"Nurse Jackie" Star Edie Falco Speaks out!

Photo Credit (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Nurse Jackie star Edie Falco recently spoke to The Los Angeles Times about Jackie's relapse, the death of her longtime Sopranos costar James Gandolfini, how she would like her show to end, and her love of binge-watching.

"I was so glad she slipped," Falco says, referring to Jackie's return to drugs. "She doesn't go to enough meetings, and I don't want it to end pretty for her unless she does the ... work. Addiction lasts a lifetime, and I know a lot of people who do not get it," she adds, referring to recovery, "the first, second or third time around."

She added about her character, "This was a story with a woman at the center. It was about her, as a person, not necessarily as a wife or a mother or even a nurse."

On the death of her longtime costar James Gandolfini, "It's still not quite real, you know?" she says. "It's a year, but we had such long hiatuses on the show; we would go a year in between seasons and not see each other. I still keep thinking he'll just walk up to me somewhere, like here." She gestures to the patio entrance. "Just there he'll be."

How would she like "Nurse Jackie" to end? "I don't think it has a built-in ending," she says. "Addiction is something that goes on for a lifetime. The story just needs to stay honest."

On discovering binge-watching, "I am obsessed with 'Downton Abbey,'" she says. "And it's terrible because over the years, I've met all these people at events and I had no idea who they were, and now I'm like 'Oh, my God, that was Lady Mary!'"