‘Sopranos’ star offers advice, anecdotes to students

When the casting director of HBO's "The Sopranos" offered Steve Schirripa a role in the show's first season, Schirripa's agent told him not to take it. It was bad pay, and Schirripa would have to pay his own travel expenses from his home in Las Vegas to shooting in New York. Schirripa ignored his now-former agent and took the role.

"I took a shot and it worked out," Schirripa says to the audience at Mitchell Hall Monday night. "If you stick to it, you will get the right opportunity."

Donning all black, the actor spoke about his start in the entertainment industry and how his career has changed since his performance as Tony Soprano's mobster stepbrother, Bobby Baccalieri.

Schirripa immediately broke the ice as he sipped his glass of water and says, "It's not vodka, I promise." The audience then watched three clips of Schirripa acting, two from his "Sopranos" days and one from his new ABC Family show, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."

Schirripa described the concern he and other "Sopranos" cast members felt about the possibility of their characters getting "whacked." Schirripa says the actors on set were very tight-knit, and a character getting killed off often felt like losing a close friend.

Schirripa's eldest daughter, Bria, a sophomore at the university, says having a well-known father has never bothered her.

"It's not the first thing I tell people, because it's not exactly what makes me me, I guess," Bria says.

She says her relationship with her father was always normal—he attended her basketball games and pushed her to do well in school.

"The actor kind of left at my door and he was very much a dad," Bria says. "He's always there to listen, always good for a laugh or two at home, very interested in what's going on in my life or my sister's life."

His big break came when a friend of Schirripa's recommended that he try out for a small role in the movie "Casino," featuring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci . He got the part.

Schirripa enjoyed his experience acting on the silver screen, and began pursuing as a career in the mid-1990s. He continued taking minor roles, hired an agent and started working with an acting coach, all of which eventually led to his audition for "The Sopranos."

When the HBO series ended in 2007, Schirripa turned down several offers that typecast him as a mobster.

"I get it, but I don't do it," Schirripa says. "I turn a lot of this reality crap down."

He rejected offers for reality shows such as "Mob Wives," "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Dancing with the Stars." Real-estate mogul Donald Trump personally called Schirripa for "Celebrity Apprentice," but the recruitment pitch failed to persuade him.

Sociology professor Victor Perez took advantage of the audience question section to ask about the negative stereotypes of Italian-Americans that critics and viewers of "The Sopranos" felt were sometimes present in the show. Schirripa says it is wrong for people to draw such broad conclusions on a cultural group from one television show.

"His response was kind of, I don't know, a little short, I thought," Perez says after the event. "But I agree that if anyone watches ‘The Sopranos' and thinks that that's supposed to be representing an entire cultural and ethnic heritage, that's their problem."

Sophomore Lindsey Starr says Schirripa's story highlighted the difficult of breaking into the entertainment industry.

"There's obviously a lot that goes into it," Starr says. "And it's not as easy as people think it would be."

Perez says Schirripa provide useful insights for the audience and demonstrated his relaxed personality.

"I thought he was a real laugh, real good sense of humor, real laid back," he says. "I can appreciate that about somebody who's as famous as he is."