James Gandolfini was best known for his award-winning performance as mob boss Tony Soprano in the hit crime drama The Sopranos, but he almost ended up as the star of the US version of The Office.
Chatting with comedian Ricky Gervais on an episode of their podcast Talking Sopranos, the late actor's co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa revealed James was offered a plumb job in the comedy prior to his death.
They revealed the 51-year-old actor - who would have celebrated his 60th birthday today - came very close to replacing Steve Carell in The Office: An American Workplace in 2011.
Ricky was discussing the joy of seeing Steve play Michael Scott, the role inspired by his character David Brent in the original BBC series.
Michael, who played Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti, then asked Ricky: "You know, they talked about having Gandolfini at one point replace him [Steve Carell], did you know that?"
When Extras star Ricky revealed he was unaware of that piece of the show's history, the two actors filled the comedian in on how the unlikely casting almost came about.
"So we've talked about it before,' Steve, who played Tony's brother-in-law Bobby Baccalieri, told the 60-year-old funnyman.
"I think before James Spader and after (Steve) Carell, they offered Jim, I want to say $4 million dollars to play him for the season and HBO paid him $3 million not to do it."
"That's a fact," the 63-year-old actor concluded.
The Office creator reacted, approving of HBO's intervention, responding with: "Well that's a good decision."
Steve continued the story: "Jim was going do it because he hadn't worked and it was a number of years removed from when the show ended."
"So they paid him that to keep the legacy of The Sopranos pure?" Ricky questioned the former co-star of the late actor.
"I guess that and also he had a deal with them," he answers.
"The Night Of, he was developing that."
"Ah right okay, I wasn't really involved by then," Ricky goes on to confess.
"I, you know - it certainly had its day but at it's peak I though it was great!"
"You can't keep the level, the level of quality of 300 episodes. Of course some episodes are going to be better than others, and of course it's going to wain here and there," the After Life star continued.
"It's an unrealistic expectation to think you can do 300 amazing episodes. Even with 24 writers and 19 producers or whatever."
He finished up, praising the show which made the podcast hosts household names.
"Which is why Sopranos is so remarkable," he told Steve and Michael.
"Again, go back to it - it's remarkable."
The Sopranos is widely recognised as one of the greatest television series of all time.
The series, created by David Chase, won a multitude of awards, including 21 Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards.
The Talking Sopranos podcast sees co-stars Michael and Steve host the definitive Sopranos re-watch podcast and look back over the their time on the groundbreaking crime drama.
In September 2020, it was revealed that the behind-the-scenes podcast had reached over five million downloads and that the acting duo had signed a deal with Harper Collins to write an oral history of The Sopranos.
