host on "Saturday Night Live." He loves Jerry Lewis, cats, Bugs Bunny, cooking and painting.

Oh, wait, I'm forgetting a few small details. He also won an Academy Award in 1978 for playing a suicidal soldier in Vietnam, gave audiences a lifetime of nightmares and sadistic chuckles playing a heavy in King of New York and a thug amongst thugs in True Romance, and to this day has one of the most recognizable hairstyles of anybody gracing the Silver Screen.

Frankly, I was more than a little nervous about interviewing Mr. Walken, based purely on his resume of psychologically unstable characters. My initial thought was ‘I hope he's nothing like the folks he's played.' Looking through Walken's roles of the past three decades, it feels...

The following is a list of the top 25 Power Casting Directors in film and television (including Casting Director of the Year, Debra Zane; see page 9). We began with more than 100 candidates. In some cases, collaborations were so closely tied that we considered multiple people as one entity. Several drafts later, all 25 spots were cast.Notably omitted from the list are in-house casting executives at studios and networks, the inclusion of whom would have ballooned our list to 50 or more. But read about them online at www.backstage.com/spotlight. Focusing on independent casting directors leveled the playing field and highlighted people whose puissance is not affected by one scale-tipping affiliation. Now, on to the top 25!Kerry BardenCan you imagine Monster's Ball starring Erykah Badu, or American Psycho starring Leonardo DiCaprio? Kerry Barden can, because he saw them read the parts. "There are so many great actors that sometimes it's a...

In his third outing as a full-fledged hyphenate, writer-director-actor-producer Eric Schaeffer ("If Lucy Fell", "My Life Is in Turnaround") ushers in "Fall", an essentially straight-faced story about a cocky New York cabbie (Schaeffer) who gets into a hot and heavy affair with a European supermodel.

Hey, it's a guy's movie.

While this anatomy of an intensely physical relationship has its moments of perceptive clarity, it is ultimately hampered by the kind of self-indulgence that gives vanity filmmaking a bad name.

Distributed domestically by Schaeffer's newly formed Five Minutes Before the Miracle, "Fall" nevertheless has a low-enough budget (under $1 million) and an unrated allure to keep Schaeffer's meter running.

A prolific writer who prefers driving his cab, Michael Shiver (Schaeffer) picks up the fare of his fantasies in the form of internationally famous model Sarah Easton (former model and British TV personality-turned-actress Amanda DeCadenet).

It's not exactly mutual love at first sight. She's indifferent (not to mention married), but he's relentless. Before you can say "Dear Penthouse", they're getting sweaty against his refrigerator.

The tryst turns into a full-fledged affair much to the wide-eyed amusement of his friends, Robin (Francie Swift), who's studying to become an Episcopalian priest, and Sally (Lisa Vidal). But in the end, being from different sides of the tracks proves to be an insurmountable barrier and the relationship breaks down with Sarah returning to her jet-setting husband.

Although Schaeffer's filmmaking dexterity is admirable, a little distancing would have gone a long way in the credibility department. While it has its odd charms and occasionally the carnality strikes a convincing chord absent from most screen romances, for the most part "Fall" feels like an ego-fed, forced fantasy. One conceit that has the lead characters expressing their innermost feelings in continual voice-over be-comes particularly annoying.

At least actress-model DeCadenet , who brings an interesting, likable presence to the role, didn't have to feel too objectified by taking the part since Schaeffer seems to prefer parading his own body across the screen.

Production values, given the tidy budget, are solid. Joe De Salvo's photography lends the New York backdrop a sophisticated sheen, while Amanda Kravat's score and tunes blend nicely with selections by the Verve Pipe, Duncan Sheik and Jars of Clay.

FALL

Five Minutes Before the Miracle

Director-screenwriter Eric Schaeffer

Producers Terrence Michael, Eric Schaeffer

Executive producer Tom Gamble

Director of photography Joe De Salvo

Production designer Michael Shaw

Editor Thom Zinney

Costume designer Kim Marie Druce

Music Amanda Kravat

Casting Sheila Jafee and Georgianne Walken

Color/stereo

Cast:

Michael Shiver Eric Schaeffer

Sarah Easton Amanda DeCadenet

Phillipe Rudolph Martin

Robin Alterman Francie Swift

Sally Lisa Vidal

Running time -- 92 minutes

No MPAA rating...