Michael Imperioli
Michael Imperioli
James Michael Imperioliis an Italian-American actor, writer and director best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also appeared in the TV drama series Law & Order as NYPD Detective Nick Falco. Imperioli spent the 2008-2009 television season as Detective Ray Carling in the US version of Life on Mars. He was starring as Detective Louis Fitch in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth26 March 1966
CityMount Vernon, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I've been working professionally as an actor since I was 20. That's going to be 25 years soon. So, that's a veteran. That's a big-time veteran. I've had some great successes, and I've had some not-successes.
I've played some gangster roles, but that's obviously not me. When you're an Italian-American New York actor, it's just an easy way to get cast.
In Britain you're more used to challenging drama. In America, TV is just boring, and numbing, and bloody terrible.
John Ventimiglia, who was on 'The Sopranos,' was in my first acting class and we have been friends since that time. Alec Baldwin was in my class back then, Sean Young and Andrew McCarthy.
My family is my life, and everything else comes second as far as what's important to me.
Not to toot our own horn, but when 'The Sopranos' was on, it was as good as any movie that was coming out in the theater. I think that goes for a lot of shows today.
There's too many actors in LA. I mean, I'll go out there from time to time, but I always find it pretty soul-destroying. I don't drive, and the people kind of rub me the wrong way. It's just not home. You know? It's not New York. It's not... my town.
Stop and appreciate what you have today. Look at what you have with wider eyes, maybe with more compassion and more gratitude for the things that you do have and not the things you don’t have.
To be at acting school, it was kind of the first time you felt the freedom to be as much of yourself as you wanted. People weren't going to judge you.
I do smoke in real life. A lot. We're all smoking right now in fact.
Back 20 years ago, there was a division between movie actors and TV actors. That's kind of gone away. People who have had a lot of success in movies in the past now want to be on TV. There used to be much more of a quality division between TV and movies, and that's kind of not the case anymore.