Straight Talk with the Gang of Four

EF If you are an actor, you want a challenge. And I have no complaints at all about being here for as long as I have, but there are lots of other types of women out there to be.

EW Actors come and go on any show — especially on yours. But how odd is it not having Drea de Matteo around this season?
EF You're assuming that's the case.
MI Yeah, she's missed. I just saw a clip from season 5, and just seeing her face made me miss her.
JG She was perfect. Just with her Christofuh! The crew does it all the time — Christofuh! If somebody goes, ''Christopher,'' they go, ''No, that's not how you say it. It's Christofuh!''

EW Is she calling you guys up, checking in all the time?
JG No, she don't give a f---. [Laughs]

EW If you could go back to the beginning and pick a different character to play, who would it be?
JG I would have liked to be Hesh. [Laughter]
MI I would like to be Uncle Junior.
LB Junior!
EF Yes!
JG Absolutely! He's funny as s---.
MI He just looks at the world in a very specific way, and his lines are amazing. Dominic [Chianese] is a very artistic, bohemian, gentle, dignified guy, and he puts those glasses on and he becomes like a creature, a spider — like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.
JG I break up more during scenes with him, because he'll say something and he gives you that look with the glasses, and it's over.

EW You're returning to your Sundays-at-9 time slot, and people are likely to turn this into a Sopranos-versus-Desperate Housewives scenario. Does that enter into your minds at all?
EF I don't think the same people are watching those two shows. Maybe I'm wrong. They certainly appeal to very different sensibilities. Having never watched Desperate Housewives, I really should shut up.

EW Really? You've never watched it?
EF No, but apparently I'm on it. Felicity Huffman — people are asking me all the time if we ever played sisters, and people have actually come up to me and gone, ''Felicity!''
JG You do look like her.
EF I actually do. I've seen pictures of her and thought, ''Oh, my God! Oh, wait, that's not me.''
LB I've seen a couple of episodes, and I'm not worried — at all. We have 12 episodes. You're there or you're not.

EW How would you like The Sopranos to end?
MI Knowing David Chase, it's not going to be smiles and off into the sunset. The way he looks at these characters, I can't imagine there being a happy ending. I'm sure there's something tragic going on. Tony's a dark character and has a lot of stuff that he's got to answer for.
JG He should go into the witness protection program in Vermont.
MI But bosses don't get to go into witness protection.
JG A big explosion would be good. Just one day we're in the middle of talking and everything explodes and it's over. And there's no explanation. [Laughter]
MI And Silvio's wig goes flying off!
JG And then the TV goes to static.