Lorraine Bracco Says She and James Gandolfini ‘Pranked’ Each Other: ‘He Had a Great Sense of Humor’ (Exclusive)

When Lorraine Bracco reflects on her time working with James Gandolfini The sopranos, it’s with good humor and enormous affection for a man who was as much a prankster off camera as he was a gifted actor on camera.

The actress, 69, who starred in the HBO mob drama as Dr. Jennifer Melfi, shared many scenes with Gandolfini’s iconic character, Tony Soprano — and it was always a “fun” time, Bracco shares with PEOPLE.

“He had fun, Jimmy. He had a great sense of humor,” Bracco recalls. “He was a joker about many things. We joked a lot.”

“I was working on an episode one day and we always ended up having scenes with Melfi because Jimmy had to learn so much dialogue,” she continues. “One day, I walked into the makeup trailer and he looked at me and it’s summer and I’m all tanned, brown, looking good and happy, and he said, ‘Who died and gave you this job?'”

Lorraine Bracco chokes up remembering late costars James Gandolfini, Tony Sirico and Ray Liotta

Lorraine Bracco and James Gandolfini during the third season of ‘The Sopranos’.

HBO / Courtesy of Everett

For one scene with Gandolfini, Bracco enlisted Jeff Marchetti, then a member of the production crew, to plant a fart machine under her chair. “I convinced myself that I was sick from the beginning of the day,” she explains. “Oh, I don’t feel well. I ate something. I’m not doing well. I wasn’t going to come to work, but I know you have a big scene to work on. I didn’t mean to screw you up and ruin your day.’ … Then I would say, ‘Oh, my stomach. Oh, wait a minute. Oh!’ and then I would fart a little”.

“Jimmy would look at me. I said, ‘I told you I wasn’t feeling well.’ Then I would sit back down and then we would fart. “Oh, you’re full of shit, Lorraine,” he said. He grabs me, looks at me and takes a pillow from the chair. There is nothing there. So we did it one more time, and he just said, ‘F— you.’ He knew it was a joke. I worked.”

Lorraine Bracco recalls ‘The Sopranos’ ‘ James Gandolfini: ‘It was all fun…with Jimmy’

Lorraine Bracco and James Gandolfini in ‘The Sopranos’ season 5. HBO/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

During another day of production, Bracco found Gandolfini’s great “gift.”

“I have a present for you. I put it in your trailer,’ he said. I said, ‘Oh, wow.’ How exciting, right?” – says the actress. “I get to my trailer. There’s a big box. I said, ‘Okay, it’s not jewelry.’ I open it, and it’s a stuffed cock. A bird. Like a rooster. The word ‘Coq’ — COQ — was written on the bottom. It’s Jimmy.”

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However, through all their antics, Bracco didn’t fail to recognize Gandolfini’s immense acting talent, which has earned him eight Emmy nominations and won him three awards. Years after he died of a heart attack in 2013 at age 51, Bracco remembers Gandolfini as “a very dedicated actor.”

“I would forget that I was in a scene with him and I would watch him because he had a lot of monologues, which is very rare on television, and he would want to record them all in one sitting,” she says. .. “I loved watching him do it.”

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