Former HBO Exec Says James Gandolfini Dared Him to 'Fire' the Actor from The Sopranos After Staged Intervention

James Gandolfini breathed life into the role of Tony Soprano, but doing so may have come at a cost for the actor. In the new documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, which premiered on Saturday, Sept. 7, former HBO CEO Chris Albrecht recalled how he once staged an intervention with Gandolfini to convince the actor to enter rehab for his struggles with alcohol. “We did an intervention with him at my apartment in New York,” Albrecht said. “That was to try to get him to go to a facility for rehab. We’d had a lot of friction by that point. The ruse was that I was inviting Jimmy over so we could talk things through and kind of clear the air. And then he came up… We’d had the rehearsal the day before or whatever — his sister, everybody were there — and he saw everybody sitting there, and he went, ‘Aw, f--- this.’ … He turned to me and he went, ‘Fire me,’ and he left.” Gandolfini ultimately helped carry the show for six seasons from 1999 to 2007, earning three Emmys for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for his portrayal of Tony.