The Sopranos' Aida Turturro will gamely reprise her Janice role on Cameo -- if she feels like it

Vulture

Turturro, who charges $90 per Cameo video, was turned on to the celebrity video service by co-star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who charges $150. Turturro says Cameo has helped her earn money as acting roles have dried up, especially during the pandemic. As Rachel Handler points out, Turturro's Cameos actually deliver. Turturro, says Handler, "is always thrilled to be there, referring to the recipient as 'beautiful' despite having never laid eyes on the person, pretending to have received a 'call' from the gift giver as if the two were old pals, then launching into an improvised monologue about any number of topics: The Sopranos, mostly, but also other things, such as how she took care of her parents before they died, or how much she loves Ireland, or how riveted she is by Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy. Sometimes she free-associates her way into disarmingly personal territory, remarking, for example, that she wishes she had children of her own or that she misses her “mommy and daddy.” She’ll offer bits of wisdom or tell a story about herself that connects to the recipient, even in an incidental way. To conclude each video, she launches, cabaret style, into an ad-libbed song, cycling through various accents and characters (Marilyn Monroe, an effusive Italian aunt, and several unidentifiable others) until she skids back into her own body, apologizes ('I’m not a singer'), and blows the recipient a big juicy kiss." Turturro admits she was reluctant at first when Cameo requests asked her to "do Janice." After all, she hadn't watched The Sopranos since it aired. Nowadays, she will gamely pop back into character as Janice but only if she “feels it” in the moment. “It’s been 20 f*cking years!” she says. “I can’t be Janice in two minutes!”