The Sopranos’ Steven Van Zandt Says James Gandolfini Contemplated Quitting the Show ‘Every Other Day’: ‘It Just Got to Him’

James Gandolfini’s portrayal of Tony Soprano remains one of the greatest TV performances of the last 25 years, but working on the show day in and day out proved extremely taxing for the gifted actor.

In the new documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, which debuted Saturday, Sept. 5, The Sopranos castmember Steven Van Zandt, who played Silvio Dante, recalls how Gandolfini would declare he was quitting “every other day.”

“Every other day, we would go to a bar. We would have the exact same conversation,” Van Zandt explained. “We would get drunk. He’d say, ‘I’m done. I’m not going back.'”

“I would say, ‘Okay. You’ve got a hundred people depending on you here,” he continued. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, okay.’ He would come back. But a few times, he would disappear for a few days. You know, it just got to him.”

Wise Guy, which includes interviews with Sopranos creator David Chase, Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco and Drea de Matteo, uses archival footage of Gandolfini from various interviews over the years. During one particular sit-down in the documentary, Gandolfini acknowledged he didn’t realize at first how demanding being the lead on a TV show would be.

“I had no clue. I walked in with a big smile on my face,” Gandolfini said. “I got punched right in the nose, and I said, ‘Okay. I’ve got to figure out some way to do this. I have no clue how to prepare for it.’”

For the actor, shooting sometimes started by 6 a.m. and lasted 14 hours, with 12-hour intervals in-between when shooting wraps for the actor and when it starts up again.

“Then you’ve got to go home, and you’ve got to memorize seven or eight pages — four or five scenes — for the next day,” he added. “They can work you later on a Friday night, so Friday you’re usually there until 2 or 3 in the morning. Sometimes, we’ve seen the sun come up on Saturday.”

Gandolfini also pushed himself emotionally, with Chase recalling that the actor told him he had to explore places that were “destructive” and “painful.” Falco, for her part, believes the role “may have taken a toll on him.”

“He was incredibly invested in making that character believable, and unless you’re really diligent, you’re going to end up taking your work home, and as an actor, that’s not always a great idea,” she added.

As much as Gandolfini may have suffered for his art, there’s no disputing the impact his performance had. The actor, who died on June 19, 2023 at age 51 from a heart attack, earned three Emmy Awards for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for his powerful portrayal of Tony.

When Gandolfini died, Chase summed up his creative partner well.

“He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes,” Chase said then, adding, “He wasn’t easy sometimes. But he was my partner, he was my brother in ways I can’t explain and never will be able to explain.”

The Sopranos had been off the air for six years by then, but the series had already secured a lasting legacy. It’s now widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” Chase told PEOPLE in January. “It’s probably the best thing I ever will do.”

Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is available to stream on Max. Seasons 1 to 6 of The Sopranos are also available on the streaming platform.