HBO made James Gandolfini an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Recently on the “Talking Sopranos” podcast, actor Michael Imperioli told co-host and former "Sopranos" co-star Steve Schirripa that HBO offered James Gandolfini three million dollars not to join the cast of "The Office."
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“I think before James Spader and after [Steve] Carell, they offered Jim, I want to say $4 million to play him for the season,” said Imperioli, "and HBO paid him $3 million not to do it. That’s a fact.”
As Complex reports, in 2011 -- the 8th season of “The Office” and four years after “The Sopranos” ended -- “The Office” brought in James Spader to take over the boss role that Steve Carell just exited. Prior, NBC had narrowed their search down to Spader and Gandolfini, and Imperioli implies NBC’s first choice was Gandolfini.
And why not? Via "The Sopranos," he proved himself to be one of the greatest television actors of all time.
The thought of him in that role would have perhaps made for an even more imposing, dominant presence than the odd, creepy mystery man that Spader turned the role into.
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Of course Spader is no acting slouch, and he turned out great for the role. That infamous casting process was previously mentioned in the Andy Greene book, "The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History."
It’s just that, as Greene wrote in the book, “The Office” producers, Paul Feig and B.J. Novak, were sold on Gandolfini, and though he wasn’t 100% sure about it, he did take the role before eventually getting cold feet. Gandolfini backed out and Spader swooped in.
It’s true that Gandolfini had a deal signed with HBO at the time to star in the mini-series, “The Night Of,” which sadly did not happen due to Gandolfini’s passing in 2013. But the three million seemed more geared towards the legacy of the past than a possible future mini-series.
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During the podcast, the original “The Office” boss, Ricky Gervais, chimed in, “So they paid him [Gandolfini] that to keep the legacy of The Sopranos pure? Well, that’s a good decision.”
And an expensive one at that.
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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