Former HBO Exec Says James Gandolfini Dared Him to ‘Fire’ the Actor After Intervention

James Gandolfini breathed life into the role of Tony Soprano, but doing so may have come at a cost for the actor.

In the new documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, which premiered on Saturday, Sept. 7, former HBO CEO Chris Albrecht recalled how he once staged an intervention with Gandolfini to convince the actor to enter rehab for his struggles with alcohol.  

“We did an intervention with him at my apartment in New York,” Albrecht said. “That was to try to get him to go to a facility for rehab. We’d had a lot of friction by that point. The ruse was that I was inviting Jimmy over so we could talk things through and kind of clear the air. And then he came up… We’d had the rehearsal the day before or whatever — his sister, everybody were there — and he saw everybody sitting there, and he went, ‘Aw, f— this.’ … He turned to me and he went, ‘Fire me,’ and he left.”

Gandolfini ultimately helped carry the show for six seasons from 1999 to 2007, earning three Emmys for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for his portrayal of Tony.

He died on June 19, 2013 at age 51 of a heart attack. Although the show’s creator David Chase admitted at the time of the actor’s death that he “wasn’t easy sometimes,” Chase was quick to point out that the three-time Emmy winner was “one of the greatest actors of this or any time.”

“A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes,” Chase continued. “I remember telling him many times, ‘You don’t get it. You’re like Mozart.’ There would be silence at the other end of the phone.”

Chase cast a wide net when initially trying to cast Tony for The Sopranos. Chase revealed in Wise Guy that he eventually discovered Gandolfini, who initially thought he’d flubbed his audition but gave it another go at Chase’s home, where he nailed the part.

“Bang,” said Chase, adding, “It was pretty obvious when Jim did [it]. He was Tony.”

Through his powerful performance on the HBO drama, Gandolfini became a bonafide star. Ultimately, the actor is remembered by many of the show’s cast and crew as a gifted, well-meaning artist.

Drea de Matteo recalled how Gandolfini gave many members of the cast more than $30,000 each when after a round of negotiations with HBO that upped the actor’s salary to $1 million an episode.

“When Jim got the deal, none of us knew it was even on the table,” de Matteo said. “We didn’t know to negotiate. I think he felt terrible about that, so he called us all into his trailer one-by-one and gave everybody a check for $30,000.”

Falco, for her part, mused that she never received a check from Gandolfini, but added that the good deed “sounds like him.”

“He was a very good-hearted, kind man looking out for his friends,” added Falco.

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Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is available to stream on Max. Seasons 1 to 6 of The Sopranos are also available on the streaming platform.