Different Role, Same Accessories

By JEANNE McDOWELL

Given the two roles she has assayed on TV--the streetwise naif Adriana on The Sopranos and the tough-tawking Gina, the hairdresser sister of Matt LeBlanc's character on Joey--Drea de Matteo in person is shocking. No cleavage-baring tank top, no 2-in. fingernails, no gum cracking.

The woman bouncing down the stairs of her newly bought Hollywood Hills, Calif., home is petite and pretty with coiffed hair and a dusting of makeup. She does have that husky voice, deepened, she admits, by smoking cigarettes. But her fingernails? Short, clean and unpolished. "The nails, hair, boobs--everything on [my characters] was fake," says de Matteo, laughing.

Afraid of being typecast, de Matteo, 32, only reluctantly auditioned for the plum role of the 36-year-old single mom on the most anticipated new sitcom of the fall season. "When the network told me I got the part, I didn't know if it was the worst day or best day of my life," she says. But any tentativeness was gone on set. "After just a little rehearsal, we were struck by her ability to go toe to toe with one of the biggest comedy heavyweights on TV," says executive producer Kevin Bright.

De Matteo is also ambivalent about a career in acting, despite her success so far. Having got whacked on The Sopranos, she was happily settled into New York City life, juggling duties as a co-owner (along with an ex-boyfriend) of Filthmart, a vintage-clothing store in lower Manhattan, and producing a TV special, an homage to country singer Waylon Jennings, the father of her live-in boyfriend, country musician Shooter Jennings.

Unlike the achingly fatherless Adriana, de Matteo has close family ties. Her dad is a successful furniture-store owner, her mother a playwright. Raised in Manhattan, de Matteo attended tony private schools on the Upper East Side. Before Joey started, her parents, her boyfriend and she trekked west together in a 30ft. camper. And she is keeping her New York City place, just in case. If only Adriana had been that careful.

--By Jeanne McDowell