Steven Van Zandt Reveals the ‘2 Hardest’ “Sopranos” Episodes for Him to Shoot, Says They Went Against His ‘Natural Instincts’
Steven Van Zandt Reveals the ‘2 Hardest’ “Sopranos” Episodes for Him to Shoot, Says They Went Against His ‘Natural Instincts’
Meredith Wilshere, Kimberlee SpeakmanSat, February 28, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC
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Steven Van ZandtCredit: Dia Dipasupil/WireImage -
Steve Van Zandt struggled while filming two episodes for The Sopranos
At an event honoring the beloved show, the actor and musician revealed that two episodes went against his instincts
"Those are the hard moments, when you're really going against your natural instincts," he explained
Steven Van Zandt didn’t have the easiest time filming certain violent scenes in The Sopranos.
The Museum of the Moving Image hosted an event with Sopranos creator David Chase and Van Zandt on Feb. 26, celebrating the beloved TV show, which aired from 1999 to 2007.
When reflecting on Van Zandt’s character, Silvio Dante, a strip club owner and the right-hand man to Tony Soprano in the DiMeo crime family, the 75-year-old revealed that the season 3 episode titled “The University” was "one of the two hardest episodes for me, you know, because of the violence" shown to a female character named Tracee, a young, pregnant woman who is beaten to death.
Steve Van Zandt and James GandolfiniCredit: Anthony Neste/Getty
He noted that there was only one other episode that weighed on him more, which was season 5, episode 12, titled "Long Term Parking," in which he kills Adriana La Cerva (played by Drea de Matteo).
"Then the hardest one was Adriana, killing Drea," he said. "I really hate bullies and putting your hands on a girl; it really bothers me."
He emphasized that he finds men who "beat up women" to be "disgusting and repulsive," so having to portray that on screen was especially hard for him.
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"You gotta really act in those moments," he said. "And draw on, ‘Okay, this guy would do this and so I gotta do it.’ Those are the hard moments, when you're really going against your natural instincts."
'The Sopranos' castCredit: Anthony Neste/Getty
In a light-hearted twist, Van Zandt laughed about the notion that the "whole country" found him, a "half a hippie guitar player," to be "a convincing gangster."
He emphasized that the “writing was just so good" and so "incredibly consistent" that he trusted whatever they had him doing.
“You're not consciously doing anything, you're not consciously being violent, you're not conscious of money, you're just kind of being that guy in that moment, doing that script, you know in that scene. Whatever's required, you just do it, you know?”
Van Zandt starred on The Sopranos alongside James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco and Tony Sirico, to name a few.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
