The Sopranos star Drea de Matteo thought her TV ‘glitched out’ during finale twist

‘I was like, “Wait a second. What just f***ing happened?”’

The Sopranos star Drea de Matteo has said she thought her TV had “glitched out” when she first watched the series finale.

The seminal crime drama’s ending, which abruptly "cuts to black" midway through a scene, remains one of the most divisive TV finales of all time.

De Matteo played Adriana La Cerva on the series, the girlfriend of Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) who turns into an FBI informant.

“I remember that night vividly,” she told TV Insider, describing her experience watching the finale for the first time.

“I had a Sopranos party at the house… and we’re watching what happens in the end. And I was like, ‘Wait a second. What just f***ing happened?’ I thought my TV glitched out because we were watching it on a big, giant, old television.

“Then I called my girlfriend who was still working on the show. She goes, ‘No, Drea. That’s the ending.’ And I’m standing there and I look at everybody and they’re all cursing.”

Many fans have speculated on the meaning of the ending, with one popular theory suggesting that Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) was killed by one of the background characters, who is seen briefly going into the bathroom, in an apparent nod to The Godfather.

“I think the point is that you just fell for what happened,” said de Matteo. “Or I don’t know, maybe everything the show has been saying for six seasons just goes to black and it’s all meaningless. The show was meaningless. Tony Soprano’s life was meaningless.

“You could paint so many different pictures with that blank canvas,” she added. “But then I think that [series creator] David Chase has said in other interview, and I could be wrong, that Tony does in fact die.”

A prequel film set in the world of The Sopranos, entitled The Many Saints of Newark, is set to be released next year, and will star the late Gandolfini’s son, Michael Gandolfini.