People: They’ll always be part of the family
Jamie-Lynn Sigler was a high-school kid with a knack for musicals who figured anything called “The Sopranos” would be just her speed.
Then she got to the audition and realized that vocal skills weren’t really a requirement.
Robert Iler doesn’t really recall filming most of the pilot episode.
“I do remember having a great time, but I was wishing I was in camp,” he says. “It was going to be the first summer I could go to camp, and all my friends were there.
“And then everybody on the set was like, ‘Oh, the pilot probably won’t even be picked up.’ For this, I’d missed camp!”
Now in their early 20s, Sigler and Iler – who play Meadow and A.J., the progeny of mob boss Tony Soprano – need little prodding to wax nostalgic as the hit HBO series nears the end. (Six episodes are left, debuting Sundays at 9 p.m.)
“When it started,” Sigler says, “I was playing a teenage girl who wasn’t getting along with her mom and was frustrated by her dad and annoyed by her brother. It wasn’t something very farfetched for me to play.”
In the pilot, her looming real-life eating disorder was unknowingly foreshadowed when mom Carmela (played by Edie Falco) chided her weight-conscious daughter for skipping breakfast: “You gotta have more than just cranberry juice!”
Iler, then a moonfaced butterball, instantly established A.J. as a spoiled brat. In the pilot, he memorably pitched a fit, F-word and all, that his 13th birthday party would be missing his grandmother’s ziti.
“You’ve gotten quite a bit more handsome since then,” teases Sigler.
“I was always handsome,” Iler cracks – “under all the fat.”
Sigler, 25, seems a softer version of the often defiant, outspoken Meadow.
“After playing this character for so long and having grown up with her in so many ways, I love her,” Sigler says. “But there are many times when I don’t like her.”
That goes double for Iler, 22, whose character remains devoutly selfish and lazy.
“There’s a lot of times I just wanted to step outside of the role and shake him: ‘What’s wrong with you?!’ “
Like the fictional “Sopranos” siblings, they’ve dealt with real-life growing pains.
Sigler fought, and overcame, her eating disorder (and wrote a book about it).
In 2001, Iler was arrested for robbery and possession of marijuana. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges and got three years probation.
“I didn’t want to mess up what I had,” he says. “This show has been a great and amazing experience.”
Adds Sigler: “I’ll never be on another show like this. And now, it’s like graduating from high school. We’re getting ready to enter into the unknown.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Tommy James is 60. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 53. Actress Kate Mulgrew is 52. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 50. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 49. Actress Eve Plumb (“The Brady Bunch”) is 49. Singer Carnie Wilson is 39. Actress Uma Thurman is 37. Rapper Master P is 37.