Sopranos Star Edie Falco Bemoans Trigger Warnings on TV

Edie Falco is the latest star of a notoriously violent — and celebrated — HBO series to bemoan the increasingly common practice of trigger warnings on TV.

The “Sopranos” star (also known for leading roles in “Nurse Jackie,” “Law & Order True Crime” and more) partook in the new HBO documentary “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos,” which charts the life and creative process of prolific series creator David Chase through the lens of his show’s historic, boundary pushing successes.

Speaking about the mobster series’ violence and growing fanbase around its whack-of-the-week in Part 2 of the doc, Falco said, “The show was always shocking somebody about something.”

“You could push the envelope and let people be uncomfortable — forgive me, but without a trigger warning,” the actress continued. “The whole point is you want to surprise people and give them feelings that maybe are uncomfortable and have them learn to deal with them. That, my friend, is life.”

Falco starred for six seasons as Carmela Soprano, the wife of James Gandolfini’s antihero mob man Tony Soprano. She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series three times for her performance. The role was a standout within an ensemble stuffed with standout performances — and Carmela was no stranger to violence, either. Some of the domestic spats she’d have with Tony saw him punching holes in the wall and threatening her safety.

But the talk of trigger warnings arrived in the new HBO doc in reference to a pair of memorably severe and disturbing episodes — one that saw Tony’s therapist Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) violently raped in a stairwell; another that dramatized a young stripper getting beaten to death by one of Tony’s Bada Bing! goons.

“Even the most violent episodes had such beauty to them,” Drea de Matteo, who starred as Adrianna, reflected. “Like the episode where the stripper gets killed. It tells a story of Meadow in college against this young girl who would be the same age.”

Back to Falco, whose Carmela was mother to Meadow, she concluded of the show’s violence: “You’re not going to be given trigger warnings when terrible things happen.”

Falco followed in the footsteps of “House of the Dragon” star Matt Smith bemoaning trigger warnings just last week, saying, “Everything’s being dialed and dumbed down.”

Watch the trailer for “Wise Guy: Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos,” below.