Lorraine Bracco on Her Night With Salvador Dali, a Bathtub, and 500 Escargots

Before Lorraine Bracco claimed a spot in television history as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on The Sopranos—a role that earned her four Emmy nominations—the 66-year-old actor and host of HGTV’s My Big Italian Adventure became synonymous with the mafia genre for her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a disgruntled wife opposite Ray Liotta in Martin Scorsese’s classic mob movie Goodfellas. Here, she revisits (and revises) her Interview cover story from 1990, which hit newsstands shortly after the film’s release. 

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“I had some friends who knew him, and they invited me to a dinner where I met him. He originally wanted me to pose naked and draw me. I was not interested. I was an 18-year-old girl from Long Island. What the hell did I know about Salvador Dali? But he did photograph me in a bathtub, and I was okay with it until he put 500 escargots in there.”

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“Look, I played with all the big boys. I had to bring my A-game every day. Marty allowed for that, and Ray allowed for that.”

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“I auditioned for Marty for After Hours. He didn’t give me the part, but he did call me and very generously said, ‘Lorraine, we’re going to work together someday, I know it. Don’t despair.’ He kept his word.”

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“If you’re someone who cares about your work, you don’t want to go in and say, ‘Well, I read it once. I’ll give you the best I can.’ I’m not like that. I could never do that to a role that I really feel I could do well. But I do auditions because I’m not at the stage where they’re just calling me up and saying, ‘Here you go.'”
“For The Sopranos, I had to go to L.A. with Jimmy [Gandolfini]. We read for [the former HBO Chairman and CEO] Chris Albrecht. But it was not so much an audition as it was him just wanting to see us together.”

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“What do my kids think about being in Goodfellas? I’ve never really asked them. I don’t think they give a fuck.”

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“In doing that, it made our scenes feel real. But I know one thing: I never want to fucking go back there again.”

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“What I have to say about that 30 years later is that you can’t do everything really, really well. Whatever fucking bitch said that is a lying dog.”

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“I left because I met Harvey Keitel.”

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“I remember all those fucking paparazzi screaming, yelling, saying horrible things to Sean to get a rise out of him. I don’t recommend going out in public with Madonna and Sean. It was daunting.”

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“The adulation from the public has been astounding. People love this movie. They scream out lines, they call me Karen. I did the best I could as an actor. I put my best foot forward and people responded to it.”