HBO Paid James Gandolfini $3 Million To Not Star On The Office, Actors Say

James Gandolfini could have starred on The Office, but HBO apparently didn't want that to happen and paid Gandolfini handsomely to make sure he turned it down.

On a recent episode of the Talking Sopranos podcast, it was revealed that HBO paid Gandolfini $3 million to pass on playing the new boss on the American version of The Office after Steve Carell was written off. The co-hosts Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa revealed this in an episode featuring The Office creator Ricky Gervais, as reported by Deadline.

"You know, they talked about having Gandolfini at one point replace him [Steve Carell], did you know that?" Imperioli said.

Schirripa said NBC was going to pay Gandolfini $4 million to play the new boss for a single season on The Office, but Gandolfini apparently instead took the $3 million to not do it.

"Jim was going to do it because he hadn't worked and it was a number of years removed from when [The Sopranos] ended," Schirripa said.

The storyline of who would replace Carell's Michael Scott as the boss of Dunder Mifflin took a number of twists and turns. A handful of guest stars came in for interviews on the show, including Ray Romano, Jim Carrey, Will Arnett, Warren Buffet, and even Ricky Gervais. In the end, it was decided that Robert California (James Spader) would be the new boss.

As for The Sopranos, the franchise is returning in a way through the prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark, which focuses on a young Tony Soprano played by Gandolfini's son, Michael.