WATCH: Chris Wallace Tells Sopranos Star Michael Imperioli About That Time He Thought He Might Get Whacked In a Restaurant
CNN anchor Chris Wallace traded stories of meeting made guys with Sopranos star Michael Imperioli, including an unnerving moment he had with an interview subject who was a real former mobster.
The latest interviews from Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace on HBO Max feature Pete Buttigieg, Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli, and media entrepreneur Byron Allen.
In the closing minutes of his interview with Imperioli, the Sopranos star talked very briefly and vaguely about actual mobsters he has met, versus the fugazi braggart he often encounters. Wallace then shared his own brush with Murder Inc. at a Philadelphia restaurant:
IMPERIOLI: Um, I think the differences now at this point in time, especially in New York, most of people who were maybe part of those five families are just more entrenched in legitimate businesses, because it’s, you know, the RICO Act made it very difficult on mobsters, because for a charge like loan sharking or extortion which in the past, you might go away for a year or two you facing much more time. Right? So it kind of wasn’t so effective. So it made more sense to just, you know, use whatever wealth they had to kind of invest in real businesses, I think, I think so. I think that’s what it is. You know, I met, you when you meet someone who tells you that’s what they do. You know that’s not what they do.
WALLACE: Because no, but it’s like the Fight Club. Nobody who’s in it talks about it
IMPERIOLI: Once in a while, you meet people who are like I do what you do and am I’m the written. And you know they’re not because, you know, the people who actually are and there are, you know, people who are made people in the mob they’re never going to — they’re never even going to say that even if you are friendly with them for quite a long time. Nor would I ever ask that. You know, that’s no polite.
WALLACE: If I’ve learned one thing from our sit down together. Michael Imperioli, it is if somebody tells you he’s in the mob, he’s not.
IMPERIOLI: He’s not. And, you know, a telltale, you know. There’s a couple of people I do know and the thing you will notice about them, when you, if you meet them for lunch or dinner or something like that. Usually they’re there first. And they’re never they’re back will never be to the door.
WALLACE: Can I tell you something, I once met a hitman. I interviewed him for another show that I did. A hitman for the Philadelphia mob who’d written a book. This is when everybody decided to write books, the code of omerta went out the window, and we go into the restaurant, and I go to sit with my back to well, just because. And he beats me and kind of pushes me. And I think to myself, the last thing I’m going to see in my life is him looking up and going, Frank, no.
IMPERIOLI: There you go.
Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace drops three full episodes each Friday morning, and CNN airs a version recapping highlights of the episodes every Sunday at 7 p.m.
Watch the full exchange above via HBO Max and CNN.
