Drea de Matteo has blasted a new book that highlights her ‘Sopranos’ co-star James Gandolfini’s drugs battles.
Drea de Matteo has blasted a new book that highlights her ‘Sopranos’ co-star James Gandolfini’s drugs battles
The actress, 52, famed for playing Christopher Moltisanti’s long-suffering girlfriend Adriana La Cerva on the hit HBO mafia show alongside James – who was killed by a heart attack aged 51 in 2013 – hit out at mention of the actor’s demons in Mark Kamine’s ‘On Locations: Lessons Learned from My Life On Set with The Sopranos and in the Film Industry’.
She told Page Six: “It’s just kind of a money grab for that guy.”
Drea added she felt compelled to speak out as she is “really tight with Jim’s wife, his widow and his daughter”, and insists Mark’s account of the actor is “not accurate”.
She went on that James was a “really incredible person” and “so much more than whatever (Mark) was writing about”.
Drea added: “Jim was an angel, and I guess because he was an angel, you know, he’s not here.”
She also questioned the timing of the book, as it hit stores weeks after this year’s 25th anniversary of ‘The Sopranos’, adding: “To go and cash in like – like, the Italians don’t like that. We don’t freaking like (that.)”
Producer Mark worked on all six season of ‘The Sopranos’ and briefly recalls in his book how James battled substance abuse issues while playing mobster Tony Soprano.
He says the actor turned up four hours late to film an episode during season five after spending the previous night in Atlantic City, and ended up “cursing his way through his half-learned lines” and “doing take after take” while “drinking coffees and bottles of water”.
Mark added he was “alternatively sheepish and churlish, the way he always is when he (messes) up.”
He added HBO added a clause to an “increasingly unreliable” James’ contract that made him responsible for “shoot-day costs if he misses work due to excesses of consumption”.
Mark told Page Six about Drea’s outrage: “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, whether they read the book or not, I guess.”
James’ drug binges have been widely reported, and sources told author James Andrew Miller for his book ‘Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers’ the actor’s drug and alcohol use was so extreme they feared he may die during the making of ‘The Sopranos’.