Bizarre reason James Gandolfini was 'paid $3,000,000' to not appear in The Office

Most of us are paid for doing a job, but James Gandolfini was reportedly paid a hefty sum to not work.

Gandolfini had a pretty impressive career before his passing in 2013. The actor sadly died at the age of 51 from a heart attack while on a trip to Rome, Italy.

He'd wrapped up filming The Sopranos in the years leading up to his death, having starred as Tony Soprano in the hit HBO series for six seasons.

As well as starring in The Sopranos, Gandolifini also featured in movies like The Drop, Enough Said, Zero Dark Thirty and The Last Castle.

But it turns out Gandolfini could have starred into another popular TV series - that being The Office.

James Gandolfini is best known for playing Tony Soprano (Anthony Neste/Getty Images)

The sitcom put the likes of Steve Carell and John Krasinski on the Hollywood map and won a series of awards while it was on air between 2005 and 2013.

Carell exited the series after season seven and apparently Gandolfini was then approached by NBC to take his place.

Discussing the matter, Gandolfini's former co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schrippa said on their Talking Sopranos podcast that their late friend was interested in the role, but was offered a sweeter deal from HBO.

"I think before James Spader and after Carell, they offered Jim — I want to say $4 million — to play him for the season," recalled Schrippa.

NBC had eyed up Gandolfini to replace Steve Carell in The Office (NBC Universal)

"HBO paid him $3 million not to do it," he went on.

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

Ricky Gervais was guest starring on the podcast episode in question, who hailed it as a 'good decision' for HBO to pay Gandolfini not to do it.

Speculating why they did it, the original Office creator pondered: "So they paid him that to keep the legacy of The Sopranos pure?"

"I guess that and also he had a deal with them,” responded Schirripa.

It's believed that the actor had signed on with HBO to do A Night Of, however, following his unexpected passing, Gandolfini's role later taken by John Turturro.

The actor died suddenly after a heart attack in 2013 (Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

Their claims about Gandolfini once being approached to be part of the well-loved NBC sitcom is also backed by The Office writer Daniel Chun.

In The Office (The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History) by Andy Green, Chun said of Gandolfini: "I remember him being really, really complimentary, but he wasn’t super familiar with the show.

"He had watched a few episodes and was really unsure about comedy. He was like, ‘I don’t one hundred percent know how to play this."

UNILAD have approached HBO for comment.