James Gandolfini's son banned from 'Sopranos' set, which drove him 'crazy'
James Gandolfini's son was born the year the "Sopranos" aired its first episode, and he was consistently banned from the set until the final season.
Michael Gandoflini, James' only child, shared that he would visit his dad on set, but was only allowed to be in his trailer.
"When I'd visit him on the 'Sopranos' set, I'd hang out in his trailer. I had my own little drawer of toys and things to keep me occupied. My parents didn't want me outside on set, exposed to the show's violence and language," Michael told the Wall Street Journal.
Michael said his parents, James and Marcy Wudarski, wanted him to enjoy being a kid.
"I already understood the idea of filmmaking and wanted to be a part of it. Being excluded on set drove me crazy. My parents were protective and wanted me to enjoy being a kid. From my father's perspective, if I was going to follow him into the business, he wanted me to discover acting on my own," he told the outlet.
"My parents didn't want me outside on set, exposed to the show's violence and language."
After his parents divorced when he was 3, Michael didn't see his father very often due to the "Sopranos" occupying a lot of his time.
"When I was 3, my parents divorced, so my dad moved to an apartment in nearby Tribeca. He was already playing Tony Soprano on 'The Sopranos' and would be away for about eight months at a time on set. It was hard on me. My mom, Marcy, was home with me a lot," Michael said.
He continued, "After their divorce, my parents remained close. Friends of the family stepped in to help raise me when my dad was away, and I enjoyed being home alone. I could write plays and perform them for my dad later."
When Michael was 12, however, he and his mother moved to Los Angeles and the "Sopranos" was over, so his interest in acting and being on television sets dwindled.
When he was in high school, he did a few school plays and, ultimately, decided to go to NYU to pursue acting.
"Oceans 8" was his first major role in 2018, and he starred as a young Tony Soprano in "The Many Saints of Newark."
"'The Many Saints of Newark' was a transformative role. To play Tony as a teen, I had to get a full sense of him, but I'd never watched an episode of 'The Sopranos.'" Michael admitted.
"Going through the series to prep wasn't like watching home movies. Tony was a role, and there were many layers to what my dad was doing with the character," he noted.
James died suddenly in 2013 after suffering from a heart attack while on a family vacation with Micheal in Italy. James was 51 when he died and Michael was 13.
Michael told the outlet that his father's death was a "heavy blow."
"I still have a relationship with my father. I talk to him whenever I'm looking for guidance or I'm going through something significant," he said.
In the HBO series, James starred as Tony Soprano, the brutish mob boss with a tortured psyche. The show ran for six seasons between 1999 and 2007.
In 2024, Mark Kamine, the location manager for "Sopranos," told Fox News Digital that James was battling demons off-set.
"He was shy," Kamine recalled. "He wasn't a boisterous or loud personality. He wasn't scary – Tony often was. Jim pretty much kept to himself… But then, you saw this powerful character who commanded a room. He became Tony so quickly on set. But it wasn't easy, even for him."
"You saw how disturbed he would get by the things he had to say in character," Kamine revealed. "He would try to argue with [creator] David [Chase], 'I don't want to say these words. I don't see the reason why he has to be overtly outspokenly racist or sexist.' David was always like, 'But that's the character, Jim. Get used to it.' Jim understood that, but it just hurt him to be that way. He wasn't like that at all."
Despite his quiet demeanor, Gandolfini was generous on set and didn't think twice about offering a helping hand to whoever needed it.
"He would write checks for people," said Kamine. "Every Friday night he would pay for this enormous banquet of sushi for the shooting crew. I remember every Friday night, trucks would just roll out, and this massive spread would come out – and it didn't matter where we were filming. He was really a great guy."
But Gandolfini also had a different side. His drinking was well known on set, Kamine alleged.
"We lost dates because of that," Kamine claimed. "HBO wrote it into a contract one year that he would pay [if he missed a day] because it was very expensive to film a show like that. I think at the time it could cost $150,000-$250,000 per day. No one likes to lose that kind of money and not get anything done. I know that they wrote into his contract that he would pay for any days that he missed. I don't think they ever charged him."
"He had those issues," Kamine reflected. "I think part of his personality was overcoming the shyness or being uncomfortable with so much success so quickly. Who knows?"
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