@oddsonhistory_: The man who built one of the most iconic characters in television history out of menace, vulnerability, and quiet intelligence was deeply uncomfortable with the celebrity machine that came with the role. That is what makes the Mary Hart moment so disarming. For a few seconds Gandolfini stopped being Tony Soprano. He stopped being the imposing six foot character actor with a Jersey accent and an Emmy on the shelf. He became a kid from Westwood who used to come home and watch a beautiful woman on TV after school and never imagined he would one day be sitting across from her doing a press interview. The footage has gone viral repeatedly since his death in 2013 because it captures something rare about him. The tenderness that lived underneath the menace. The boyishness that the Tony Soprano performance was built on. The honesty he brought to every role he ever played, even when the cameras were on him in real life. Gandolfini died of a heart attack in Italy at the age of 51 in 2013. He left behind one of the most respected acting legacies in modern television. And he left behind moments like this one, where one of the toughest men on screen admitted on camera that he was still the same kid from New Jersey who used to crush on the woman on TV. The toughest guy on television admitted on camera he was a shy schoolboy at heart. #JamesGandolfini #MaryHart #TheSopranos #TonySoprano #EntertainmentTonight #ClassicTV #TVHistory #FilmHistory #2000sNostalgia #CelebrityCrush #SopranoLegacy #JamesGandolfiniLegacy #OddsOnHistory #PopCultureHistory #ClassicHollywood #HBOLegacy #HumanizingMoments #ClassicInterviews #TVTrivia #Gandolfini
