James Gandolfini, late star of The Sopranos, once threatened to “beat the fuck out” of Harvey Weinstein, his co-stars remembered.

Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri) and Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) from the iconic HBO show appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience this week, discussing their time on the show with Gandolfini, who died in 2013 aged 51.

• Read more: The Sopranos creator accidentally confirms Tony’s fate

The incident in question, the pair explained, came about when Weinstein was bugging Gandolfini to appear on The David Letterman Show to promote 2012 film Killing Them Softly, which was distributed by Weinstein’s company.

Schirripa remembered: “He said, ‘Harvey Weinstein keeps calling, he wants me to do Letterman and I said no.’”

“And he got fucking nasty with Jim. And Jim said, ‘I will beat the fuck out of Harvey Weinstein! He fucking calls me again, I will beat the fuck out of him! For the money he paid me, I’m not fucking doing it!’ Swear to God. And this is before all the Harvey Weinstein shit when he was still king shit.”

• Read more: The most divisive TV show finales of all time

The Sopranos‘ boss, David Chase, recently accidentally revealed the much-debated fate of Gandolfini’s character, Tony, in the show’s finale. The show ends with a gangster entering a diner that Tony is sitting in, before the screen fades to black, with Tony’s fate unknown. In a new roundtable with other Sopranos bosses, though, Chase had a slip of the tongue and referred to it as “the death scene”.

Shamed Hollywood producer Weinstein is currently serving 23 years behind bars after he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault earlier this year.

Weinstein was put into isolation at the Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York in March after contracting coronavirus.