entertainment
WHATLESSONS DID YOU TAKE AWAYFROMYOUR EARLY WORK EXPERIENCES ? The first film job Igot was as alocation manager on atiny movie about — this was New York in the early ’ 90s , sowhat else — the mob . Itnever got released . Ipretty quickly got fired , and then afew days later the producer called me back and told me the guy he ’ d hired was even worse than me , soIcould have the job back . And on the next job Idid , which was the film Quiz Show , Isaw how people who knew what they were doing did the job , and that was abig learning leap for me .
HOW DID YOU GET THE JOB WORKING ON THE SOPRANOS , AND WHAT DID YOUEXPECT ITTOBE LIKE ? I knew the producer , Ilene Landress , from prior jobs . They ’ dshot the pilot and had been waiting over half ayear for apickup , ornot , and she told me that the show had tested well with housewives and professors . So , Iguess that ’ sakind of middling level of expectation ?
BESIDES SATRIALE ’ S , WHATARE SOME OF THE MOST RECOGNIZED LOCATIONS YOU FOUND FOR THE SOPRANOS ? As a location manager , you ’ re not very involved in finding locations . There ’ susually ateam of scouts that are the first people out . But over the years , from living in New Jersey , Icould bring lots of places to mind when scripts came out , so Iknow Ipointed the scouts to the motel between Wayne and Oakland that served as the motel in the “ College ” episode of Season One .
HOW DID THE SOPRANOS CAST INTERACT WITHEACHOTHER ? They were , Ithink , very supportive , and that was led by James Gandolfini , who pretty much refused to do press and appearances without including the others , and who literally shared the wealth the show brought him , writing checks toabunch of the core cast when he got the big raise afew years in , buying the crew nice gifts every year , and having an enormous spread of sushi brought out to set every Friday night for the cast and crew . There was some joking around , and Ithink some close friendships formed . Jim and Michael Imperioli were close . And it crossed over into some of the crew . There were acouple of them who were part of Jim ’ s circle .
SINISTER SETTINGS NEAR YOU Kamine ’ s familiarity with the area helped him find the hotel between Wayne and Oakland for the murder scene in Season 1 ’ s “ College ” episode ( top ). The famous Pine Barrens episode in Season 3 ( above ) was going to be filmed in South Mountain Reservation , but ultimately was shot in New York ’ s Harriman State Park .
HOW DID YOU COME TO BE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF THE WHITE
LOTUS ? Imet MikeWhite and his producing partner , David Bernad , in 2016 . And then Iwould talk to them pretty regularly after that about various projects , one of which was aconcept for aroving honeymoon show , which was at Amazon afew years before White Lotus started . They even sent Mike on this amazing trip around Asia to scout for alocation after which , the idea was , he would write the scripts . Itnever happened , but when HBO called him in August 2020 looking for something contained that might be shot during the pandemic , here-tooled the honeymoon show into the murder-mystery social satire the show became . Hewrote the first season in some incredibly brief period , partly when we were quarantining on Maui , locked in our hotel rooms with food dropped off at the door until we got the OK to leave .
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10 SPRING 2024 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE