25 years after the premiere of “The Sopranos” on HBO, the performance of actor James Gandolfini (New Jersey, 1961 – Rome, 2013), who offered viewers the role of Tony Soprano, a gangster with anxiety attacks, is still considered one of highlights the best performances in television history. The actor, who died of a heart attack while on vacation in Rome on June 19, 2013, left an indelible mark on television literature, earning him three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for Best Actor. However, battling his personal demons meant that filming the award-winning series, especially in the final seasons, was no walk in the park. Mark Kamine, Head of Locations for the six-season series, reveals this in his new book “On Locations: Lessons Learned from My Life On Set with The Sopranos and in the Film Industry”. Its pages explain that Gandolfini's wear and tear during the filming of the fifth installment led to problems during production.
Kamine tells several anecdotes from the filming. One of them occurred after filming an episode in New Jersey: “I was in the hotel bar when one of the crew members was closest to Jim [Gandolfini] “He asked me if I wanted to go to Atlantic City with them.” Atlantic City was almost 80 miles from where they were staying, more than an hour by car, and they had to continue filming the next day: “I declined. No wonder they couldn’t wake Jim the next morning,” Kamine writes. In the end, he showed up four hours late, “complained and cursed every time he made a mistake with his half-learned lines, repeated take after take, drank lots of coffee and water, and seemed embarrassed and rude at the same time.” He always did that , if he messed up. So.”
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As the actor became “less and less trustworthy,” HBO reportedly “added a clause to his contract that made him responsible for the cost of the day of filming if he missed work due to excessive consumption,” the author claims. from the book. According to Kamine, who later became the executive producer of another successful platform series, “White Lotus,” there were other anecdotes that made this filming impossible: Edie Falco, the actress who played his wife Carmela Soprano, was so fed up with Gandolfini's protests that she made filming impossible. She was frustrated with the actor and he was frustrated with her perfection: “Edie always came early, was always prepared and always immediately got into her role. “He was an admirable presence on set throughout the series.” But the actress's professionalism often intimidated her partner: “Jim seemed both amazed and frustrated by how Edie fit into her role, often arriving unprepared , cursing between scenes and asking the script supervisor to recite the lines,” he had to say. However, Kamine admits that “everyone was willing to accept the chaos” because “Gandolfini, more than anyone, except David.” [Chase, el creador de la serie] “He is the one who made The Sopranos what they were, with his expressive facial features, his rich interpretations and his gestures that are at once menacing and reserved.”
Gandolfini and Falco at the 56th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California. Jeff Kravitz (FilmMagic)
More than a decade after his death, Kamine wasn't the only series employee to speak out about Gandolfini's problems. In 2021, investigative journalist James Andrew Miller, known for his reports in the Washington Post or the New York Times, published Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, a book that tells the story of the American chain and the way it as it entered history, the scene that would later be called the golden age of television. In this book, which contains more than 750 interviews with actors, producers, managers and employees of HBO since its inception, he summarized the management team's concerns about Gandolfini: “We were afraid that Gandolfini would die,” Jeff Bewkes revealed to the journalist . As HBO's executive from 1995 to 2002, he said, “From time to time he would go on drugs or get into a cocaine binge, and we would have to stop production.” Bewkes also claimed that sometimes THE ACTOR wouldn't even show up on set, which ” “It was difficult for the other actors’ schedules.” And he added that he didn't put then-HBO President Chris Albrecht “no pressure” on Gandolfini because “he thought Jimmy was embarrassed by his behavior.”
But eventually Gandolfini's problems reached the ears of Chris Albrecht, who invited him to his home with the idea of confronting him about going to rehab. Gandolfini, for his part, thought it had been a normal evening: “It had become a huge problem,” Albrecht Miller revealed, “and there was also a lack of respect for the other actors, so “some problems arose.” When Gandolfini was at When Albrecht arrived, he found a dozen people there, including David Chase and several members of his family. According to the manager, the TV star's friends and family had rehearsed what to say to him that evening and had even prepared a private jet to take him to rehabilitation: “But the whole procedure took 10 seconds. Gandolfini came in, saw the panorama and immediately shouted: “Come on, fuck you.” “Fuck you all,” recalled Albrecht, who also remembered that the actor looked at him defiantly and asked him to kill him in front of everyone to fire, and then angrily left the place. “While the others stood there stunned, one of his sisters chased him down the hallway, begging him to come back. But it doesn't work. Jimmy wasn’t ready to accept any of that.”
In his book, Kamine makes it clear that despite everything, Gandolfini was a popular presence on the set. Every Friday night, the actor was responsible for buying sushi for the entire team, and at every season finale he gave each team member a gift, often worth hundreds of dollars. When the series ended, he gave each of them a watch engraved with the words: “The Sopranos. 1997-2007. Rest in peace. Thank you very much. JG.”
Gandolfini died at the age of 51. He was in Rome with his second wife Deborah Lin, his newborn daughter Liliane and his eldest son Michael from his previous marriage to producer Marcy Wudarski. The whole family planned to go to the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily. It was his then 14-year-old son who found him in his hotel room.