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Edie Falco is a Northport High School alumnus and award-winning actress that you may recognize from The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, and “Tommy.”

Edie Falco is a Northport High School alumnus and award-winning actress that you may recognize from The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, and “Tommy.” We had the honor of speaking with Ms. Falco to talk about her time in high school and her advice for students today.

If you were teleported to NHS right now, what would be the first place you would go?

I’d go to the Commons. I would sit there and look at all the people. I was so shy back in the day. I moved to Northport at the beginning of high school, so I was in a new town. I didn’t know anybody. And the high school was incredibly intimidating and I would just kind of walk through the Commons as quickly as I could with my head down. I was overwhelmed by all the people and the fact that everybody knew each other. But now, all these years later, I’d love to actually go in there and sit there and enjoy the fact that so many people pass through. 

When you were in high school, did you have a favorite class or subject?

The choir was a huge part of my life. It was a huge part of the school. Sandy Valerio was our choir conductor. He was somewhat famous at Northport High School for being kind of strict, but only because he cared so much about the music. I was completely entranced by the work that he did and what he taught us. For the choir, we toured around the country. We had a great reputation because Sandy Valerio was such a stickler for doing good work. I was always so glad to come back home and to be able to say I was from Northport High School. 

Did you do Powdered Wigs?

Yes, I sure did. That was run by Fran McGarry. She and I have been in touch and she has had a great deal to do with the fact that my career began the way it did. She gave me confidence that I didn’t have. I was the new girl in school and I was very shy and she thought I was worth giving a little energy to. And it had a lot to do with building my confidence over the years. I did my junior and senior musicals. It was crazy fun. 

Were there any specific moments at Northport High School that have shaped who you are today?

Looking at the cast list and seeing that Fran McGarry had put me at a place where I did not think I would be. You don’t know who you are, you know? You like acting, but who am I in the scheme of things? Am I talented? You’re just at the beginning of that. And Fran McGarry gave me tremendous confidence. So Fran McGarry casting me was a very big part of what went on in my life from that point on. 

Professionally, what were your goals during your high school years and how did those change over time?

At a certain point, I guess in junior year, we were told to fill out some ideas of what we would want to study in college. I wrote psychology, which is something I’m actually still interested in. At the time, I thought I’d be a psychologist. I wasn’t sure. And my English teacher said to me, “Well, aren’t you in the school plays and stuff?” And I said, “Yeah.” She said, “So, why don’t you be an actress?” And I just thought that was preposterous. Like, what does that mean? You know, you have to get a job, a real job. But it occurred to me that maybe acting was something I could do. All I knew was I loved to do it.

And when you get out in the world, you realize, oh, okay, so this doesn’t happen immediately. I got lots of waitressing jobs to pay the rent. My goal was always the same, which was I just wanted to always be working on a project, an acting project. The second piece of that is I wanted to be able to support myself doing it. I didn’t want to have to also waitress or answer phones or any of the many other jobs I had. I just wanted only to have to act to support myself. That kind of never changed. I never had any grand ideas about being famous. So much of that is a crapshoot anyway, you know? Who gets cast in what and how popular the shows are and who sees you and all that stuff that is completely out of our control. So I just wanted to be able to devote myself solely to acting. 

Do you have any advice for high school students who are interested in acting?

You have to make sure it’s what you really want to do. In acting, there’s a lot of time between jobs where you’re not acting, you’re actually working a crappy job. Or even if you are working, the majority of the time on a job is spent waiting around. 

If you feel like there’s something else you could do, if you’re like, well, I could do acting or I could do this other thing, do the other thing. Because the acting thing is really, really, really hard. And the odds are stacked against you for the most part. But if it is something that you have to do, kind of like it was with me, then there’s no question. Every chance you get, make sure you have a script in your hand.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter if you’re getting paid, it doesn’t matter. If you think it’s going to help your career, always be doing something. Especially early on, just say yes to everything.

What is it like to come back to Northport? 

I absolutely adored living in Northport. I was not there very long, I went to high school and then left for college. But the high school experiences were so big, and the friendships were so strong. I have very positive associations with the town. 

I remember when I first moved to Northport, I was wondering, do these people know how beautiful this town is? Can they even recognize it anymore? I guess when you’ve been in a place so long, you start to not be able to see it. I was astounded by the downtown area of the park. I used to go all the time with my various dogs over the years and boys that I had crushes on. I loved the gazebo and went to see the band that played there once a week when it got warm. I grew up there, and the high school years are very important years. So it remains a very big part of my life, emotionally anyway.

My parents are both gone now and only my older brother still lives there, so I don’t get to come back a ton. Maybe on holidays, I’ll see my brother, but I used to come back all the time, every couple of weekends to see my parents. It’s weird how it has just sort of drifted away into a memory place and not someplace I actually go to that much. But I love it. I have a tremendous amount of love for that town.

What would you say to your high school self?

Stop worrying. Just don’t worry. That’s all I would say to her. There is no need to worry. Everything works out just fine. And that isn’t even about the fact that I’ve had a career that I’ve loved. It’s about the amount of worrying people do in high school as they’re trying to become people in the world. Thinking about what my life will be like or if I will have any success or if I will be able to support myself or what about my family. All that stuff that just would plague me. I wish I could have spent a little less time in a minor panic about those things.