Long before scores of women came forward and told the world how much of a monster the convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein was, the now-disgraced Hollywood mogul had a reputation for clashing with creative collaborators. Among the many filmmakers and actors to threatened Weinstein with violence was none other than “The Sopranos” star and late actor James Gandolfini.
During a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, “The Sopranos” actors Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperioli revealed that Gandolfini, who passed away in 2013, once threatened to beat the crap out of Weinstein. Apparently, Gandolfini was staunchly opposed to doing talk show interviews throughout his career, only ever agreeing to a sit-down interview with “60 Minutes.” Of course, Weinstein was unable to respect the actor’s wishes.
It was while promoting the film “Killing Them Softly,” which Gandolfini co-starred in alongside Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, and Ray Liotta, and was distributed by The Weinstein Company. Harvey Weinstein kept pushing Gandolfini to make an appearance on “The Late Show With David Letterman” to promote the movie, despite Gandolfini refusing repeatedly. At the time, Gandolfini aired his frustrations with Schirripa and other actors from “The Sopranos” while in his trailer.
“[Gandolfini] said, ‘Harvey Weinstein keeps calling, he wants me to do Letterman and I said no,'” Schirripa said. “And he got fucking nasty with Jim. And Jim said, ‘I will beat the fuck out of Harvey Weinstein! He fucking calls me again, I will beat the fuck out of him! For the money he paid me, I’m not fucking doing it!’ Swear to God. And this is before all the Harvey Weinstein shit when he was still king shit.”
Of course, James Gandolfini is far from the only actor to try and do everyone a favor and threatened Weinstein with violence. In 1995, Brad Pitt threatened to outright kill Weinstein after learning from his then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow that Weinstein had sexually harassed her. A few years later, one of Hayao Miyazaki‘s producers sent Weinstein a samurai sword as a warning not to make any cuts to the U.S. release of “Princess Mononoke.”
