Stars Who Needed Acting Coaching On Set
When James Gandolfini suddenly passed away in 2013 aged just 51, there was an outpouring of grief from fans and colleagues alike. The man best-known for playing New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano in HBO's classic mafia series was highly respected by those who worked with him, as the tributes to Gandolfini (who was struck down with a heart attack while on vacation in Rome) showed. Speaking to Reuters after Gandolfini's Manhattan funeral service, actor George Loros called his departed co-worker "gifted."
"He could be talking like you and I are talking right now, and then he could be called to the set and be just brutal," Loros, who played mobster-turned-FBI informant Ray Curto, said. "He had such a God-given gift." The actress who played Tony's mother as a young woman in the early seasons of the show was also in attendance, and she let an interesting piece of information slip—Gandolfini had an acting coach on-set back then.
"That was so sweet, and I remember that about him the most, just how badly he wanted to do a good job," Laila Robins said. "He worked so hard." It might come as a shock to fans of The Sopranos to hear that Gandolfini needed to be coached, but the actor was actually insecure in the now iconic role to begin with. "I thought they would hire someone a little more debonair, some good-looking guy, not George Clooney, but some Italian George Clooney," he's quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
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