Edie Falco Says Playing Pete Davidson’s Mom in ‘Bupkis’ Was Unlike Any Other Experience In Her Career

When Edie Falco first heard that Pete Davidson’s dream was for her to play a version of his mother in a project that would ultimately become Bupkis, out today, she was surprised—flattered, yes; but wholly surprised.

“I thought, how the hell does Pete know who I am?” Falco tells Complex early into a discussion about her role in Bupkis, a semi-autobiographical take on Davidson’s life that showrunner Judah Miller describes as being a “fever dream” by design.

To be clear, you’d be hard-pressed to find any steward of pop culture—the art form of TV, specifically—who wasn’t familiar with Falco’s reliably perceptive work in some of the most universally beloved stories of all time. In David Chase’s The Sopranos, for example, Falco and the late James Gandolfini led us into a golden age of television as Carmela and Tony Soprano—the influence of which is still readily apparent in our current TV landscape.

Davidson has gone on record to say that he (like so many others) is “obsessed with” The Sopranos. But the Bupkis casting stands as not only a dream come true for Davidson; it also represents a number of firsts for Falco, who already has multiple Emmys and Golden Globes to her name. While her previous work has been more in the drama genre, Bupkis is more lighthearted and never takes itself too seriously, which allows for a more collaborative work environment than she was used to. But the show also has its insightful, and emotional tones—like Davidson’s family dealing with losing his dad on 9/11—and Falco shines in those moments.

“There were a couple of scenes with Pete and I that weren’t just funny; they were a little quieter and more meaningful. They had been through this huge trauma together and were trying to pick up their lives and move forward from there,” she tells Complex. “I could really feel the weight of what that must have been like for both of them. Pete was surprisingly accessible emotionally to that stuff.”

Complex caught up with Falco ahead of the show’s release and she talked about playing her own version of his mom in the series, how different this experience was for her, and whether or not she would do a Season 2. Bupkis hits Peacock on May 4.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.