There was this darkly comic business with Ralphie’s wig coming off. So this was like two gladiators, duelling to the death. He talks about Spartacus and re-enacts scenes from Gladiator. Ralphie had a thing for swords-and-sandals films. My death scene was a brutal fight with Tony. The public love bad guy characters, I don’t understand why. Yet the reaction was always complimentary, which confused me. When Ralphie showed up, he wasn’t the guy you loved to hate. If they don’t have a visceral reaction to my presence on-screen, then I suck. Antagonists are always way more fun than protagonists. I’m a character actor, so I just want interesting parts. He wanted Tony’s respect, maybe even his job. I guess Tony was the father he never had. I had to empathise with him, so I figured he was abused in childhood by his mother’s boyfriends. He had a serious cocaine problem, which you don’t realise at first but it explains why Ralphie is wired and volatile. So we kind of copied his blazers and cravats. Ralphie had wanted to be a wiseguy his whole life, he probably saw The Godfather 40 times and wanted to emulate Michael Corleone when he becomes Don. I said, look, this guy’s a big earner, so he shouldn’t be underdressed like the other guys. One of the first choices I made was his wardrobe. Photograph: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy ‘They’re all scumbags but this guy’s a real scumbag’ … Joe Pantoliano in The Sopranos. He’ll be around for two seasons, then he’ll bump heads with Tony and lose.” I said OK right then. “They’re all scumbags,” David said, “but this guy’s a real scumbag. I told David: “I want a home run!” He laughed and, a year later, called me with a new character. I’d had my fingers burned with a CBS gangster series called EZ Streets which got cancelled after 10 episodes. I’d known the show’s creator David Chase for years but when The Sopranos rolled around and he offered me a part, I said no. Joe Pantoliano, 71, played combustible henchman Ralph Cifaretto in HBO’s The Sopranos. Maybe people are trying to tell me something! ‘My wig came off as Tony Soprano killed me’ My next two parts are also nasty pieces of work. Even if I was, villains are fun roles, so it’s fine. Pretty much everyone on set was female, so there were 10 women stood around me, trying different dildos, carrots and bananas to see what worked best while I just lay there. Photograph: Natalie Seery/Apple TV+įor my coffin scene, JP needed to look like he had an erection. ‘I’ve never worried about being typecast’ … Claes Bang with Anne-Marie Duff in Bad Sisters. To portray that, I drew on all the darkness I’ve seen during my 55 years on this planet. I’m proud the show shines a light on toxic masculinity and coercive and abusive relationships. People fucking hate him, but the reaction was exactly like we hoped. I’ve seen people on social media say they know someone like JP, so we must have nailed a type. At one point, the director said: “Claes, could we have a maximum of three Mammies per scene?” I was saying it every other word. Sharon Horgan’s scripts were full of delicious details, like how he called his wife “Mammy.” I probably went overboard with the Mammies. He thinks his sisters-in-law are a threat, so he needs to defend himself. To root JP’s behaviour in something, it seemed to me that it all sprung from insecurity. I’d never dream of saying anything mean to her but in character, I could be vile. Anne-Marie Duff, who played JP’s wife, Grace, is the loveliest person in the world. There’s something strangely enjoyable about being allowed to go on set and be horrid. We just needed to pile everything on him so it justifies murder. Villains can be cool, clever, charming or sexy. I never thought of JP as a villain in the classic sense. I laughed when I read the Bad Sisters script and realised the opening episode, called The Prick, was named after my character.
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