How was James Gandolfini’s character of the mayor conceived?
BH: We started with Giuliani, and when Gandolfini read it, he wanted it to be more of a boomer, so we tried to incorporate all of the “How can he wear $3,000 suits on for a dollar a year?” All of those elements gave John a foil for his anger toward the city. It’s personified by the mayor. We had fun with it because the part wasn’t really a part. Tony, is his indominable style, sent the script to Gandolfini and said, “Hey, do you want to play the mayor?” And Gandolfini said, “There’s no part for mayor. I just have two lines.” Tony said, “Well yeah, but if you do it, we’ll come up with something.” So he took a leap of faith and we invented the part. I think it was Denzel who said, “This is the mayor of New York, so it can’t be Joe Blow playing the part. We need somebody with some weight.” TS: Those roles are always hard –- the mayor of New York or the President of the United States -– and I thought, Gandolfini ultimately personifies New York, and he’s great. This is my third time to work
