Joe Gannascoli, The Sopranos mob heavy Vito,…
Vito needs back in the skinny membership.
“Sopranos” actor Joe Gannascoli is mirroring the healthy lifestyle his hefty mobster alter ego ended up embracing on the show — doing all the pieces he can to whack his current additional kilos with a particular fitness routine and strict diet that includes made meals to get match for an upcoming TV project.
“I don’t actually like baby carrots,” the TV Mafia heavyweight lately quipped to The Post, referencing Vito’s hilarious stress-eating scene in the HBO hit’s remaining season, which included him posing for an advert for a weight-loss company, the Thin Club.
“Sopranos” actor Joe Gannascoli is mirroring the healthy lifestyle his hefty mobster alter ego ended up embracing on the show. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
At 67, the chef-turned-“Vito Spatafore” actor is capturing to shed 40 kilos, dropping from 250 to around 210, so he can be camera-ready for a new TV project based on his Mafia-themed cookbook, “A Meal to Die For.”
“That’s when I’m going to be at my goal, which is now four months away,” said Gannascoli, who moved from Brooklyn to East Rockaway about 20 years in the past, around when “The Sopranos” finale aired.
Gannascoli begins with a 6 a.m. early-bird spherical of golf on the south shore of Long Island and normally hits a local pickleball court by 8 a.m. either with buddies or for a pickup recreation with strangers.
The on-screen racketeer is often in the health club proper after placing down his racket.
At 67, the chef-turned-“Vito Spatafore” actor is capturing to shed 40 kilos, dropping from 250 to around 210, so he can be camera-ready for a new TV project based on his Mafia-themed cookbook, “A Meal to Die For.” Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
“I just started hitting every body part, and I’m doing that four times a week,” Gannascoli said.
“Now I’m doing heavier weights and less reps. … I like to get a good sweat going.”
The calorie-counting camera-loving capo, meanwhile, goes on “salad binges,” eats little pink meat and employs intermittent fasting, not often eating after 2 p.m., to complement his physical-fitness push.
Joe Gannascoli is seen in season one of “The Sopranos.” HBO
The regime is a far cry from when he was at his heaviest at 400 kilos during the “Sopranos” early season, thanks to dangerous hips and sleep apnea.
Gannascoli said his first major health kick, which occurred during filming for “The Sopranos” and included both lap band and hip surgical procedures, led the writers to flip his substantial weight loss into the plotline in season six.
But holding his weight off afterward was a back-and-forth battle as he labored as a non-public chef, doing home events for followers and changing into an ambassador for varied manufacturers.
Joseph R. Gannascoli performs pickleball to keep match in Long Island. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
He said this current effort to slim down is different from those past because of better nutrition and a a lot more constant athletic lifestyle.
“I feel better and look better than I did back on the show,” he said.
Gannascoli said he also just beat another arch-nemesis.
“I quit gambling,” Gannascoli said. “After 50 years, a switch went off in my head.”
Actor Joe Gannascoli performed Vito on the hit HBO show “The Sopranos.” USA TODAY Network via GWN Connect
Gannascoli said this current effort to slim down is different from those past because of better nutrition and a a lot more constant athletic lifestyle. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
The habit price him his Bay Ridge restaurant, 101 Seafood, in the early Nineties after an ill-fated weekend of betting on the Giants, Jets and a few other NFL groups that put Gannascoli in a gap for $60,000.
The silver lining was how that debt spurred him to transfer to Los Angeles to pursue performing, he said.
“Life has been great,” he said. “I’m not a religious person, but God has always looked out for me.”
“I just started hitting every body part, and I’m doing that four times a week,” Gannascoli said. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
Gannascoli is notably accountable for getting the show to greenlight Vito’s best-known character arc of being a closeted homosexual Mafioso, which he pitched after studying about a comparable real-life case.
Scriptwriting brass mulled it over and didn’t inform him a lot until he confirmed up for a desk read, he said.
“They stopped me in the hall and said, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re giving a b–wjob this season,” he recalled.
“I said, ‘I wasn’t expecting to be on this end of the b–wjob. I didn’t think it would go that way.”
We present you with the trending topics. Get the best latest Entertainment news and content on our web site daily.
