Julia Louis-Dreyfus Talks Co-Starring With James Gandolfini: He Was ‘Thoughtful, Dear, Sweet’

Julia Louis-Dreyfus co-starred with the late James Gandolfini in “Enough Said,” his only romantic lead role.

Access Hollywood’s Scott “Movie” Mantz caught up with Julia at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival (where the divorcee comedy will premiere on Saturday) and the actress looked back on filming love scenes with the former “Sopranos” star.

“The thing about Jim in this movie, he’s really a big guy and he I think even within the film he says, ‘Can you breathe when I’m on top of you?’ and I’m fairly certain that he improvised that because he was very self-conscious about [his size],” Julia told Scott of James, who passed away in June. “He didn’t wanna crush me in the bed scenes that we had together, the love scenes.

“But in fact, this character is so physically imposing, so you can understand fully why he not only is a phenomenal actor, but why he fit the role of Tony Soprano as well as he did,” she continued.

The “Veep” star said James’ role in “Enough Said” matched who he was off-screen.

“This is who he is. The character he plays in this film is very close to who James Gandolfini was,” she said. “Thoughtful, dear, sweet, self-deprecating. That’s really who he was in the nicest of ways.”

“Enough Said,” which also stars Toni Collette and Catherine Keener, is slated for limited theatrical release on September 20.

— Erin O’Sullivan