The decision to kill off Adriana was made in 2003 while season 5 was being written.
Her fate was considered inevitable due to the character’s increasing cooperation with the FBI… We always knew at some point, she was probably going to pay for that.
We just didn’t know when.
HBO
I remember one time going and tentatively asking David what my fate might be.
David didn’t like to be asked things.
I asked because I wanted to direct a movie.
HBO
He said, “Let me think about it.”
I don’t know how we ultimately arrived at Silvio (Steven Van Zandt) doing it.
And nobody’s going to know until it airs."
HBO
He would go that far to divert the crew from being able to leak anything.
Winter: You don’t realize how much you start to think of these characters as real people.
It was really tough to write.
You see a much more vulnerable side of her with her colitis, or whatever it was she had.
You’re almost sympathetic to her from the beginning.
The walls are closing in and she’s got it coming at her from all sides.
Chase:A person in her position would be very likely to have [colitis].
It wasn’t to make her more vulnerable.
It’d be hard to make that woman more vulnerable than she was.
She was nothing but vulnerable.
The FBI tells Adriana she can either become a government witness or go to prison.
She asks them to let her attempt to convince Christopher to join her in Witness Protection.
She goes home and confesses her predicament to Christopher.
They took it right to the limit.
De Matteo:That scene was as real as it gets.
That scene was everything for me.
That was my goodbyenot the scene where I get taken out in the woods.
Chase:Both of them just did an incredible job, as did the director.
You really think she’s going to go.
She’s just staring at him as he’s choking her to death.
I think that’s really important.
Winter:I remember watching that on set and actually having tears in my eyes.
You just felt how torn Christopher was.
He knew she was backed into a corner and they’re probably both going to die.
Ultimately, he couldn’t go through with it.
He loved her despite giving her up.
It gives you his mindset as a guy who’s never going to leave New Jersey.
There’s nothing like a mullet to shake you into reality.
For a moment we wonder what Adriana is going to do.
We witnessed a cruel fake-out daydream…
Van Patten:All you wanted for her was to escape.
And when you thought she was going to succeed, you were so happy for her and so relieved.
When you realize she’s going to her death, it’s absolutely devastating.
Chase:You have this feeling of exhilaration that she’s escaped.
She looks like she’s going to be the one person to escape this hell in New Jersey.
But, of course, she isn’t.
I think there’s a very good chance she could’ve [fled], but she didn’t.
Why didn’t she?
Why didn’t she run away?
What happens is people get trapped.
Winter:That idea was David, all David, as far as I remember.
I remember David pitching that, and we talked about whether it will work.
Chase:What I liked about [the scene] was that it didn’t explain itself.
There’s no build-up to that switch.
So you really weren’t sure what was going on for awhile.
I always liked that.
In an agonizing sequence, Silvio drives Adriana out of the city into a wooded area.
Her face is a progression of heartbreak and terror as she realizes Christopher has betrayed her.
In a sense, you don’t know who was ahead of who.
Who knew first: Adriana or the audience?
You think it’s the audience?
I think you’re right.
you’ve got the option to see him talking himself into it.
I don’t know that Silvio took any glee in doing this.
It was very much a workmanlike thing he had to do.
you’re free to see him almost getting into that mindset during the drive.
Chase:It was meant to be agonizing, yeah.
It’s really incredible.
She’s a wonderful actress.
She’s taking us through that.
Silvio stops the car in an isolated spot and tries to drag Adriana from the car.
Adriana’s reaction is primal and disturbing.
It’s even more pathetic when you realize it’s absolutely futile.
De Matteo:Stevie [Van Zandt] was freaking out.
I tried to laugh [between takes] to make it easier.
We basically talked about outlaw country music the whole time.
Silvio raises the gun as Adriana crawls out of the frame.
People asked, “Why didn’t you show it?”
I realized that I didn’t want to see it myself.
I completely didn’t think about it when I wrote it.
But it just felt like the right thing to do, filmically and cinematically.
I think it worked really great, but I guess I did not want to see Adriana/Drea get shot.
It speaks more to how much we fell in love with this character and that actress.
I don’t think any of us wanted to see Drea in that condition.
The whole wardrobe department filled my trailer up with balloons.
Van Patten:There was such a sense of reverence on set.
I’ve never seen a set so quiet.
It really was like a death in the family.
They thought the Russian was going to come back and he never did.
That was something we figured into it.
Even something as pure and beautiful as nature gets tainted with that ugliness.
Van Patton: It was an emotional callback.
Are those feet going to come across her body?
Chase: [The title has] a slightly sardonic humor to it.
But they began to worry and came back and got the car… and the cops got them.
That’s where I first got the idea for “Long Term Parking.”
But there was also a scene you did not seeat least, not until the next season.
The scene made it clear Tony was lying to Adriana on the phone.
Her being in the car would have been a lot less dramatic.
Her death would build so much more anticipation without it.
That scene takes a lot of steam out of what we’re trying to achieve.
I never got an answer about it.
So when it aired and the scene was gone and I was so relieved.
Now you take the journey with her rather than just watch her go to the guillotine.
Chase, Winter, de Matteo, and Imperioli won Emmys for the season.
Adriana was such a beloved character because she was not really guilty.
She was guilty by association, but she certainly didn’t deserve the fate she got.
That her big sin was falling in love with Christopher made it that much more painful.
I would be hard-pressed to name another episode that shook people up more.
And it showed there’s no loyalty there.
The only character who came from a place of love and innocence was Adriana.
You’re taking characters and showing them in the ugliest possible way.
Adriana wanted what was best for everybody; she only operated from a place of light.
