VIDEO Edie Falco’s emotional Emmy tribute to James Gandolfini

Edie Falco spent years playing the wife of James Gandolfini’s defining character Tony Soprano. Last evening during the Emmys, the actress gave a heartfelt and emotional tribute to the man we all lost too soon.

Here is Falco’s speech followed by a full transcript:

“When you see really great art, you can sometimes forget that behind it is a person with technique and skill, for sure, but with an instinct, a perspective that is distinctly their own. One that moves people, pulls them in, makes them want to watch. James Gandolfini was one such individual.”

“As one of many examples, his portrayal of Tony Soprano had such depth and dimension that there are still a lot of people who have a hard time believing that’s not who he really was. Well, I’m here to tell you Jim was really quite different. He had tremendous warmth and heart. He was kind. He was uniquely generous.”

“One got the feeling that Jim was never entirely comfortable with all the attention he got, usually because he said it every chance he got. He was far more interested in turning the light on people that he considered more worthy. When he was interviewing Iraqi war veterans for a project that was very close to his heart, he did so with such genuine interest and respect and humility.”

“Over the years, I was particularly moved by Jim’s devotion to his family and to his fierce loyalty to his friends, to all the people in his life. You can ask anybody who knew him, if you needed anything at all, ever, Jim was there to take care of it before you even had a chance to ask.”

“You all knew James Gandolfini, the actor. I was lucky enough to know Jim, the man, for 10 years as his close colleague and his pretend life-partner and for many more years as his friend. And it’s Jim the man — the very dear man — that I will miss most of all.”