• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • ABOUT US
  • MEDIA
  • PRIVACY
  • TERMS
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS
do you remember

DoYouRemember?

The Home of Nostalgia

  • Celebrity News
    • Family
    • Obituaries
    • Life Behind the Fame
    • ICONS
    • Celebrity Feuds
  • Entertainment
    • Cast
    • Showbiz Rewind
    • Music
    • Beauty & fashion
  • STORIES
  • Celebrity Buzz!?
  • Sitcoms
    • Bewitched
    • Little Rascals
    • The Partridge Family
    • I Dream of Jeannie
    • All in the Family
    • MASH
    • Happy Days
    • Cheers
  • Celebrity Collections
  • SHOP DYR
    • DYR Book

Stories

James Gandolfini Threw A “Tantrum” Against Dirty ‘Sopranos’ Scenes

by Dana Daly

Published October 26, 2021

James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano

Throughout its six-season runtime, The Sopranos famously featured mature themes, even more mature language, and no shortage of matching adult visuals. Indeed, the Parental Guide specifically warns about sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, and drug use, to name just some of the big ones. It was all to be expected. The series star, James Gandolfini, however, actually protested a lot of these more raunchy moments, to the point of throwing a “tantrum.”

New details emerge from Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, a new book that outlines the “exclusive, explosive, uninhibited true story of HBO and how it burst onto the American scene and screen to detonate a revolution and transform our relationship with television forever,” per its Amazon listing. Thanks to its pages, due out November 23, we know more about the late actor’s time on set, after he passed away in 2013.

Related:

  1. ‘The Sopranos’ Star Michael Imperioli Honors James Gandolfini On His Heavenly Birthday
  2. James Gandolfini’s Son Will Play Young Tony Soprano In ‘The Many Saints Of Newark’

James Gandolfini threw a tantrum at some raunchy ‘Sopranos’ scenes

The Sopranos famously featured plenty of mature scenes that justified its high rating
The Sopranos famously featured plenty of mature scenes that justified its high rating / YouTube

At one point in the series’ script, the writers gave Gandolfini a scene in which his character, capo Tony Soprano, pleasures himself while in a gas station parking lot. This is just one scene in a broader context of mature, sometimes outright raunchy moments in the show, and this one got an outright “tantrum” from Gandolfini, according to Tinderbox. Ultimately, Gandolfini did film the scene, though it was cut from the final version of the episode.

RELATED: Michael Gandolfini Opens Up About Playing His Late Father’s Iconic Character

Nevertheless, there were plenty more like that to protest, and Gandofini certainly did, not always with an outright tantrum, but by being vocal about his opinions on the matter. Tinderbox author James Andrew Miller wrote for New York magazine, “There were … fitful bouts of disruptive incredulousness as he reacted to certain scripts he was handed.”

Objections against the iconically expected from an iconic actor

When James Gandolfini read one scene he was especially against, he was said to have thrown a tantrum
When James Gandolfini read one scene he was especially against, he was said to have thrown a tantrum / HBO via Deadline

“Gandolfini … would sometimes balk at a particular scene,” Miller further outlined, “and instead of asking [showrunner David] Chase, ‘Do I have to do this?’ he would wonder out loud, ‘What the f–k is this?’ and then declare flatly, ‘I’m not doing it.’”

Co-star Edie Falco, who described Gandolfini as her “acting soulmate,” came to see Gandolfini’s responses in a certain light. “My interpretation is that the whole time, he was, like, ‘What the hell is going on?’” she shared. Falco further shared of Gandolfini, “He was totally un-actor-y, and was incredibly self-deprecating, and he was a real soulmate in that regard,” and their preparations were less like reading scripts, and more like “two kids playing in the sandbox, completely immersed in their imaginary world. That’s what it felt like.”

New insights into iconic HBO titles like The Sopranos come from Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers
New insights into iconic HBO titles like The Sopranos come from Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers / Amazon

RELATED: Tony Soprano’s House For Sale Starting At $3.4 Million

Next up: Extreme Couponers Arrested In $31.8 Million Fraud Scheme
Previous article: Extreme Couponers Arrested In $31.8 Million Fraud Scheme
Next Post: Paul McCartney Blames Another Beatles Member For Breaking Up The Group

Primary Sidebar

© 2025 DoYouRemember? Inc.

  • about us
  • media
  • privacy
  • terms
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS