Film Studies: So, Mr Soprano is having trouble with a contract

Now here's a story to start you worrying. James Gandolfini (otherwise known as Tony Soprano) has just filed a suit asking to be freed from his contract to the TV show. Which can be interpreted one of two ways: either Mr G, an actor of rare integrity, has reached the conclusion that the series is not worth proceeding with; or, seeing an eventual end to the bonanza of his life, he is trying to make more money for himself before the show concludes. I don't think you have to be a profound believer in "The Method" – with its notion that the actor becomes the character, and vice versa – to pick the likely answer.

Don't mock the possibility that Jimmy is becoming more like Tony. For many years, Mr Gandolfini was a big man but a small actor: he played supporting parts (as recently as the 1998 film, A Civil Action, where he is excellent as a working-class stiff). In his own business, he was much like his character in that film: esteemed, modestly paid, and not much noticed.

But in the past five years, he has become an international figure, playing a man who is a thug, a killer, a monster, but one looking for redemption or excuses. There can be no doubt that he has helped carry the show to glory. That means that Mr G has become universally recognisable, so that he can hardly enter a restaurant without being hailed as "big Tony", or without the instant repartee whereby friends, hangers-on and complete strangers seek to enlist themselves in the fantasy of being connected to a big time (if small-minded) crook. So there are jokes, Mafia kisses, and the complacent atmospherics of "Who did you kill today?"

This can be good for the acting, however perilous it is for what remains of the real person. Anyway, don't be astonished if Mr Gandolfini begins to feel his clout. Don't be taken aback if he starts thinking aloud to his lawyers, or to HBO, who make the show, that, really, what kind of an act is it without him? It is said that after the first series of The Sopranos – when its success was clear – he negotiated a new contract that gave him $400,000 an episode. (It is likely that the original contract, made when no one knew what would happen, was for $50,000 an episode – or less.) $400,000 a pop is not bad. It puts Mr G straightaway in that very small class of people in whom our President is interested. But it is a good deal less than is commanded by, say, the six stars from Friends, who get $1m each for a half-hour show. But Friends does a lot better than The Sopranos (still not available to every household in America), and it does far better in syndication re-runs.

Mr G is in mid-contract: he was signed for the next series (which is supposed to start filming on 26 March) at the $400,000 rate. But he wants to get out of it. He has other, technical objections, but they are mere legal language. He wants more money. And HBO has indicated that they are prepared to yield. It's just how much more money? Double? Of course, this is the showbiz version of leaning on people (you know where that comes from), and I'm sure it will all get settled. Mr G has a lot of power; the audience would be worse than hurt by his departure. And HBO will settle at some sum, quite quickly, to avoid the war going on during the filming period. Mr G is a shameless opportunist, but as an actor he knows that he will never have it as good again – his "lead" role in The Last Castle suggested that after The Sopranos he can go fishing. He isn't good enough to lose the shadow of "Tony" in other roles.

But there's more to it still. David Chase, the creator of the series, has always claimed that he wanted closure – a finale in which Tony and his world come crumbling down. As if The Sopranos was a great novel – which some critics claim. Meanwhile, HBO (far and away the most understanding TV network), has presented a counter-suit, suggesting that Gandolfini is threatening the life of the show. It's a new version of the old dilemma: should great TV fiction be shaped, like drama, or should it go on "forever" in the interest of making money? I don't know how many notice the irony, but the Mafia have made their ultimate aim: they are part of American business.

d.thomson@independent.co.uk