There was more trouble behind the camera of HBO’s hit series “The Sopranos” than viewers saw in front of it.
Actor Robert Patrick told the “Talking Sopranos” podcast that James Gandolfini was “hungover” and scared the “living s---” out of him during one of the fight scenes in season 2.
Listen to the “Talking Sopranos” podcast on Audacy
Patrick told podcast hosts Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, who were both series regulars, that he was told to provoke Gandolfini prior to filming despite not having met the actor before.
"'You know the scene where you come to get your money, you better bring your f---ing A-game,'" Patrick said to Gandolfini after a read-through on set, to which Gandolfini responded, "Oh, I'll bring my f---ing A-game."
Patrick then recalled the following day when they were scheduled to shoot their scene.
"[Gandolfini] came in and said, 'I'm hungover, let's do this f---ing scene,'" Patrick said of the day on set.
He continued, "and man, it was one take. We kind of went through what he was going to do. He was going to grab me and he was going to throw me around, and I'm going to start crying like a little girl. And I got to tell you, he scared the living s--- out of me man. I mean, I was so intimidated."
Patrick later told the podcast that his work on “The Sopranos” is “one of the highlights of my career."
"It was a fantastic experience," he said.
Related
James Gandolfini played the Italian-American crime boss Tony Soprano for the show's entire six-season run on HBO. Gandolfini died in 2013 of a heart attack at the age of 51.
Gandolfini's “Sopranos” legacy will continue when his real life son, Michael Gandolfini, plays a young Tony Soprano in the upcoming prequel film, “The Many Saints of Newark,” due out October 31.
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