Jamie Lynn Sigler spent years acting alongside James Gandolfini, as the pair starred as father and daughter on the iconic series “The Sopranos.”
Now, the star has revealed the heartwarming final conversation the two shared before his passing.
Sigler Recalls Final “Beautiful Moment” Between The Co-Stars
GettySigler opened up about the pair’s last conversation while promoting her new memoir, “And So It Is… A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope.”
“We were at a casino,” Sigler told US Weekly.
“He looked at me, and he was like, ‘Do you need help walking?’ And I was like, ‘I’m OK right now.’ He was like, ‘All right, you tell me if you do.’ And I was like, ‘I will.'”
Sigler divulged that Gandolfini was the only cast member who knew that Sigler had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Per the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS is “an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system,” with symptoms including fatigue, mobility issues, numbness and vision impairment.
“I remember him being proud, like, ‘OK, look at you. You’re still doing this. You’ve got this,'” she recalled.
“It was a beautiful moment that I am very grateful we had because his death was obviously shocking to all of us.”
Even before Sigler disclosed her condition to her TV dad, he knew something was going on.
“He had this way about him where it’s almost like he would look at me just long enough to be like, ‘I know you. I know something’s going on,” she said.
“And he would never press me. He would look at me, ‘How are you?’ And I would say, ‘I’m good.’ And he’d just look at me and nod.”
After she confided in Gandolfini, it was a “game changer” for Sigler.
“I don’t know if he knew this, but just having somebody [on set] know was a game changer. It truly shifted a lot of the energy for me there, just knowing that just somebody knows my secret and I’m not carrying this alone.”
Sigler Remembers Gandolfini As “So Happy”
GettyGandolfini was only 51 years old when he suddenly passed away from a heart attack while on holidays in Italy.
“I just remember how happy he was,” Sigler recalled. “I was so happy to see him in a beautiful marriage [to Deborah Lin], in a beautiful space in his life, creatively doing things that he really loved.”
Although was famous for playing a rough and tough mafia boss, Sigler remembers the late actor as “gentle” and “caring.”
“Playing Tony Soprano was really hard on him,” she revealed. “He gave every ounce of himself, obviously, and so to see him so settled and so happy just made me so happy.”
“He was always the dad. He was our pillar. He was our rock,” she remembered. “But we also saw him struggle, and we also saw him go through really difficult times. And so it was almost like the similar moment of him and I both being like, ‘We’re good right now. Look at us. We’re doing good.’”
“And So It Is… A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope” is available from Tuesday, May 5.
