Michael Gandolfini’s star rose sharply with his appearance in 2021 The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark as a young Tony Soprano, the fictitious crime boss immortalized by his late father James Gandolfini.
The role saw him splashed across the culture and entertainment pages at home and worldwide, after a series of youthful, smaller parts including alongside Tom Holland in Cherry.
Gandolfini has since racked up credits on half a dozen features and series including Cat Person, Beau Is Afraid and Bob Marley: One World and is soon to be seen in Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Iraqi War drama Warfare and upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, for which he is confirmed in season 2.
A serendipitous outcome of The Many Saints of Newark was his friendship with producer and actor Gabriella Piazza, who played Joanne Moltisanti in the show, who in turn introduced him to emerging director Blake Rice.
Gabriella Piazza, Michael Gandolfini, Alexandra Intrator on set of ‘The Many Saints of Newark’
Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images
“We became very close, and then I became really good friends with Blake,” says Gandolfini.
The 25-year-old actor is now getting his first taste of awards season through his performance in Rice’s short film Tea, produced by Piazza and shot over less than two days in the backlot of a Spirit Halloween pop-up, standing in for a New Jersey strip mall.
“I love shorts,” says Gandolfini, whose experience in the genre also includes writing, producing and starring in one of his own, the 2015 post-apocalyptic drama Flower.
“Whenever my friends or people I really respect, like Blake, have a short that I think is good, I enjoy jumping on,” he adds. “I think shorts are way harder. You have to tell such a concise story in such a short format.”
After world premiering in the Cannes Film Festival in May, as one of 11 titles in its Short Film Competition, and then playing 10 Oscar qualifying festivals including Nashville, Woodstock, Palm Springs Shortfest and Hollyshorts [where Piazza won Best Producer], Tea is now a hot contender in the live action shorts category of the 2025 Oscar race.
Mixing drama, slapstick and pathos, Gandolfini stars as a deeply shy, highly allergic Circuit-Shack employee desperate to ask his colleague, played by Olivia Nikkanen, out on a date.
As he goes over his lines into a video camera in the parking lot, it seems highly unlikely that he will ever pluck up the courage to approach her.
But when he is suddenly stung in the throat by a hornet, sparking a perilous allergic reaction, the girl of his dreams is forced into his orbit as she goes on a mad-dash search for an EpiPen.
Gandolfini spends much of the short writhing around with increasingly swollen face and shuttered eyes. .
“I had no vision on the last prosthetic, so I just lay on this mat and then they would help me up and I’d just go. I like physical comedy… Olivia is such a good actress, she could act to a blank wall, but I wanted to be able to make her feel scared as I was flailing around and really, really struggling.”
Rice says inspiration for the storyline came from an audition tape posted by an actor on Instagram, some 10 years ago.
Blake Rice
Getty Images
“It was a scene in which he was rehearsing asking out the girl of his dreams. It was just him rehearsing that, but he shot it in a park. I just thought there was so much bravery in between the lines,” says Rice
“I’m still trying to learn and grow as a director. In the past, I’ve tried to write stuff that was so big and grand, that I wasn’t ready to talk about or get any command of. Here I started small, with this character who’s putting on a brave face,” he says. “I thought people could relate to this loneliness but at the same time he is about to get so beaten up and we’re going to hit rock bottom with him, while weaving in some big time humor. I thought it was good jumping off point for a short.”
The work sees Rice return to home territory of New Jersey, where Gandolfini also spent part of his childhood before moving to L.A.
“We both have big New Jersey roots. The back of a strip mall in that kind of late summer, early fall when everyone’s leaving back for college. I felt I can command that and capture some truth,” says Rice.
Gandolfini says he loved the simplicity of the story, its small-town setting and slice of life approach
“That is something you feel immediately and that is all Blake. He was able to make a specific short. The second you see pretty much everyone in this short you know their whole story. That’s because Blake had an extremely detailed and thorough vision.”
When Blake approached him with his idea for Tea, Gandolfini says getting on board was “a no brainer”.
“One of the things that amazes me so much about the short is that on paper, it’s quite slapstick. I thought it would be fun to do, but almost too niche for it to make an impact,” he says.
“When I went into the editing room to do some ADR, I remember watching it for the first time, and my jaw just dropped. That’s how talented Blake is. He really added so much heart. The slapstick nature of it is not the pushing force, in the way I thought it was.
“That’s the best part of being an actor. I come in and do my job, and I think I know what it’s going to look like, and then you go to the edit room, and it turns into something completely different.”
Rice credits Gandolfini for helping the film to strike its hybrid tone.
“I always write things so zany and then we’re constantly trying to shove it to the ground to make it more relatable,” he says.
“What was such a blast with Michael’s performance is that he wove the tone together to get the believable pain points… the funnest part and the biggest challenge and what we’re trying to chase is, ‘Can we connect those dots? Can we make it feel really dramatic and perilous? Can we get some laughs, or can we pull the heart chords a bit?’ I think with us jamming together and talking before, we could really weave that through.”
“When you’re a filmmaker trying to break in. You’re always hitting these festivals hoping that you get an opportunity, hoping that you get a little exposure, hoping to get some validation,” he says.
“When the Cannes news came out, it opened the door for all walks of the business: representation, sales, agents, production companies asking about my future projects work.”
Tea did not clinch the Palme d’Or but Rice says playing the film in festival’s Debussy theater and hanging out with the other directors in competition was an award in itself.
“You’re kind of this class of 2024, with these other directors… you’re so proud to be included with them. You’re all kind of rooting for each other,” says Rice.
Gandolfini was on the set of the Warfare in the UK at the time and was not able to make the premiere.
“It was not a movie on which I could easily pop over to Cannes… Everyone kind of goes insane when you say method acting, but it was a little bit method acting, and it was going to be hard to leave the guys,” says Gandolfini.
Instead, the crew and cast – which include Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Noah Centineo, Charles Melton and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – held a special screening on the fringes of the set.
“We hooked it up to a monitor and they got a little projector and we all watched it together so I was able to get a little screening in Tring, England,” he says.
On the back of his Cannes experience, Rice is getting close to directing his first feature, a New Jersey-set drama entitled The Empty Lot. He has also has another two shorts in the works including Disc, starring Jim Cummings.
“I’ve been spending all my money once a year on a short film, and then going back to bartending or trying to produce commercials on the side for like eight years now,” he says.
“Thanks to Cannes, it got my scripts read for the first time, it got companies and studios reaching out and an opportunity to pitch and fingers crossed. I’ve got my first feature coming up.”
Quizzed on whether they hope to work together again in the future, Gandolfini says he is game.
“I’m a people person. I act because I really enjoy people and storytellers. If someone has a strong point of view, I’ll fly across the globe, whether it’s a short for Blake, or an Ari Aster movie, even if it’s a small part, I’m there, 100%.”