The Marvel Director You Forgot Had A Cameo In The Sopranos

“The Sopranos” showcased some incredible performances throughout its six-season run, which makes it even easier to forget some of the supporting talents that briefly passed in and out of episodes who went onto become massive stars. For a short time, David Chase’s televised mob masterpiece had appearances from eventual “The Wire” star Michael K. Williams, Riddler-to-be Paul Dano, and even Lady Gaga (even though she might not be a fan of the performance herself). However, one appearance that might stand out more than others is that of actor, director, and co-architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jon Favreau.

The director of “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2” plays an exaggerated version of himself after Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) is invited to the filming of one of Favreau’s movies. After chiming in on a scene rewrite, Favreau takes an interest in Christopher’s lifestyle when he learns about his mob connections and pinches an anecdote to include in one of his scripts, much to Chrissy’s outrage. While his stay is short on the show, Favreau plays a crucial part in adding more complications to Christopher’s struggle with his ties to the family and hunger for a better life outside the mob. For Favreau, it was an experience that he relished, popping in one of the most groundbreaking television shows ever made. As it turns out, he even contributed to the show similarly to how Christopher chimed in on his fictional film in the series — except his contributions came with far less risk of anyone getting whacked.

It’s safe to say that no one knows Jon Favreau better than Jon Favreau, which is why when it came to sharing the screen with the Christopher Moltisanti character, he had a few suggestions for “The Sopranos” creator David Chase about how he’d handle the situation. Speaking to a fan on Reddit in 2013, Favreau recalled his experience, saying, “I was really honored to be invited by David Chase to play myself on The Sopranos. I wanted to make sure that when I depicted myself that I wasn’t playing it ‘too cool’ because if the real Jon Favreau met the real Sopranos, he would not be very comfortable at all.”

The eventual “Elf” director suggested taking a different route and playing things slightly for laughs. “The original script that I received had me playing it off as if I was one of the guys. I had given David the note that I wanted to be really uncomfortable and scared, because although everybody likes the romantic idea of gangsters, if you ever meet them in real life, it could be extremely off-putting.” That comes off in the fake Faverau’s appearance before he bails on Christopher and takes his story with him. 

Coincidentally, it also wouldn’t be the only time the cousin of Tony Soprano would encounter someone who played an associate of Tony Stark in the MCU: Christopher also got ditched by the man who played Trevor Slattery, as well.

Before being killed off in season 6 following a car accident and not at the hands of anyone else in “The Sopranos” (right, Ton’?), Christopher tried to pitch his horror mob movie, “Cleaver,” to acting legend Ben Kingsley, who stars as Trevor Slattery in the MCU and appeared as himself on the show. It goes about as well as you’d expect, again showing off the show’s brilliant way with comedy in a primarily dark and corrupt world. It also marked an excellent shift for Kingsley, who at this point was coming off the success of British crime drama “Sexy Beast,” which reinvented the actor and gave us one of the best performances in his career. By the end of the episode “Luxury Lounge,” they end on an awkward encounter, with Kingsley dropping what might be one of the funniest F-bombs in the entire show.

Thankfully, in reality, the Oscar winner’s presence was far more welcoming, according to Ray Abruzzo, who played Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. on the show. Abruzzo spoke highly of Kingsley and his time on set during an appearance on the podcast “Talking Sopranos,” hosted by Imperioli and co-star Steve Schirripa. “I remember walking down the hallway before we [went] in, and he’s massaging my shoulders.” As far as Abruzzo was concerned, “It was just another actor having fun. I loved those scenes. He was great.”