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They were sitting in the kitchen one night after dinner, green apples piled in a bowl between them.
He was telling me he murdered a guy in Buffalo, Chase recalls.
They got in an argument in a bar.
Things escalated Fusco hit him in the head with a brick.
The other guy was aromano Roman though not from his grandfathers area.
Fusco was bad news.
Chase pauses a moment, staring at his rice and beans in a Styrofoam box.
Who knows if its true?
But why would you tell that to an 12-year-old kid whos staying with you?
Who the fuck does that?
Jim was like, What, are we gonna wear wigs and girdles, likeStar Trek?
Chase was also wary ever sinceThe Sopranos,all Hollywood wanted from him was more gangster stories.
His attitude was never but also, never say never.Gandolfinis death, in 2013, didnt shut the door.
He settled on Dickie Moltisanti as a way to reenter theSopranosuniverse without rehashing the same characters and situations.
He sat for magazine portraits that suggested marble sculptures of doomed Roman senators.
He has a look that makes people ask What are you so depressed about?
even if he isnt actually sad in that moment.
Hes got a warm, lighthearted, even goofy side.
Chase loves bad puns and slapstick mayhem.
Hes quick to laugh an almost childlike giggle that becomes a doubled-over cackle when the jokes turn really dumb.
David is as complicatedas any of his fictional creations.
David says, then laughs.
You did that to yourself!
(People still fight online over whetherthe finales cut-to-black means Tony died.)
David Chase is Schrodingers showrunner, of two minds on almost everything.
What really happened was a love story.
It unfolded long before his father was born.
His real name was Guillermo or Joseph, I dont know lets call him Keith, David says dismissively.
Joe and Teresa started an affair that continued in secret for years.
These were Davids future father, Henry, and his future aunt, Evelyn.
David rarely tells that story as it occurred.
I point out that he has sort of retold the story again inTheMany Saintsin coded form.
What do you mean?
David says immediately when I float this theory.
He thinks about it for a moment, then laughs.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah my grandmother fucking the lodger!
The Dickie-centricTheMany Saintsechoes the cycle of malignant parenting laid out in the series: Greek tragedy as black comedy.
Tony eventually asphyxiates his own surrogate son, Christopher, in a crime of opportunity following a car wreck.
In Davids world, as in ours, the curse of bad parenting is forever paid forward.
Isnt that how it always goes, though?
he says simply when I ask if its possible to reconcile the contradictions.
Nothing is ever just one way.
David seems increasingly inclined to let things roll off his back and then tell me another story.
They were caught and eventually confessed to the crime.
The lode is so rich its far from depleted.
Other unproduced David stories are features or seeds of features, smaller in scale.
Stuff in the filing cabinet, waiting for the light of day.
Thats not a question I really want to ask myself, he says.
He seems flattered even one person would wish for such a show.
Do you think somebody would want to watch that?
he asks me skeptically.
Its a shameNot Fade Awaycame and went without much fanfare.
He shoulda told somebody.
Some people are already saying that aboutThe Many Saints of Newark.I find myself reading that and thinking,Why?
Why should it have been a series?
Because the story takes place over a long period of time?
To me, its a story about a girl and her boyfriend.
When youve created one of the greatest TV shows of all time, the criticisms are often comparisons.
But David waves away my suggestion that the success ofThe Sopranoswas a curse as well as a blessing.
Thats life, of course.
IfThe Sopranoshas taught us anything, its that the universe could not care less what any of us wants.
In the end, he says, nothing stands the test of time.
Not art, not film, not music.
TV seems to have a shorter shelf life than some other art forms.
Of courseThe Sopranoswill be forgotten, because eventually everything will be, including you and me.
He acknowledges the monumental nature of his achievement while constantly reminding us and himself that monuments crumble.
We worry so much, she sobs.
Sometimes it feels like thats all we do.
But in the end, it just gets washed away.
And also because I just felt that New York was changing.
There was scaffolding everywhere you wanted to walk.
They were constantly building these new buildings that were 50 stories high.
Now thats all gone.
It was all becoming a mall.
And what can you do, really?
Lear said, The two words that came way too late in my life were Over.
Next, as in, Thats over …Next!
And then he said, Dont wait till youre my age to learn that.
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