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Sarah Shahi revealed her on-screen kiss with James Gandolfini was one of the best she’s ever had
Gandolfini sent Shahi roses and later gifted her Jimmy Choo shoes after missing their first day of filming together
Shahi described Gandolfini as a method actor who used spiced mushrooms as props to enhance their scene chemistry
Sarah Shahi is opening up about her on-screen makeout with James Gandolfini.
Speaking on the Thursday, June 18 episode of The Bossticks podcast, 46-year-old Shahi spoke about filming a sixth-season episode of The Sopranos alongside the show’s late star.
In the episode titled “Kennedy and Heidi,” Shahi played Sonya, Tony Soprano’s paramour.
Asked if she “made out” with Gandolfini in the show, Shahi responded, “Yes, we had a full-on sex scene.”
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Sarah Shahi and James Gandolfini in ‘The Sopranos’
Credit: HBO Max
“Yeah, I did a sex scene with Tony Soprano,” she said of the episode. “One of the best, I have to say, kisses I’ve ever had.”
She added: “I remember thinking to myself, too, like ‘How am I going to get turned on by this 47-year-old, large, balding man? Like, there’s nothing… How is this going to work for me?’ Oh boy, did it work for me.”
In the scene, the characters are meant to be doing mushrooms, so Gandolfini ensured the on-set props would create a “reaction” for the actors.
“He’s a very method actor. So, he wanted props,” she said. “I think they actually had dehydrated mushrooms and he wanted them to put pepper on them or a lot of spice or just something, so when you put it in your mouth, there’s some kind of a reaction.”
She added that the kiss between the two was so good that they kept kissing even after the scene was finished.
“Then we have to kiss, and when they called cut, we were still kissing,” Shahi said. “We did it three, four times and every time, they would call cut and we’re still f—ing making out.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Shahi described Gandolfini as “incredible” and “a very troubled man, but the crew loved him.”
When Gandolfini did not show up on their first day of filming, she went back to her hotel room to find that he had sent a dozen roses with a note saying, “Sorry about today. Don’t be nervous ’cause I suck. Love, the fat man.”
Later, when he asked if she got the flowers, she responded, “Next time, send me something I can actually take back with me, like, Jimmy Choo [shoes], size seven,” saying she was “just trying to match his energy.”
But when she went back to her hotel room later, she found exactly that: a pair of size seven Jimmy Choos waiting for her.
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Gandolfini died in 2013 at 51 after suffering a heart attack.
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