Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Sopranos star James Gandolfini was ‘paid $3m’ to turn down lead role in The US Office

Late actor came close to replacing Steve Carell for a season

Louis Chilton
Wednesday 14 July 2021 09:51 EDT
Comments
The Soprano family meet for dinner in final episode Made in America

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Late Sopranos actor James Gandolfini was allegedly paid $3m by HBO to turn down the lead role in the US remake of The Office.

He was offered the role when the popular sitcom was already partway through its run, and was seeking a replacement for Steve Carell.

Gandolfini’s co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa discussed the incident on their Talking Sopranos podcast, having welcomed on Ricky Gervais (creator of the UK Office) as a guest.

“You know, they talked about having Gandolfini at one point replace [Carell], did you know that?” asked Imperioli, who played Tony Soprano’s nephew Christopher Moltisanti.

Schirripa, who played Tony’s brother-in-law Bobby Baccala, said: “I think before James Spader and after Carell, they offered Jim, I want to say $4m to play him for the season and HBO paid him $3m not to do it. That’s a fact.”

“That’s a good decision,” Gervais replied.

Schirripa added that Gandolfini “was going do it” because he was looking for work and it was “a number of years removed from when [The Sopranos] ended”.

“So they paid him that to keep the legacy of The Sopranos pure?” asked Gervais.

“I guess that and also he had a deal with them,” responded Schirripa, adding that he was involved in developing the HBO miniseries The Night Of.

After Gandolfini’s death, his role in The Night Of was taken by John Turturro.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in