No questions asked of Edie Falco, the respected Emmy-winning actress who plays Carmela. sopranos and title character Nurse Jackie, about her experience with a young man who accidentally cums on her chest. But he is currently starring in a TV show created and starring Pete Davidson. So now it’s not just a relevant topic of conversation, it’s the first thing that demands to be talked about.
Edie Falco, we ask: Bupkiler Is it the first time you’ve played a character introduced on screen while someone is throwing cum in your chest?
“Weirdly, no,” he says, then laughs and winks at the camera as we talk over Zoom. “Yeah, of course it is. And actually, my managers almost didn’t show me the script. They were like, ‘You know, you’re never going to do that…’ so I said, ‘Oh, send it. They were wrong!”
Inside bupkiler, Falco, who can now be seen on Peacock, plays the mother of Davidson’s Pete. The series is semi-autobiographical, jumping back and forth in time as Pete navigates through his teenage years growing up in Staten Island, raised by his mother after his firefighter father died on September 11, and as the two navigate their shifting dynamics like Pete’s. Celebrity grows.
The series, then, oscillates between the silly, outrageous comedy – a mother in shooting range of her orgasm after her son walks over it – as a family grapples with grief and resilience – surprisingly deep. Our conversation with Falco is developing similarly. Yes, he explains, he was aware of Davidson’s reputation for having “BDE” (Big Dick Energy) and laughed healthily at that. But he also opens up about his experience of being in New York on 9/11 and playing alongside Davidson, especially in the scenes about his loss.
Davidson has been open about how close he is to his mother, talking about how they still live together while she’s on. Saturday night live during episodes on the show. Inside BupkilerYou see the basis of this bond. There’s a rebellious sequence in which Pete’s mother agrees to go on the spy with him, barely terrified of how awkward it would be to hide in a car outside of a stranger’s house before admitting to the kidnappings. They are a mother and son who share an unspoken closeness, and this is something Falco, who has two children, says he knows very well.
Covering everything from “BDE” to her view of Staten Island to unexpected emotion Bupkilerhere is our talk.
After your agents don’t want to show you the script Bupkiler What convinced you to join the show because of that opening scene?
First of all, I am a mother of a son. This is a very special type of relationship. My son is 18 years old. It’s not as big as Pete, but it’s a dynamic that I understand and live as we speak. And Pete is so cute. You know? He is very caring, sweet and humble and was very excited about the making of this show. It was contagious.
A celebrity with a strong presence in the gossip pages and tabloids. How much of this were you aware of before you signed it?
Well, that’s all I knew. I didn’t know much about anything else he did. I knew it was open SNL, but a long time ago it was too late for me to stay awake to watch. I mean, I didn’t see anything he did, you know? All I know is “dating this person” or whatever. I don’t know what else I know other than her dating history, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew it was part of today’s zeitgeist – a name that pops up a lot. My kids knew who he was.
Have you heard of the “BDE” reputation that followed it?
Actually. When I started doing the show, I started hearing more of this kind of thing. I’m starting to wonder, maybe I should find out what all this means. I have resources. I learned.
One of the things I have always appreciated about him is how open he is about how close he is to his mother. What did that mean to you playing this role?
I didn’t know he talked so much about how close he was to his mother, but that didn’t surprise me. They went through a huge family trauma together. And there he was, young and having to raise these two kids by himself – it wasn’t something he had planned. And you get closer to your children. In difficult times, you must hug each other and strengthen each other. And it makes perfect sense for them to get so close during this time. I am a single mother and I am very close to my son as well. So it was something I could easily get into.
The part where he went to spy with her really struck me – just how willing he was to anything. Even given how crazy his life has become with his celebrity status, I think it tells you how much you understand him.
This was something I picked up throughout the post, just knowing her child. I definitely think you’re worried about him and that he’s worried about some of the more difficult things. But he also realizes that she is now his being, and may need to step back and let it be him. And I hope I catch him if he falls. “I’m here if he needs me.” But he also turns into a man. That’s his reputation and all of his social media presence – and managing all that stuff is a kettle of ignorance. Being that person’s mother, knowing that if you Google the right thing, you can read all about it.
You’ve been a part of many giant TV shows throughout your career. I wonder how you feel about a person through his relationship with fame and fame through a series like this one, as Pete did. Bupkiler. He’s not just experiencing the spotlight, he’s working it out very publicly through art – with a whole big TV show about it.
Funny, I hadn’t thought of that. That’s a very good question, because people who aim for it like “I want to move to Hollywood and be rich and famous” have no idea what that actually means. I’ve hung out with extremely rich and famous people, and they really aren’t the happiest of people I’ve spent time with. So it’s something to navigate, especially if you don’t come from a family of rich and famous people. You are following your own trail.
My father once told me he was a man from Brooklyn. Someone recognized me on the street and my father said, “I don’t have any advice for you.” “I can’t imagine,” he said. I don’t know anything about what your life should be like right now.” The way he said it was a little sad, but he was also deeply proud of me. The truth is, if you’re not coming from there, you’re really always going, “What am I going to do with this?”
The celebrity world today is definitely different than when you did it. sopranos. But after working with Pete on this show, I’m wondering, do you think this is a healthy way to sort out things like his relationship with fame?
I don’t know. I really don’t know Absolutely unique [way of doing it]. I don’t know many other people who would do this. Sometimes, I worried about her revealing as much as she felt comfortable revealing. But I’m not him. In fact, it might be the best thing to do for him. I really don’t know. Very quickly, I fell into a mother’s place with him and I was worried and wanted to make sure he was okay. But he has a real mother and he has a very good mother.
Now that you’re on this show with him, what do you think is Pete Davidson’s big appeal to so many people?
He has a magnetic personality. The child is the most alive human being I have ever seen. I personally think he should be sleeping, although I’ve never seen it. He just has a contagious energy. And again, he had an excitement about making this show, which was really – I don’t know – very sweet. And he’s cute and smug and humble. It has many attractive features and this attracts people. I mean, it got all kinds of people involved in it.
Many New Yorkers have strong opinions about Staten Island. What was yours before the show? Did it change after shooting?
I personally haven’t had much of a relationship with Staten Island. I’ve definitely heard all the jokes. This is the butt of jokes. I came from there too. But once you get there, you realize that real people live there. And they live their lives like everyone else. Somehow he got a reputation that maybe he didn’t deserve. The truth is, we didn’t shoot a lot of stuff on Staten Island. We shot a few things like the exterior of some houses and stuff like that. But at this point, I can’t say that I am fully knowledgeable about the district, but it looks like a very nice place.
The story of what happened to Pete’s father on 9/11 is a very public anecdote. So how did it feel to reenact those scenes where your characters discuss the death of their father with Pete?
I felt incredible sympathy for him and his entire family. I can’t even imagine what this is like. And I was here in town that day, and I have my own connection to that event. And this is huge. It’s a huge event in the lives of all New Yorkers. For all Americans. For Humanity.
I really wanted to handle all this stuff with kid gloves because it was really serious. And the only thing that made it easy to do was that Pete was pretty easygoing about it. It wasn’t worth it. He talked about it and it was part of what he wanted to portray in this show. That just made those things a little easier to do. But from a personal perspective, it was a huge event. His whole family had to manage this event. Thousands of families have had to run this event, but this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to someone who has dealt with it firsthand.
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