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Actor Robert Patrick has revealed the time that Sopranos star James Gandolfini terrified him on the set of the classic TV show. Patrick was a guest on the Talking Sopranos podcast, which is hosted by Sopranos actors Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa.
Terminator 2 star Patrick played the character David Scatino in three episodes of The Sopranos Season 3, back in 2000. In one scene, Tony Soprano, played by Gandolfini, has to physically assault Scatino in order to get some money he is owed. Via Insider, Patrick revealed that he had never met Gandolfini before the day they rehearsed this scene and was told by producers to “provoke” Gandolfini ahead of shooting.
As a result, Patrick told Gandolfini that he “better bring your f***ing A-game,” to the scene, to which Gandolfini replied, “Oh, I’ll bring my f***ing A-game.”
When the actors reconvened to shoot the scene, Patrick said Gandolfini was in no mood to mess around. “[Gandolfini] came in and said, ‘How’s your balls?’ I said, ‘They’re fine.’ And he said, ‘I’m hungover, let’s do this f***ing scene,'” said Patrick.
“And man, it was one take,” he said. “We kind of went through what he was going to do. He was going to grab me and he was going to throw me around, and I’m going to start crying like a little girl. And I got to tell you, he scared the living s*** out of me, man. I mean, I was so intimidated.”
Gandolfini died in 2013, six years after the Sopranos ended. His son Michael Gandolfini is set to play Tony in the prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark, which hits theaters and HBO Max on October 1. The film is set during the 1960s, and follows the young Tony as he finds himself in the middle of a violent gang war. Check out the Many Saints of Newark trailer here.
