Like father, like daughter. A buzzy new Super Bowl spot for the Chevrolet Silverado EV puts Meadow Soprano in the driver’s seat — to the tune of “Woke Up This Morning” — as she recreates her dad Tony’s drive from Manhattan to New Jersey that’s immortalized in the opening credits sequence of The Sopranos.
“It was amazing, emotional and wonderful,” Jaime-Lynn Sigler, who played Meadow for six seasons on the pioneering HBO drama, tells Yahoo Entertainment about getting back behind the wheel where the late James Gandolfini once sat. “I couldn’t help but feel this electricity of dropping back into a role that I created and lived with for so long.” (Watch the Super Bowl spot above.)
Sigler isn’t the only Sopranos-verse fixture that Chevrolet recruited for the ad. The minute-long commercial also features her on-screen reunion with Robert “A.J. Soprano” Iler, as the show’s creator, David Chase, and regular cinematographer, Phil Abraham, looked on from behind the camera as director and director of photography, respectively. “We all dropped right back into it like we never left,” Sigler says her Sopranos get-together.
“The shoot was fun,” Chase agrees via email, adding that the Meadowlands remains his favorite portion of that drive. “That was a big part of the series when it first started, and I’ve loved [the infamous Jersey locale] since age 8, coming back every other Sunday for my grandmother’s house. It’s so mysterious.”
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It has been almost exactly 15 years since Chase last directed Sigler and Iler in The Sopranos series finale, which blew viewers’ minds when they tuned in on June 10, 2007. In the intervening years, the series has found a whole new audience on HBO Max thanks to podcasts like the recently concluded Talking Sopranos — anchored by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa — and Chase’s recent feature-length prequel, The Many Saints of Newark. Sigler says that’s one of the reasons Chevrolet was eager to get the band back together for the big game.
“We all remember Tony driving his maroon Chevy suburban throughout the series,” she notes. “With Chevrolet coming out with the Silverado EV, and with the resurgence of The Sopranos over the past couple of years, it seemed like the perfect fit to have this cool moment of paying homage to the show in a modern and optimistic interpretation.” As for the larger implications of seeing Meadow behind the wheel, Sigler says it’s a natural evolution for the character. “She was always her father’s daughter — she’s a powerhouse.”
Even though Chase’s Super Bowl spot closely mirrors the original opening credits, there are some telling differences that speak to the present day, not to mention Meadow’s present circumstances. For example, the shot of the World Trade Center has been replaced by the Freedom Tower, and there’s a bustling playground where the cemetery used to be. “Meadow’s also not going to be smoking a cigar, so I have a lollipop” Sigler says, adding that her alter ego’s upscale fashion and choice of ride hint that she’s in a good place in her life.
The same goes for A.J., who meets his sister outside of the famous New Jersey waterfront restaurant, Bahrs Landing, where several sequences from The Many Saints of Newark were filmed. “We’re showing that the family is still close and still together,” Sigler notes. “They’re dressed well, and they’re doing well. It’s the best hope of where Meadow and A.J. would be. Getting to be on set with Robert again was surreal. We spent so much of our lives together, and it wouldn’t have been the same if only one of us were there.”
The future of both Sopranos children has certainly been the subject of speculation since the sharp-cut-to-black ending that brought the curtain down on The Sopranos in 2007. Fifteen years later, fans still argue about whether or not Meadow and A.J. saw their dad assassinated right in front of them at the New Jersey institution, Holsten’s. Chase further fanned those flames by refusing to confirm or deny Tony’s fate, although he’s been more definitive in recent interviews.
For her part, Sigler prefers the uncertainty of the ending as it originally aired. “I think it was perfect, I truly do. If the show was going to have to end at that moment, that’s the way it needed to. It wasn’t finite. My interpretation was always that the family’s sitting there and there are all these threats to Tony and his wife and kids, and he’s clocking them, but he’s also present with his family. That’s the reality of their lives. Whether his life ended in that moment or 10 years from then, it showed that this is what their life is going to be like forever.”
Since the release of The Many Saints of Newark last fall, Chase signed a new deal with HBO that could result in more Sopranos stories … perhaps even one that follows Meadow and A.J. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves: Chase says he hasn’t given much thought to where the younger Sopranos are now. “I believe they both live in Characterville,” he notes, wryly. “But I always figured Meadow is a lawyer somewhere.”
Sigler confirms that the director didn’t broach that subject of a follow-up with her while shooting the commercial. Not that she’d much convincing if a script ended up in her mailbox. “I would say ‘Yes’ a thousand times,” she says without hesitation.
That potential Meadow and A.J. series could spotlight another life skill that Meadow has apparently learned in the fifteen years since The Sopranos finale: parallel parking. The Chevrolet Super Bowl spot depicts her smoothly pulling up to an electric charging station and parking without any of the issues that famously plagued her while trying to park outside of Holsten’s. “It’s possibly due to the Chevrolet Silverado EV’s four-wheel steering,” Sigler says with a laugh. “Maybe it’s the car or maybe she’s just had practice.”
The Sopranos is currently streaming on HBO Max.
