Carmella on Becoming the “Princess of Staten Island”

In an interview with Yahoo, Carmella spoke about creating the ‘Princess of Staten Island’ nickname for her character and her original idea for a hometown. Here are highlights:

On Carmella being from Staten Island: “When I was first coming up with this Carmella character, I wanted her to be from Boston. However, Sasha Banks was from Boston, so we had to come up with something else. So [the Princess of Staten Island] was what we came up with. From that point on I was religiously watching ‘Mob Wives’ and ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey.’ Man, I just did so much character research — ‘The Sopranos,’ everything.”

On being praised for her character work: “It’s funny, the Impractical Jokers, Sal and [Brian ‘Q’ Quinn] and them, they’re from Staten Island, obviously. And they’re like ‘Oh my gosh, you do that so good!’ And that makes me feel good. I’m like cool, I can convince people from Staten Island that I’m from Staten Island.”