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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
Former HBO CEO Chris Albrecht has recalled the time The Sopranos star James Gandolfini stormed out of an intervention.
Albrecht makes the recollection in the new Max docuseries Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, which shows the writer and director reflecting on the series by sharing insights into its creation, casting and classic scenes.
“We did an intervention with him at my apartment in New York,” Albrecht said in the documentary. “That was to try to get him to go to a facility for rehab. We’d had a lot of friction by that point, and the ruse was that I was inviting Jimmy over so we could talk things through and kind of clear the air.”
Gandolfini suffered from alcohol and drug abuse for years amid the pressure of leading the hit series.
Attendees at the intervention included Gandolfini’s sisters and several of his castmates, said Albrecht. “He walked in, and he saw everybody sitting there, and he went, ‘Aw, f— this.’ And he walked out.
“Everybody went, ‘Jimmy, Jimmy!’ And he turned to me and he went, ‘Fire me,’ and he left.”
Gandolfini ultimately led the show through its entire six seasons from 1999 to 2007.
Steven Van Zandt, who starred opposite Gandolfini as Silvio Dante, noted that the actor often threatened to exit the production.
“He probably quit the show every other day. Maybe every day,” said Van Zandt in the documentary. “Every other day we would go to a bar and we would have the exact same conversation. We’d get drunk and [he’d] say, ‘I’m done. I can’t, I’m not going back.’ And I would say, ‘Okay, you got a hundred people depending on you here.’ And he’s like, ‘Ah, yeah, yeah, okay.’”
His onscreen wife Edie Falco added: “He was incredibly invested in making that character believable, and unless you’re really diligent you can end up taking your work home. And as an actor, that’s not always a great idea.”
The Sopranos creator David Chase likened Gandolfini to his acerbic mobster character. “He was really a good guy and really complicated,” Chase said in Wise Guy. “You might say, and I’m not sure about this, maybe there was more Tony there than he wanted to admit. That it was too easy for him.”
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Gandolfini died of a heart attack on June 19, 2013, at the age of 51.
Earlier this year, fellow Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli penned a heartfelt tribute to mark the 11th anniversary of Gandolfini’s death.
“Dear Jim, Thinking of you today as now you’ve been gone 11 years,” Imperioli, who played Christopher Moltisanti, wrote on Instagram. “And your absence feels as strange, sudden and not real as it did on that terrible day 11 years ago.
“Today I was thinking about when I came backstage after seeing you on Broadway in God of Carnage. This was 2 years after The Sopranos ended. You were so happy doing a play again after so many years away from the stage.
“You told me ‘I feel like a real actor again.’ Now I know what you meant by that as the show I’m doing approaches its 130th performance! Wish you could see it…As the years go by I grow more proud of the work we did together. And the memories of all the fun we had and all the laughs grow more and more precious. Wish we could make another run. Perhaps we will.
“Thank you again dear friend. Miss you. Love Michael.”
Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is available to stream on Max, as are all six seasons of The Sopranos.
