James Gandolfini gave each of his 'Sopranos' costars $33,000 after tense contract negotiations with HBO almost ended the show

• James Gandolfini once gave his "Sopranos" costars $33,000 following tense contract negotiations.
• Gandolfini was apparently upset that the contract talks paused work on the HBO drama.

James Gandolfini once gave each of his "Sopranos" costars a check for $33,000, following tense contract negotiations with HBO.

The late actor's costar Steve Schirripa previously spoke about the late actor's generous gift, but a new book, "Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers," gave further context to the incident.

According to "Tinderbox," Gandolfini had originally signed a contract for $5 million per season when he was initially cast as Tony Soprano.

However, after HBO executives doubled Gandolfini's salary following the show's successful third season, the "Enough Said" star and his representatives continued to request higher compensation, the book detailed, even filing a breach of contract suit in Los Angeles. HBO then countersued, leading to a stalemate between the two parties.

"Jim was a brilliant actor but a complicated guy to deal with," former HBO president of programming Mike Lombardo recalled in the book.

Per "Tinderbox," Chris Albrecht, another former HBO executive, realized that an effective way to end the standoff would be to stop production on "The Sopranos," leaving the cast and crew effectively unemployed.

Gandolfini, who was concerned about the cast and crew, then agreed to accept HBO's rate of $13 million per season.

"We gave him more money. We gave him a million an episode," Albrecht added in the book.

Once his contract was finalized, the actor wrote each of his fellow "Sopranos" cast members a check for $33,000, the book describes.

In an interview with Insider earlier this year, Schirripa said that when Gandolfini gifted his costars the money, he called each of them into his trailer one by one.

"He would say, 'I just want to thank you for sticking by me.' And [then] he handed you the envelope," Schirripa recalled.

Elsewhere in the book, executives remembered being worried about Gandolfini's wellbeing amid the actor's mental health struggles.

"We were concerned about Gandolfini staying alive. Occasionally he would go on a bender or a coke binge. We had to stop production," former HBO CEO Jeff Bewkes revealed in the book.

"It cost a lot of money and was hard on the other actors' schedules," he continued, adding that he "didn't pressure" Albrecht about Gandolfini missing work because he "thought Jimmy was embarrassed."

Albrecht even revealed that executives, along with some friends and family members of Gandolfini's, once held an intervention for the troubled actor that ended up being a "disaster."

Gandolfini later died of a heart attack in 2013.