‘Sopranos’ kids anticipate ‘graduating’ from show

NEW YORK —  Jamie-Lynn Sigler was a high school kid with a knack for musicals who figured anything called “The Sopranos” would be just her speed. She learned better when she got to the audition.

Robert Iler can’t recall being there.

“I was so young, I don’t even remember doing most of the pilot,” he says. “I do remember having a great time, but I was wishing I was in camp. 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!”

It was the summer of 1997. A few months later, “The Sopranos” did get a series pickup from HBO. Premiering in January 1999, it became an instant sensation.

Then during its spectacular run, the actors who had won the roles of Meadow and A.J. -- progeny of mob boss Tony Soprano -- would grow to adulthood, good friends all the way.

At first, their friendship was out of sheer necessity.

“We had to be a team,” Sigler explains. “We were the only young cast members.”

Now in their early 20s, Sigler and Iler need little prodding to wax nostalgic about their “Sopranos” stint as the series nears its end.

Breaking in was easy for Sigler. “When it started,” she 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 far-fetched for me to play.”

A lovely young woman with luminous brown eyes, she 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 makes clear. “But there are many times when I don’t like her.”

That goes double for Iler, 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?!’ ”

Nonetheless, Iler says, “This show has been a great and amazing experience.”

“I’ll never be on another show like this,” Sigler chimes in.

“And now, it’s like graduating from high school. We’re getting ready to enter into the unknown.”

“Though people worry about typecasting,” says Iler, “thanks to our roles on this show, I don’t think it’s gonna be a problem.

“I think for our next job, both of us will be looked at as adults from the start.”