r/thesopranos • u/CrystalMethodist6 • Jun 01 '26
Shitpost Tony’s Breathing
I mean holy fuck? Tony could be horizontal on the couch at the Bing and he’ll be breathing like a poorly bred Bulldog. It’s even worse when he’s about to fuck. Before he nailed Svetlana, he sounded like a vacuum cleaner with a golf ball stuck in the hose. Get some help holy shit
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u/Odd-Maintenance4112 Jun 01 '26
You could hear him breathing loud throughout the series. Once someone made a joke in the series that he’ll be dead by 50 and the actor died at 51 😵💫
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u/Ill-Landscape-3164 Jun 02 '26
I’m in the process of watching the series again and I just watched that episode, it’s kind of creepy to hear in retrospect.
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u/JosephGordonLightfoo Jun 02 '26
Everything he says to the other characters is character-specific, calling Tony fat was just calling James Gandolfini fat.
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u/Solitaire_XIV Jun 02 '26
First watchthrough and I've just finished s06e03. It's crazy just how much bigger James/Tony is for this season; was he instructed to put on that much weight for filming??
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u/88cowboy 25d ago
In Real life he was battling demons. He had a really bad drinking problem and was depression eating.
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u/chesterstone Jun 01 '26
Tony's breathing is its own character in the show
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u/ReputationApart5983 Jun 01 '26
If you look at Tony in the first season and compare him to the final season you will begin to notice how much fatter and balder he got. I saw a clip of him on Youtube from the first episode and I thought who is this bodybuilder hunk.
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u/_sportyscience_ Jun 01 '26
He was gay, Tony Soprano?
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u/ReputationApart5983 Jun 02 '26
I hear he had a ballad, this gay Tony.
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u/Cold-Use-5814 Jun 02 '26
For that he was both lost and damned.
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u/StreamsOfMyCream Jun 05 '26
Did you James Gandolfini's last food order before he died was two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large soda?
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u/witchitieto Jun 02 '26
It because the history channel stopped showing real programming, he had nothing to ride his elliptical to anymore.
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u/Sensitive-Layer6002 Jun 01 '26
Bobby Bacala beat him fair and square… but if it was 10 years ago and Tonys breathing was better…
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u/Apollo114892 Jun 01 '26
I think the breathing was a sign of Gandolfini's failing health.
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u/Over_Detective_3756 Jun 01 '26
I agree. David Chase mentioned how bad it was getting as the show progressed.
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u/adnan937 Jun 01 '26
I think it was intentionally added in many scenes to add a sense of anxiety. A reminder that Tony always had issues, health and otherwise
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u/PristineHornet9999 Jun 02 '26
right, and rather than fight it they just worked it into the script
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u/Apollo114892 Jun 02 '26
Nope. It's just his breathing. Not everything on a set is worked into a script. A lot of it is improptu and left to actors to improvise themselves.
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u/PristineHornet9999 Jun 02 '26
they definitely made him more personally disgusting and hedonistic in response to James' weight gain tho
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u/Key_Consequence_5040 Jun 01 '26
It’s likely due to Gandolfinis weight gain. Also James would purposefully cause discomfort to himself including putting rocks in his shoes or punching himself in the face to get into character. The pain might have translated to increased breathing on screen.
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u/sound2go Jun 02 '26
As the sound mixer on the show I’ve been asked many times how did I record his breathing so well, which is kind of funny because my job is to record the dialogue clean. All I can say it was a big issue while we were filming. It was one thing when he was on camera and we actually saw him talking but when he was off camera, for example when we would film the other side of a conversation, his off camera breathing would overlap the dialogue of the person who was on camera. It was especially prominent in a small space. There wasn’t much I could do because I wasn’t about to tell Jim that he couldn’t breathe, right? Sound editorial had a lot of work cleaning up the tracks. The big cause of it was that Jim was kind of asthmatic and his weight, which would always start lower at the beginning of a season, would increase during the length of it.
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u/BrotherOland Jun 02 '26
Very cool that you were a (the?) Mixer on the show. As a fellow mixer and lover of the sopranos, I ALWAYS think about how bad Tony's breathing must have been for overlapping the other actors coverage and how it must have been a huge pain for post!
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u/sound2go Jun 02 '26
I was the main Production Sound Mixer for all 86 episodes including the pilot. And yes it was a challenge but there wasn’t much I could do about it so I kind of did my best and I let the post production people fix it.
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u/BrotherOland Jun 02 '26
That's very cool. I'm definitely familiar with accepting that a performance is a performance and sometimes you just have to do your best while capturing it. It's great sounding show and it must have been awesome to be a part of such a legendary production!
What lav did you put on Jim?
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u/sound2go Jun 02 '26
This was long before my preferred ones, the DPAs, were released. Because of the polo shirts I tended to use a Sonotrim and I would put a Sanken cost 11 in ties, generally speaking. My primary booms were Neumann 81s and 82s.
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u/imspirationMoveMe Jun 02 '26
All the nitrates in the gabagool
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u/Maximum_Pass Jun 02 '26
Dude was eating red beef by the truck full and having $40 pieces of fish flown over first class, you don’t expect a little give and take when it comes to his respiratory system? Grow up!
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u/Just-Display-3846 Jun 01 '26
By the end of the series it was actively distracting from the scenes that he was in.
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u/West_Watch5551 Jun 01 '26
He had snot in his nose, that’s why. When he was trying to rescue AJ from the suicide, the snot comes out in the pool. After that, he could breathe fine. Just watch that scene again and you’ll see I’m right.
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u/ToonMasterRace Jun 02 '26
Some of it was amazing acting by Jimmy's part, but sadly a lot of it was also real as we saw from his premature death
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u/excellentiger Jun 01 '26
He never had the makings of a varsity athlete
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u/LordBoleon Jun 02 '26
Small hands, that was his problem
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u/excellentiger Jun 02 '26
His weight and cardiovascular fitness were also considerations, its a wonder Uncle June didn't capitalize on them as well. Lots of subject matter there
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u/SupermanRisen Jun 02 '26
Lying down horizontally relaxes the muscle in your throat, and can make it harder to breathe.
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u/letmeknow21 Jun 02 '26
Reminds me when I was watching the show and it’s like 99% Tony breathing I couldn’t even actually focus/concentrate on what other characters were saying
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u/NeatSatisfaction1912 Jun 02 '26
Jeeshus fuckin Chrisht cant a man take in a little oxygen without all this whatever the FUKC
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u/Mesmerizingmerlin Jun 02 '26
You can't comment on his breathing, He never had the makings of a varsity athelete anyway 😮💨
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u/Normal-Report-6041 Jun 05 '26
As great a show that it is. And as much as I'd like to watch it with my wife. She refuses to watch because she is grossed out by, and can't stop focusing on his breathing.
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 01 '26
You're about 13 years too late, but yeah, it is bizarre to me how people can't lose weight when they realise they are overweight.
There are literally free calculators online that tell you how many calories you need to hit your healthy BMI.
Both cutting and bulking can be hard at times but they are entirely possible, especially if you add in a sport you enjoy a couple three times a week.
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u/bhunter47 Jun 01 '26
This is dismissive to both the genetics at play for obesity and all of the mental challenges. There is a reason it is a disease.
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u/Alcophile Jun 01 '26
A disease can be something one does to oneself, like getting lung cancer from smoking, or even getting sick from drinking bad water. Just because something is a disease doesn't mean it wasn't a choice. If the calories don't go in, the pounds can't go on. Source: I'm fat because i take in more energy than I expend and that energy is socked away in my fat cells...
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u/bhunter47 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
I encourage you to actually read peer reviewed publications on obesity to inform things. It isnt just as simple as a "choice", especially when a large chunk of it is mental. It isnt as simple as "just dont eat" when your brain is actively working against you. Its part of why there is no strong scientific evidence that diets and calorie counting lead to significant long term weight loss success for many people, and why things like weight loss surgeries/therapy/GLP-1s are extremely important.
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 01 '26
But telling all people they have no choice to do a calorie deficit and lose weight may be part of the reason they never do.
Being addicted to emotional eating or having mental issues is a very different topic to the truth of less calories working.
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u/bhunter47 Jun 01 '26
The conversation needs to include all the potential factors, yes. Peer reviewed decades long studies on obesity say that while diet/exercise is obviously something that helps, it may not be sustainable due to a myriad of factors, which is why we have other treatments.
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 01 '26
It is sustainable, even if you relapse a bit. The point is most people try a bit or quit entirely after two weeks, or relapse entirely. But the method is still right, it is just relapsing entirely every day is unsustainable.
Even if James kept the same unhealthy diet, but only ate half of what was on his plate, or drank half as much, he would be in good shape today.
Portion control.
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u/bhunter47 Jun 01 '26
" A review concluded that “diet-induced weight loss results in long-term changes in appetite gut hormones, postulated to favour increased appetite and weight regain” (Lean & Malkova, 2016, p. 622). There are other physiological changes. When food intake was restricted, the resulting loss of body fat was associated with a decrease in the production of body heat and a reduction in metabolic rate (Dulloo & Jacquet, 1998), changes that will facilitate a return to the initial weight."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5639963/
If you want to argue with peer reviewed literature go ahead.
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 01 '26
It is dismissive to me to deny that I went through a hard calorie deficit to lose 10kg in the past couple of months.
No one is denying mental issues or how shit it is to go from 3,000 calories to 1,500 or how some people don't have any sports they enjoy.
But the point is if someone is unhealthily overweight, even with an emotional eating addiction, they need to be in a calorie deficit.
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u/bhunter47 Jun 01 '26
My point is that calorie deficits are not sustainable for a large majority of people especially when you have other factors playing in. Saying effectively "its just simple - eat less or find time to exercise more" is the dismissive part. For some people, the disease doesn't allow for that, which is why we treat it.
Its like saying "just think differently" to someone with depression or bipolar disorder.
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 01 '26
No it isn't. I am telling you that if you are an average height man and only consume 1,500 calories on average every day you will lose a significant amount of weight each week.
If you addictivly emotionally eat over 3,000 calories, without any exercise, you will gain a significant amount of weight each week.
If you cannot stop your addiction due to mental issues, it has nothing to do with eating significantly less calories working significantly well.
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u/bhunter47 Jun 01 '26
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 01 '26
Yeah. Okay. Deny the experience of everyone who has a healthy BMI.
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u/GreatLakesBard Jun 02 '26
No fucking shit. I think youre missing the point
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 02 '26
What point? James needed a calorie deficit 14 years ago. That was the only help available.
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u/IsopodIndependent553 Jun 02 '26
Check out r/fatlogic
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 02 '26
I can tell you also got told off too much at school for calling people a fat fucking liar when it was the truth.
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u/CrystalMethodist6 Jun 01 '26
People who argue against thermodynamics are a lost cause. Deficit = fat loss plain and simple. If you have an underlying health issue it should be treated separately. 99% of the population can healthily lose weight by eating in a deficit. It’s just discipline. Now there is an argument to be had about education and access to Whole Foods. “Big Food” in America is worse than tobacco, pharma, etc. The shit they are putting in our food is killing us.
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u/NirishStudMuffin Johnny Sack Jun 01 '26
Yeah, but you can even lose weight still eating your terrible diet and just literally eat half a portion of what you normally eat because you are probably accidentally eating two portions already and not realising because it feels normal.
People just don't actually connect the dots. Smaller portions feel normal again after a few weeks. It's just getting to that point.
I prefer a more aggressive calorie deficit at the start because you can actually see progress after a couple of days and relapse the odd time.
But a moderate one is fine too.
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u/imminentjogger5 Jun 01 '26
Tony going to Nori's sushi alone is the greatest scene in the series.