Mention Ariel Kiley’s two-episode role in HBO’s “The Sopranos” — as Tracee, a young, ill-fated stripper — and it's likely that fans of the show will wince. That's a reaction that would, most likely, please the young actress. The pathos that Kiley’s characterization evoked made her character’s brutal end at the hands of Sopranos mobster Ralph Cifaretto, the father of Tracee’s unborn child, all the more disturbing.

“I wanted to bring the sex and violence together to show how horrible it really is,” Kiley says. “A lot of subscribers canceled their HBO service because of those episodes. Nothing against HBO, but I was proud of that.”

It’s an unexpected comment from a young actress, but little in Kiley’s story goes according to script, beginning with how the UVM junior landed on the Sopranos with relative ease and later won a role in “Windy Acres,” a six-part comedy series scheduled to air on Vermont Public Television starting Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. (a special about the making of the series airs on VPT on Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m.).

Kiley, a 23-year-old anthropology major who began pursuing her entertainment dreams after graduating from Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg in 1999, landed an internship with a talent agency while studying at New York University. It was during a routine trip to another agency to drop off actor bios that Kiley met an agent who sent her to see Georgianne Walken, casting director for the HBO series.

In a classic Hollywood moment, Walken asked her if she’d be interested in auditioning for a role in “The Sopranos.” Kiley, who had two days to prepare, performed well enough on the first day of auditions to get a second call back. She again tested well and was hired the following day to play the role of Tracee in two episodes of the third season of the top-rated series.

“I’d heard of ‘The Sopranos,’ but I’d never seen it on television,” she says. “All I knew was that it was a popular show with mafia types and that it had a lot of sex and violence in it.”

The anti-starlet

Kiley prepared for her part by visiting adult clubs and talking with the dancers — her intention to portray their exploitation and the sad, gritty reality of their lives in a powerful way. With a strong disdain for any kind of violence or sexual exploitation of women, Kiley took the job as a sort of ‘anti-Sopranos role’ to expose stripping as an activity where sex and violence sometimes intersect.

In a pair of 2001 episodes, “He Is Risen” and “University,” Tracee leaves the strip club after becoming pregnant in an effort to show Cifaretto, that she is capable of being a good wife and mother. She is forced back to the club, however, where she insults Cifaretto in front of a roomful of ‘made’ guys. When she steps outside for a cigarette, Cifaretto follows her, and after a furious exchange, proceeds to beat her to death, leaving her crumpled body in the parking lot.

Her performance was affecting and well received, despite being too much for some viewers to handle, and opened doors to other opportunities, including a role in an episode of “Law & Order.” She was eventually picked up by a major talent agency and seemed to be headed for some level of Hollywood success.

But Kiley wasn’t comfortable with all of the doors that her performance opened. She turned down offers for pictorials in men’s magazines and a cable series requiring extensive nudity. “They basically wanted me to sign my body and soul over for the next six years,” she says.

Particularly disturbing to the then 20-year-old was how men in positions of power treated the young, often vulnerable women that stream into Hollywood each year in hopes of stardom. Even so, friends who were also trying to land acting gigs didn’t understand why she was considering walking away from what they viewed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“It went against everything I believed in,” Kiley says. “I had real problems with the way they were treated and with the things some of the girls would do to themselves to get roles. A lot of them starved themselves to stay thin.”

After some soul-searching, Kiley decided to return to Vermont to study anthropology and keep her acting options open. “The Sopranos” star James Gandolfini, a Rutgers graduate, and actress Annette Bening, who Kiley worked with on another film project, encouraged her to finish college. “We had some long talks about it. He was a like an uncle to me. He always looked out for me to make sure I was okay. It was like being part of a big family.”

The roles keep coming

Since her return to Vermont, Kiley says acting opportunities seem to “keep finding her.” She recently finished shooting “Windy Acres” in which she plays a rebellious teenager from New York who is forced to move to Vermont with her mother. The hybrid film-television series is directed by Vermont director Jay Craven and stars Rusty DeWees.

Following the filming of the series in West Barnet, Kiley, who has also appeared in two independent films, and then went to California to help direct and act in a film she wrote that a group of Emerson College film students had decided to produce. She is currently studying abroad.

Kiley says her mother, an actress, and her father, a Burlington attorney, have always been supportive of her choices and have encouraged her film career. Whether she will pursue acting in the future, or continue to take roles that find her, Kiley is not yet sure.

At present, she’s not too worried about it.

“I love UVM and being back in Vermont,” says Kiley, who appeared in the UVM production, "The Art of Dining." "I would prefer to write. That’s ultimately what I’d like to do. But for now I’m enjoying being in college. Whether acting will be a part of it of my future, I’m not sure. It’s not really a priority right now.”

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