James Gandolfini’s Addiction And “Apparent Discomfort With Fame” Reportedly Made Him “Unreliable” By Season 5 Of ‘The Sopranos’

James Gandolfini‘s alleged addiction issues and “apparent discomfort with fame” while filming The Sopranos have been rehashed in the book On Locations: Lessons Learned from My Life On Set with The Sopranos and in the Film Industry, which is written by Mark Kamine, who was a location scout on the hit HBO series during its six-season run.

According to Kamine, Gandolfini — who played the iconic mob boss Tony Soprano — began to fall apart by Season 5. In his book, the author recalls one alleged incident in which the actor invited him to Atlantic City after filming the Season 4 episode titled “Pie-O-My” at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

“I am at the hotel bar when the crew member closest to Jim asks if I want to go down to Atlantic City with Jim and a few others. It’s over an hour away. I decline,” he writes, per Page Six. “The next morning I’m not surprised when Jim cannot be roused.”

Kamine claims Gandolfini — who reportedly struggled with addictions to cocaine and alcohol — showed up four hours late to work “cursing his way through his half-learned lines, doing take after take, drinking coffees and bottles of water, alternatively sheepish and churlish, the way he always is when he fucks up.”

In another unsettling instance that occurred while filming inside the Soprano home, Kamine claims Gandolfini forgot who the homeowner was during a normal conversation.

“This is five seasons in. Jim has been to the house dozens of times, had many conversations with the man standing in front of him,” he writes. “Jim interrupts him to say, with more than a little regret, ‘I’m really sorry but my memory’s kinda shot and I don’t remember, who are you?'”

He adds, “To have no clue who the owner of the Soprano house is [gave] me a glimpse into the extent of his personal struggles.”

In time, Gandolfini’s chaotic behavior reportedly started to take its toll on his castmates, including his onscreen wife Edie Falco, who was “always fully prepared, always amazingly and instantly in character,” Kamine writes. When the crew was informed that he wouldn’t be coming in one day, the actress allegedly said, “with more than a little disgust, ‘Are you kidding me?'”

With Gandolfini becoming “increasingly unreliable,” HBO was eventually forced to add a “clause making him responsible for shoot-day costs if he misses work due to excesses of consumption,” Kamine claims. Despite the inconvenience, the cast and crew were still willing to put up with the actor’s flakiness because they knew “Gandolfini more than anyone other than [creator David Chase] makes the show [what] it is.”

Gandolfini died of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 51.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.