James Gandolfini found the relentless violence inherent in his iconic role on The Sopranos deeply challenging, a co-star has revealed.
Steve Schirripa, who portrayed mobster Bobby Bacala, explained that while the series captivated millions for almost a decade, the demands of playing its titular character began to weigh heavily on Gandolfini.
“That bothered him, having to be angry all the time, that started getting to him,” the 68-year-old told the Press Association.
Schirripa noted this struggle intensified towards the latter half of the show’s run.
He highlighted Gandolfini’s gruelling schedule, which involved “16-hour days, five days a week,” where he “had to kill people, he had to yell, be angry, every day, every day, every day.”
Reflecting on the toll, Schirripa added: “For some people, it’s easy. For some people, it’s not. I think it started bothering him.” Gandolfini tragically died from a heart attack in Rome in 2013, aged 51.
Schirripa, speaking ahead of the Talking Sopranos tour with co-star Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher Moltisanti, said while Gandolfini “was not without his problems”, he cared about people.
“He was a good guy,” he said.
“[He was] a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs. As a cast, a lot of us hung around together off camera and we had a lot of fun.
“We travelled together a lot. We knew each other’s families. You’re together nine or 10 years, people went through marriages, divorces, had babies, so it really did become like a family.
“A lot of parties, a lot of cast parties, Christmas parties. Every time somebody got killed off, we took them out to dinner.
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“Jim was a good guy, a generous guy, not without problems, which has been said over and over, but a nice guy, and he gave a shit about people.”
Schirripa said the show would go from “hysterical” to “extremely violent” with a single episode, or even scene – but he said that showed the brilliance of the writing.
He said: “I think that’s why it’s still endorsed because it was funny, it was sad, it was violent. It was all of these things.
“It wasn’t one thing, you know, it wasn’t just a mob show. It went deep. It’s about capitalism. It’s about family. It’s about a lot of things.
“It’s not just about mob guys hanging out in the strip club, killing people. It’s much deeper and much more complicated. It’s a very smart show.”
The honesty and realism of the show, Schirripa said, was its strength – and that included “horrible” scenes where viewers would turn away, including of murder and rape.
But Schirripa does not think any of it was too far, because ultimately it was a show about bad people.
He said: “I think the show shows what these guys are all about.
“I think the writers, you know, when you’re saying it’s funny, I think the writers knew it was funny, and this is a great show, and then they took you back to reality, that these are bad people.
“Let’s not bullshit ourselves. These guys are bad guys. They’re not, you know, fun-loving characters.
“They take you back to reality to show you these are bad guys, you know, they’re sociopaths, they’re psychopaths.
“They kill in a drop of a dime and then go sit down and eat a steak dinner.”
This type of writing, Schirripa says, is the reason the show “still holds up very much like it was written today”.
“I think 50 years from now people will still be watching it,” he added.
Talking Sopranos will be in Edinburgh on Saturday and Glasgow on Sunday before heading to other UK cities.
