Why "The Sopranos" Creator Doesn't Feel Guilty for How He Portrayed His Mother on the Show Victoria EdelMon, March 30, 2026 at 4:47 PM UTC 0 David Chase (left); Nancy Marchand as Livia Soprano in 'The Sopranos' (right)Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage; Anthony Neste/ HBO David Chase opened up about how he portrayed his mother in The Sopranos His real mom was the basis for Livia Soprano, who tried multiple times to kill her son Tony Chase also reflected on the show's legacy and what notes HBO gave him that he ignored David Chase doesn't think he was too hard on his mother when making The Sopranos.
Why "The Sopranos" Creator Doesn't Feel Guilty for How He Portrayed His Mother on the Show
Victoria EdelMon, March 30, 2026 at 4:47 PM UTC
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David Chase (left); Nancy Marchand as Livia Soprano in 'The Sopranos' (right)Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage; Anthony Neste/ HBO -
David Chase opened up about how he portrayed his mother in The Sopranos
His real mom was the basis for Livia Soprano, who tried multiple times to kill her son Tony
Chase also reflected on the show's legacy and what notes HBO gave him that he ignored
David Chase doesn't think he was too hard on his mother when making The Sopranos.
Chase, who created the hit series that ran from 1999 to 2007, opened up about the show during an interview with The Guardian on March 27. The interviewer asked if Chase, 80, had "made him reflect more" on how he depicted that relationship.
"I've thought about the fact that some day someone would ask, 'Don't you have any guilty feelings about portraying your mother that way?' " Chase said. In the series, Tony Soprano (played by James Gandolfini) is terrorized by his mother Livia (played by Nancy Marchand). Twice, Livia tries to have Tony killed. The two continue to have a contentious relationship, but it was cut short by Marchand's death in 2000 at the age of 71. She ultimately appeared in 21 episodes (with a younger Livia appearing in flashbacks from then on).
Nancy Marchand as Livia Soprano (left) and James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano (right) in 'The Sopranos'Credit: Anthony Neste /HBO/Everett Collection
"I portrayed her as she was," Chase continued, and that included threatening to kill him, too. "I picture people saying, 'Well, your mother didn't plot to have you killed,' but in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War, my mother said to me, 'I'd rather see you dead than avoid the draft.'"
The Guardian journalist asked how Chase sat with that. "Not well," he said. "I had to create a whole TV series to get over it."
During the interview, Chase also reflected on how The Sopranos got greenlit. "Luck had an amazing amount to do with it," he said. "HBO wanted to change their business model. They wanted to do original programming, and the script for The Sopranos had been turned down by every network in the States."
He explained that for years, he'd worked in network television and had been "taking network notes and eating network s--- for however many years." Done with the grind, he spent years developing The Sopranos instead. "And, you know, if The Sopranos hadn't worked, I don't know what I would have done. I was done with TV."
HBO, he said, only gave him two notes: one about the title of the show (which he ignored) and one about Tony's decision to kill a mob informant in the season one episode "College." HBO thought it would make Tony too unlikable, but Chase kept it in.
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"I said, 'He's a captain in organized crime in New Jersey, and if he hears that there's a guy up there who was a rat and he doesn't kill him, he's lost all believability,' " he said.
David Chase on March 26Credit: Joe Maher/Getty for HBO MAX
He also reflected on the series star, Gandolfini, who died in 2013 at the age of 51. They had a sometimes difficult relationship, but Chase delivered a eulogy at his funeral. Chase also recently opened up about how Gandolfini would go missing from set.
"Well, fortunately, I wasn't the one who dealt with him going missing," he told The Guardian. "That was Ilene Landress, our line manager. She was the one who found out where he was and did everything that needed to be done."
Chase noted, "He never refused to do anything. He never said, 'I'm gonna go wait in my trailer, and when you're ready to shoot it the way I want it, come get me.' That never happened."
Back in 2024, Chase opened up to PEOPLE about the legacy of The Sopranos — and its continued fandom — as it celebrated its 25th anniversary. "I still feel this tremendous sense of gratitude that it's still going on," he said of the new fans that find the show. "I can't remember this happening with any other television show ever."
"It's the best thing I've ever done," he said. "It's probably the best thing I ever will do."
During its six-season run, The Sopranos earned 21 Emmys, five Golden Globes and two Peabody Awards.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: March 30, 2026 at 08:00PM on Source: RED MAG
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