Michael Imperioli Sees His ‘Sopranos’ Character Christopher Moltisanti In ‘American Godfathers’ Mobster “Crazy Joe” Gallo

After six seasons on The Sopranos and a role in the iconic mob drama Goodfellas , Michael Imperioli knows a thing or two about the Mafia — and who better to narrate the History Channel’s riveting new series American Godfathers: The Five Families than Christopher Moltisanti himself?

Imperioli executive produced and narrated the three-part Mafia doc, which is inspired by Selwyn Raab’s book Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires . While sitting down with DECIDER ahead of the American Godfathers premiere, Imperioli told us that the project doesn’t shy away from the cold, hard truth of the Maranzano, Profaci, Mangano, Luciano and Gagliano families — or as they later came to be known, the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese families.

“There’s a certain myth to all this, right? You can get sucked into the ‘larger than life’ thing of it, but the truth is, there have been terrible acts of violence committed over many, many, many years, and people suffered and died in horrific ways,” Imperioli says. “You have to keep that in mind, it’s really important.”

Beginning in the 1930s with the Mafia’s roots in Sicily, American Godfathers traces the Five Families’ rise in New York City throughout the 20th century, following figures like Joey “Crazy Joe” Gallo, Carmine Galante, John Gotti and Joseph Valachi, to name just a few. Featuring interviews with former mob members, FBI agents and Raab, the true expert himself, American Godfathers immerses viewers in the world of the Mafia across the course of three two-hour-long installments.

In our chat below with Imperioli, he teases the engrossing new series, telling us what he thinks people will be most surprised to learn about the Five Families, which Sopranos character he saw paralleled in American Godfathers , and why the series is ultimately a New York City story, too.

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DECIDER: I’m sure you’re offered a ton of Mafia stuff. What made you choose this project in particular?

MICHAEL IMPERIOLI: It really starts with the book, Selwyn Raab’s incredible history of the Five Families. It’s just so comprehensive and definitive and researched and also witnessed because he was in the courtroom for a lot of the trials. And it’s just brilliant. That kind of source material really is important.

Is there anything you learned from reading the book or being involved in the documentary that you hadn’t known before about Mafia history or the Five Families?

You know, it really drove home the fact that it was really Prohibition that made the mob. I mean they were there, they were in Italy. They came here, but their activities were very, I think, confined to a certain level and strata, and Prohibition opened the door to a possibility of huge amounts of money. And I thought the book and the doc really make that clear. So the mob, even though it originated in Italy — Sicily and southern Italy — it really kind of is an American thing because of that.

Was it hard to get people to talk about their involvement in the Five Families? How did you get people to participate in the doc who were involved directly?

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Oddly enough, it’s not so hard to get people to talk about it. People have different reasons why they want to talk about it, but it’s not as hard as you think. But I wasn’t involved in lining those people up, so I don’t know specifically how hard it was, but I think they had to really pare down a lot. You had to find a point of view, even within this really broad canvas, there had to be different angles of attack. So yeah, I don’t think that was a problem.

Which part of the documentary are you most excited for people to see?

What’s fascinating is the immigrant experience turning, and the mob evolving out of that. I think that’s really fascinating to people, because now it’s a long time ago. As a kid, I grew up on The Godfather , and that’s part of the story of The Godfather Part II , when Vito Corleone comes to America and Robert De Niro plays him as a young man, that always was fascinating to me: Those early stories of immigration and trying to survive here. I think that will excite a lot of people.

Obviously this is a Mafia documentary, but I feel like it’s very much a New York City documentary, too. Was there anything that you learned about New York in working on it, or anything that you think people will be surprised learn about New York?

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Prohibition stuff, and to what extent you still could drink in New York. It wasn’t very hard. I think that’s really interesting. The idea that booze was illegal in New York — I mean, in America — but in a city like New York, and there were secret places to go drink. It boggles the mind. Now the way we live, and our social life, like restaurants and business and bars and lounges and the businesses behind it. I think it’s a really fascinating part of New York City history. But I agree, this is a New York story, it really is. Just based on where they came, and what opportunities were here. It’s totally a New York story.

One thing this documentary did really well was show the gritty details. What was the importance of including that information?

You can get a little bit enchanted. There’s a certain myth to all this, right? You can get sucked into the “larger than life” thing of it, but the truth is, there have been terrible acts of violence committed over many, many, many years, and people suffered and died in horrific ways. You have to keep that in mind, it’s really important.

Goodfellas really does that well, because the first chapter of Goodfellas is set in the late ’50s and it’s more of an upbeat time. The movie gets so dark to the end. In the beginning, it’s a little more light-hearted, and a little more fun, and it’s like Bobby Darin is playing, and they’re wearing shark skin suits, and they’re laughing more. But the first scene is when they stab Frank Vincent in the trunk, then it flashes back after that to the first chapter. So I think that’s what [Martin] Scorsese ’s saying. Before you get seduced by the charm of this world — because there is some of that, you are sucked in by the entertainment of this world — remember that this is the end of the road here.

I’m sure there are so many parallels between American Godfathers and The Sopranos , but was there anything in particular when you were working on this that made you think of The Sopranos ?

I kind of thought “Crazy Joe” Gallo and Christopher Moltisanti had some kind of similarities in a weird way. Because “Crazy Joe” Gallo had a little foot in the showbiz world. He was friends with Jerry Orbach , who was on Law & Order — who was a famous New York actor who I got to work with on Law & Order , actually, he was a Broadway guy — but they were like pals who used to pal around the village. So he was a guy who hung out in cafes in Greenwich Village and knew a lot of artists and actors and things like that. To me there was a little bit of like, oh yeah, Christopher had that. We see him come to New York and meet Jon Favreau and Janeane Garofalo , all that stuff. So that reminded me of that connection a little bit.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity .

American Godfathers: The Five Families premieres Sunday (Aug. 11) at 8/7c on The History Channel.

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