Marisa Tomei recalls being "very, very scared" to sing for the live All in the Family episode

TheWrap

Tomei initially balked at playing Jean Stapleton's iconic role of Edith Bunker for Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons. "This is ridiculous. Why touch something that is perfection?” she tells The Wrap. When Jimmy Kimmel introduced Live in Front of a Studio Audience, he noted that the cast was nervous. "For sure," says Tomei. "We joked about it every day leading up to it. We rehearsed for about three days the week before, and then two days the following week. But we had the weekend off so we could pace our nerves — you don’t want to waste the adrenaline surge. And for me, I was very, very scared to do the (All in the Family theme) song at the opening. We had done a taped version, which was always the plan. But (director) Jimmy Burrows thought it would be so much more fun to do it live. I was scared I was going to get laryngitis from the fear of it — or that I would cry, because I found it very emotional to be part of this experience."