"Nurse Jackie" on 3rd season: "Are you ready?"
Edie Falco will be back on Monday night for the third season of Showtime's "Nurse Jackie." In the unlikely comedy, the four-time Emmy winner -- best-known for her role as Carmela on the "Sopranos" -- plays a pill-popping nurse who is forever entangled in a web of lies, both at work and at home.
On "The Early Show" Friday, co-anhor Chris Wragge quipped, "What is it with you and the pills -- the yelling and the screaming. You ready for a third season of this?""I did it," Falco said. "Are you ready for it?"
Falco told Wragge she chose the "Nurse Jackie" role because it seemed interesting to her -- not because she thought it would be successful."
"When I read this, I thought, 'Oh, she's fun. She gets to have short hair.' So, you know, I signed up on the spot. ... But you never know if it's going to, you know, tickle the fancy of other people, as it does mine. But I've been very lucky."
When pressed by Wragge about whether and when her character would hit rock-bottom, Falco said, "Well, I don't know. Wouldn't you want to watch and find out?"
Falco added, "She's capable of handling a lot of rough stuff. So I think, perhaps, she still has some more to go."
Wragge remarked that doing a comedy about addiction is a delicate balance -- trying not to make fun of something that's a serious issue for many people.
"Luckily, I have the writers basically handling most of that stuff," Falco said. "... I take no responsibility for anything that comes out of my mouth. But, sometimes the most serious stuff, I mean, we work in an emergency room, which is pretty serious stuff, too. I think one of the best ways of handling that is through humor. Underneath it is some very serious stuff."
Falco recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her "Nurse Jackie" role.
Falco said, "I had forgotten I was in the category, because I was so convinced that I wasn't going to win. Absolutely, I'm so rarely genuinely shocked, though I behave as such many times. But, in fact, totally, (winning that night) totally surprised me."
What about her "Sopranos" role that racked up her three other Emmys -- will she return to it anytime soon?
Wragge suggested a "Sopranos" movie.
Falco says she hasn't heard if a movie about the family will be made.
"I'm always the last to know," she said. "It's usually my mother who calls and says, 'Oh, you guys are doing a movie.' I haven't heard a thing. You know, it could go either way."