Tony Soprano is not forced to act against his will by anyone. The “The Sopranos” actors Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperioli revealed that James Gandolfini once became so enraged with Harvey Weinstein that the Tony Soprano actor threatened to “beat the fuck” out of the now-disgraced film producer and convicted rapist. They made this revelation while promoting their own “Talking Sopranos” podcast series on Joe Rogan’s podcast this week.
During the promotion for Andrew Dominik’s 2012 neo-noir crime film “Killing Them Softly,” which starred the star of “The Sopranos” alongside Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, and Ray Liotta, Gandolfini and Weinstein crossed paths. The movie’s distributor was The Weinstein Company. Gandolfini consistently refused to participate in talk show interviews because he believed he wasn’t “interesting enough,” but Weinstein broke this rule. When Weinstein repeatedly called Gandolfini when the actor and Schirripa were filming “Killing Them Softly,” the latter was under pressure to promote the film on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
According to Schirripa, “[Gandolfini] said, ‘Harvey Weinstein keeps calling, he wants me to do Letterman and I said no. And Jim and [Weinstein] became fucking vicious. And Jim declared, “I’ll beat Harvey Weinstein to a pulp!” If he phones me once more, I’ll beat the heck out of him! I’m not doing it for the money he paid me, fuck! vouch for God. And this was back when Harvey Weinstein was still king shit, before all the crap happened.
James Gandolfini is by no means the only actor who has expressed threats against the scandalised film producer. Back in 1995, after his then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow told him that Weinstein had harassed her sexually, Brad Pitt threatened to murder the actor. A few years later, one of Hayao Miyazaki’s producers sent Weinstein a samurai sword as a warning not to make any changes to the theatrical release of “Princess Mononoke” in the United States.
Weinstein is in incarcerated for 23 years after being found guilty of rape and sexual abuse. After a string of films, including “Killing Them Softly,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and “Enough Said,” which was released posthumously and won the late actor awards for Best Supporting Actor at both the Indie Spirit Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Gandolfini passed away in June 2013.
