The Sopranos star Michael Imperioli says he once turned to a Witch to help him get a film made.
Appearing in the documentary Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (in a clip shared with Variety), the actor and filmmaker revealed he resorted to some unconventional means to get Summer of Sam greenlit.
“I had just begun writing Summer of Sam with Victor Colicchio — we wrote that script together,” recalled Imperioli. “I really wanted to get it made. So, I met somebody who was living here who was a witch, who said she could help me get it made, but it wasn’t going to happen the way I thought it would.”
Summer of Sam was directed by Spike Lee with a script by Imperioli and Colicchio. The film is a crime thriller starring John Leguizamo that tells the story of Vinny, a young man whose marriage is faltering against the backdrop of the infamous Son of Sam murders.
As you can imagine, it was a tough sell to studios, but Imperioli’s supernatural helper seemed to do the trick.
“I was very ambitious at the time and wanted to get that made, so [I] resorted to tapping into otherworldly means to get it through the studio system.”
Although Imperioli doesn’t share details of how the witch helped him, the film ultimately got made. He also shared another brush with the supernatural he had at the age of 29.
“I saw a ghost here,” he said of the Chelsea Hotel. “Some people may think that I’m insane and it’s bulls**t or whatever. But I’m not the only person who has seen this apparition of a woman, apparently from the late 19th century, whose soon-to-be husband died on the Titanic. She came from upstate or something and was waiting for him here, and when she found out what happened to him, she killed herself.”
Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel will debut across the US throughout September and October.
Want to read more about The Sopranos? Check out why David Chase has ‘no interest’ in revisiting The Sopranos as well as details of the show’s originally planned ending.
Image Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
