New York doll Drea de Matteo is Adrianna on The Sopranos.
By Rob. Walton
WHO IS SHE?: The 27-year-old former Catholic school girl from Queens graduated from film school at NYU’s competitive Tisch School of the Arts (where she took Spanish with Rush Hour director Brett Ratner). Before her acting career took off, the avid Black Sabbath devotee tattered, studded and laced vintage rock and roll T-shirts to sell in her boyfriend’s store. Still a bona fide rock and roll chick, Drea (pronounced “Dray”) has her leather clothes custom-made by girlfriend AGAFA, who also creates clothes for Steven Tyler and Joan Jett. She lives in an East Village walk-up with her two Great Danes, Cyril and Lucille, and two cats, Treble and Bass – a testament to her love of rock and roll.
WHAT HAS SHE DONE?: You’ve seen her in the recurring role of ambitious Jersey high-hair Adrianna, girlfriend of Mafioso-in-training Christopher, on HBO’s The Sopranos. This season, beginning January 16, she joins Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco and James Gandolfini as a full-fledged cast member. Before Adrianna, Drea did a couple of indie films – Meet Prince Charming is the only one out on videotape. Later this year, she’s got a small but critical role as an ill-fated state trooper in John Stimpsons’ The Gentleman From Boston, described as a “Bay State Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
WHY DO WE CARE?: The vivacious, 5’6″, brown-eyed seductress from Queens may play the statuesque American beauty in movies, but in real life she’s a fun-loving, dyed-in-the-wool, rock and roll girl, fond of tattoos and Winstons. You’ve gotta love a woman who wears a skin-tight, floor-length leather dress to the stodgy Emmy Awards.
PLAYBOY: What’s with you and Great Danes?
DREA DE MATTEO: I was a Scooby fan when I was a kid.
PB: Did you know any Mafia people growing up?
DdM: I knew a few from my neighborhood. I grew up around it my whole life, so….
PB: Now that you’ve been bumped up to a high-profile character on The Sopranos and you were on the cover of TV Guide and the two-page layout in Details, what’s happening to your career?
DdM: There’s a lot of PR things today, because the premiere was last night and it was insane. I couldn’t believe how many tits of mine I had to sign. They all had the Details picture blown up, so all I was doing was signing my cleavage last night. It was so funny.
PB: Drea is an unusual name. Are you named after anyone?
DdM: You wanna hear my full name? It’s Andrea Donna de Matteo. No one ever called me Andrea unless they were mad at me. My parents called me Drea growin’ up.
PB: So, they were never mad at you?
DdM: They always called me Andrea, actually. [Laughs] My name is: My great grandmother was Ann, my grandmother is Rea and then the “d” is for Donna, my mother’s name. The “a” at the end of my name is for Al, my father’s name, so every single letter in my name….
PB: Initially, you auditioned for the role of a bimbo in The Sopranos pilot, and you didn’t get it.
DdM: An Italian bimbo, and [creator] David Chase kind of was like, “You’re not really very Italian.” And then he had me read for the hostess in the restaurant, because he said that I seemed WASPy, and so I played the hostess in the restaurant.
PB: How did they decide to bump your character up to a regular cast member, and when did you find out about it?
DdM: I was in Gucci, getting a pair of shoes, and I got a phone call on my cell phone. Isn’t that like the JAP-y story from hell? In the pilot I played a different character. I was in the pilot as the hostess, but I had no accent and my hair was slicked back. You don’t even recognize me, and it’s really quick. They brought me back as Christopher’s girlfriend, without the “R”s… without my “AWHH”s – I don’t pronounce my AWHHs on the show. I probably would have been playing one of his bimbos for a couple of episodes, maybe two episodes, and they just kept giving me more and more.
PB: How did you stand the initial rejection?
DdM: Ehh. It keeps you going. You’re like, “I’ve got to prove it to these motherfuckers that I can act,” ’cause auditioning is terrible. It’s not even acting as far as I’m concerned.
PB: Is Tisch School of the Arts something you have to audition for or turn in a portfolio to be admitted?
DdM: I had to write a short screenplay to get in. My SAT scores were, combined, 800. I was so fucked. I took my SATs wasted out of my head. The high point is I didn’t do the math section. I just made a diagram going down on the math section, which is a big thing. I’m sure I got a lot of them right; if I didn’t, that means I got a perfect 800 on my English section, which is pretty fucking good.
PB: You grew up in Queens, not far from Fran Drescher’s home in Flushing. Come to think of it, Adrianna could be Bobbi Flekman’s protégé in Spinal Tap.
DdM: I love Bobbi Flekman! She’s so great in that. I was at [Fran Drescher's] house last year, and I was like star-struck that I was at her house for some benefit or something, and all I wanted to do was go up and call her Bobbi Flekman, but I was scared that she’d bite me, and so I stayed in the corner. It’s my favorite movie.
PB: What other movies do you like?
DdM: I have not seen a lot of movies this year. I loved American Beauty. That’s the only film I think I did see this year. I loved that film, because it was so funny, it wasn’t just dark, like maybe Betty Blue is dark. Betty Blue is one of my favorite movies. And growing up, Christiane F. was my favorite movie. I’m a big Bowie fan.
PB: Adrianna tried her hand at band management in the first season of The
Sopranos. What do you imagine is on Adrianna’s CD player, and what is on your CD player?
DdM: I think Adrianna was probably into disco, but not anymore. Like Grace of God and Mandalay and all those good Seventies disco songs. But she likes Matchbox 20. Anything on 95.5 and 100.3. I think Adrianna likes all kinds of music, because I’m open to everything and new experiences. Well, on Drea’s CD player – my CD player – is Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Van Halen, AC/DC. I’m a rock and roll girl.
PB: What’s the greatest album of all time?
DdM: Oh, Jesus Christ, I don’t know. I have a bootleg Bowie, Rebel Rebel, that’s unbelievable…. The best album of all time is Sabotage by Black Sabbath.
PB: What’s the best CD to make love to? On a date, what do you put on?
DdM: Velvet Underground. The regular Velvet Underground CD. Actually, the compilations are pretty good, so you can get a little Nico in there sometimes.
PB: When you go out at night, do you go and see bands?
DdM: I live in the East Village, so I do a lot of New York bands. Lunachicks, Toilet Boys.
PB: On the show, you’ve got a star tattoo on your wrist….
DdM: I’ve got a bunch of them. They cover up a lot of them on the show, but on my wrist I have a star, on the other side of that wrist I have a sacred heart, on my finger I have a star, on my ankle I have a crucifix, on my back, I have a heart with a lightning bolt. I have my stomach pierced, and big tattoos on my back above my butt, and on my stomach, AC/DC. They airbrushed it out for the Details picture. I think they did. It’s pretty low, but those shorts are really low, so I think they airbrushed it out.
PB: You are a rock and roll girl.
DdM: Well, I have my mother and father’s name on my right arm.
PB: The cast has been sworn to secrecy, but what can you tell us about Adrianna this season?
DdM: Well, I don’t think the music management thing gets picked up that much. It’s definitely a little darker with the addition of my uncle on the show.
