{"id":61407,"date":"2021-09-11T03:42:15","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T22:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/drunk-james-gandolfini-chained-to-a-tree-on-sopranos-set\/"},"modified":"2021-09-11T03:45:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T22:15:11","slug":"drunk-james-gandolfini-chained-to-a-tree-on-sopranos-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/drunk-james-gandolfini-chained-to-a-tree-on-sopranos-set\/","title":{"rendered":"Drunk James Gandolfini chained to a tree on &#8216;Sopranos&#8217; set"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cSometimes it\u2019s important to give people the illusion of being in control,\u201d Tony Soprano once said, even if that means being chained to a tree.<\/p>\n<p>Renewed interest in HBO\u2019s iconic mob series \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d has surely engulfed fans with their upcoming prequel film \u201cThe Many Saints of Newark\u201d and the series <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbomax.com\/grw-sopr?utm_id=sa%7C71700000066889340%7C58700007096555631%7Cp63848626264&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwhOyJBhA4EiwAEcJdcV9nZYAv0ZDQhP4MXJ2mwCxeR3Tm00HYv_1tGh3RAcgULAlHlJYJ5RoCfxEQAvD_BwE&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">hitting HBO\u2019s streaming service. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stars of the show are now sharing stories from the set and reminiscing about the late great Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Schirripa, who portrayed Bobby Baccalieri, recently spoke about a moment during filming where Gandolfini\u00a0and Michael Imperioli got so drunk before shooting a scene that they had to be chained to a tree.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the break, while they set up the lights, Michael and Jim [Gandolfini] drank a bottle of Wild Turkey,\u201d Schirripa told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insider.com\/james-gandolfini-michael-imperioli-sopranos-filming-steve-schirripa-interview-2021-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Insider<\/a>. \u201cThey were so drunk that they had to chain their legs to a tree, because they were afraid they were going to fall off the cliff,\u201d Schirripa added.<\/p>\n<p>The scene in question was the moment in Season 4, where\u00a0Tony and Christopher Moltisanti (played by Imperioli) threw the body of Ralphie Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) off a cliff.<\/p>\n<p>Another one of the drama\u2019s stars, Robert Patrick, sat down with Imperioli and Schirripa on their podcast\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5c3i33JzfBE&amp;feature=emb_title\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cTalking Sopranos<\/a>\u201d last month. The trio discussed Patrick\u2019s first day on set where he tried to jokingly provoke Gandolfini about coming to work hungover.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption>Imperioli and Gandolfini got so drunk during a Season 4 episode that they had to be physically restrained.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">FilmMagic<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI had never met Mr. Gandolfini,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cI am out front on a bench smoking a cigarette with Jimmy after we\u2019d just done this read through. And we\u2019re trying to get to know each other a little bit because we\u2019re supposed to be high school buddies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cAs the conversation was winding up, I said to him, \u2018You know the scene where you come to get your money, you better bring your f \u2013 \u2013 king A-game.\u2019 And he looked at me said, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll bring my f \u2013 \u2013 king\u00a0A-game.\u2019\u201d Before walking off, Gandolfini threw his cigarette at Patrick.<\/p>\n<p>When the two actors saw each other again \u201c[Gandolfini] came in and said, \u2018How\u2019s your balls?\u2019 I said, \u2018They\u2019re fine.\u2019 And he said, \u2018I\u2019m hungover, let\u2019s do this f \u2013 \u2013 king scene,\u2019\u201d Patrick said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd man, it was one take. And he scared the living s \u2013 \u2013 t out of me. I was so intimidated. What a fantastic experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19414036\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/gandolfini-tree-hp.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/gandolfini-tree-hp.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/gandolfini-tree-hp.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/gandolfini-tree-hp.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" alt=\" Michael Imperioli and James Gandolfini \" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" \/><figcaption>Steve Schirripa discussed a moment during filming where \u201cSopranos\u201d stars Michael Imperioli and James Gandolfini got a little too tipsy.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Patrick McMullan via Getty Image<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSometimes it\u2019s important to give people the illusion of being in control,\u201d Tony Soprano once said, even if that means being chained to a tree. &#8230; <a title=\"Drunk James Gandolfini chained to a tree on &#8216;Sopranos&#8217; set\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/drunk-james-gandolfini-chained-to-a-tree-on-sopranos-set\/\" aria-label=\"More on Drunk James Gandolfini chained to a tree on &#8216;Sopranos&#8217; set\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":61408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,2,93],"tags":[155],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}