James Gandolfini threatened to ‘beat the f***’ out of Harvey Weinstein, says Steve Schirripa

Late actor got fed up after movie mogul ‘got nasty’ with him

James Gandolfini once became so upset with Harvey Weinstein that he wanted to physically attack him, his Sopranos co-star Steve Schrippa has said.

Schirripa and Michael Imperioli were guests on the Joe Rogan Experience this week, where they reflected on their time with Gandolfini on the HBO show.

On the podcast, Schirripa recalled a moment when Gandolfini, who died of a heart attack in 2013, wanted to beat up Weinstein because the since-disgraced movie mogul kept pressuring him to appear on late-night talk shows.

According to Schirripa, Gandolfini didn’t want to do these sorts of shows because he didn’t think he was "interesting".

After Gandolfini starred in The Weinstein Company’s 2012 film Killing Them Softly, Schirripa remembers sitting in the late actor’s trailer and hearing him complain about Weinstein nagging him to promote the film on The Late Show With David Letterman.

"He said, 'Harvey Weinstein keeps calling, he wants me to do Letterman and I said no,'" Schirripa said.

"And he got f***ing nasty with Jim. And Jim said, 'I will beat the fuck out of Harvey Weinstein! He f***ing calls me again, I will beat the f*** out of him! For the money he paid me, I'm not f***ing doing it!' Swear to God. And this is before all the Harvey Weinstein s*** when he was still king s***.”

This is not the first story to emerge about celebrities threatening Weinstein. Two years ago, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed her then boyfriend Brad Pitt threatened to kill Weinstein after he allegedly acted inappropriately towards her in a hotel room in 1995.