Kathrine Narducci talks history with 'The Irishman' and 'The Sopranos': 'I feel like I'm blessed'
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Kathrine Narducci loves a mob drama.
The actress, 53, whose resume includes roles in "A Bronx Tale, "The Sopranos," "The Godfather of Harlem" and upcoming Netflix star vehicle "The Irishman," says the makers of these types of crime stories keep pulling her back in.
"Mobsters are like the underdogs in a way because they're in that [high-stakes] world and they're not in the real world -- the 9-to-5 world."
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Her biggest movie to date is arguably director Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" which stars the holy trinity of Italian-American actors and mob-movie icons in Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci (who came out of retirement for the movie).
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"Every single struggling actor, every made actor would like to be a part of [a movie like this]. And I feel like I'm blessed. And I am humbled and honored that they gave me a chance to be in that group. It's an actor's playground," she told Fox News.
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Narducci particularly responded to Scorsese's creative process, because he lets the actors have freedom in scenes. "You don't feel such a bind to the script," she recalled. "You go off book and there's a lot of freedom and fun in that. [Marty] lets the actors show who also who he is."
Her on-screen husband in "The Irishman" is Pesci; Narducci revealed he needed a lot of coaxing to return to a movie set.
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Narducci's biggest TV success and fondest working memories come from the set of HBO's "The Sopranos" where she played Charmaine Bucco, whose husband, beleaguered restaurateur Artie Bucco, was a childhood pal of mob boss Tony Soprano..
The friendships that were made making that show is what she misses most. "We really were a family," she insisted. "I mean any one of those actors you put them in this chair and they will say we were a family."
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"Everybody knew their place. Everybody who knew who they were. Everybody respected the other person's place and what they got even if they were getting more you were still happy for them," she said. "At least that's how I felt. And I think that's how everybody else felt. We all had each other's back."
The actors were so close that they even traveled to award shows in big groups. "We all flew on the same plane ... got in a 'Sopranos' bus," Narducci recalled. "I mean it was hilarious. We're just always together and we've wanted it that way."
She remembers working with "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini, who died in 2013, and believes he'd be so happy that his son, Michael, is playing a younger Tony in an upcoming prequel film. "I think it was a great idea... [He's] honoring James."
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"The Irishman" hits theaters Nov. 1 and will be available on Netflix on Nov. 27.