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Originally Posted by Skyy I just read an interview the actor (cannot remember his name) that plays Vito. It was the actor's idea to make Vito gay and David Chase loved the idea. Way back when, one of the enforcers for the Gambino family was openly gay. No one ever harassed him because he was very good at killing people. (I'll look for the article)
The actor that plays Vito wanted to make his character stand out from the rest. Without the Vito-is-Gay storyline, the character would have remained on the sidelines, a few lines here and there. |
This wasn't the same article, but it provides the same information:
http://www.newsday.com/news/columnis...ews-columnists Actor's success is to die for
'If you can't get a story out of me dressed like the Village People, I don't know what else I can do for you."
It was Joe Gannascoli on the phone, Vito Spatafore from "The Sopranos." And yes, he kinda had a point. Joe's character on the HBO series, a closeted gay mobster, is all of a sudden the most talked-about character on the whole show.
On Sunday night, he was outed in a leather bar by a couple of hoods on a collection run. As they left in disgust, he was pleading with them: "Don't say nuthin'!" Last we saw Vito, he'd checked into a cheap motel, looking awfully suicidal. Then, he plopped a handgun on the table by the bed.
"It's been a big year for me, on and off the show," Joe said.
You can't say the man hasn't been busy. He moved out of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. He got a new wife, Diana, from Lynbrook. They've settled into a nice fixer-upper in East Rockaway.
Joe lost 140 pounds, down from 400. He's come out with a novel, "A Meal to Die For." Think of it as a literary intertwining of Joe's long career in the restaurant business, his lifelong love for food, his personal familiarity with gambling and petty rackets, and his newfound fame as a "made man" on TV. The book's protagonist is a "food fence," paying off his gambling debts by brokering deals for hot - as in stolen - steaks and salamis.
Joe's To Die For pasta sauces are turning up in delis and gourmet shops on Long Island. To Die For spices, olive oils and wines are coming soon. And yesterday, he was lying on the couch in East Rockaway, recovering from a double hip replacement.
"You could tell I was limping last season," Joe said. All that weight took a toll.
So how on earth did Vito turn out to be gay? This is the mob, for God's sake, Cosa Nostra, the inventor of don't-ask-don't-tell. Doesn't omerta mean anything? And how has this unexpected character detail been received by Joe's old pals in Brooklyn?
"I've gotten a few comments from the morons," he said. "A lot of actors have told me, 'I wouldn't do it. I couldn't.'"
Joe got the idea from a book.
"Back in Season 3," he remembered, "I was reading 'Murder Machine'" by veteran mob writers Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain. "There was a character in there, Vito Arena, that was a gay mobster. As an actor, I was intrigued."
Joe mentioned the idea to a writer on the program. "I said, 'Look, if you ever want to make my character gay, I wouldn't have a problem with that. She said, 'Huh?' I said, 'Look, it's right here in this book.'"
Up 'til then, Vito Spatafore had pretty much blended into the Soprano family - doing a hit here, a double-cross there, sitting down with the boys for an occasional supper. But here was a way for Joe's character to stand out.
"I just trusted the writers," he said. "I knew they'd handle it honestly. Before, I had a line here, a line there. Now, it's like I'm having a real impact on one of the greatest TV shows ever."
Not bad for a knock-around actor who spent 30 years working in restaurant kitchens.
Eventually, the audience at home got a glimpse of Vito servicing a security guard. Hints kept coming. Then, it was time for the eye-popping leather-bar scene.
"That was kind of a turning point," Joe said. "It's interesting where the story is now. The audience knows and the cast doesn't."
And those weren't all professional actors joining him in the raucous scene in that bar, he wanted me to know. "The Sopranos" is one show that has always valued its authenticity.
"They were hard-core leather guys," Joe said. "Recruited right out of the clubs. It was pretty funny, watching the Teamsters interact with those guys. But they were gentlemen, all of them. I think they got a kick out of me."
And another Long Island star is born.
