NBC Offered James Gandolfini $4 Million to Replace Steve Carell in THE OFFICE but HBO Paid Him Not to Take It

Well, here’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes story about The Office that I didn’t know until today. It turns out NBC offered James Gandolfini $4 million to replace Steve Carell in The Office when he left the series. But, HBO did not want him to take the job, so they actually paid him to turn down the offer! Also, this was several years after The Sopranos had already ended.

During a conversation with Ricky Gervais on the most recent episode of the Talking Sopranos podcast, co-hosts Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa revealed, “You know, they talked about having Gandolfini at one point replace him [Steve Carell], did you know that?”

Schirripa added, “Jim was going to do it because he hadn’t worked and it was a number of years removed from when the show ended.”

HBO then stepped in and offered Gandolfini $3 million to not appear in The Office! Gervais pointed out, “So they paid him that to keep the legacy of The Sopranos pure?”

That’s just crazy to me! HBO paid him $3 million dollars to not appear in The Office so that it wouldn’t tarnish his legacy as Tony Soprano!? Good grief. I would have loved to Gandolfini in The Office! It would have been fascinating and hilarious to see him come in as the boss at some point.

In the end, Will Ferrell, James Spader, and Kathy Bates appeared. I wonder what kind of plans they had for Gandolfini’s Office character. It’s a shame that HBO killed that deal.