Wait... HBO paid James Gandolfini $3 million to turn down a role with 'The Office'?

"During Monday’s episode of “Talking Sopranos” — a podcast hosted by “The Sopranos” co-stars Michael Imperioli, 55, and Steve Schirripa, 63 — it was revealed that Gandolfini had been offered a role to replace the character Michael Scott as branch manager of Dunder Mifflin on “The Office,” following Steve Carell’s departure from the NBC show in 2011."-NY Post, Hannah Sparks

Imagine watching James Gandolfini replace Michael Scott in The Office? I sure can't. It was revealed that NBC offered Gandolfini $4 million to play the role. Gandolfini seriously considered the offer until HBO came in and paid him $3 million to not take the role. He had a few projects with HBO, and it's speculated they wanted to keep the Tony Soprano legacy "pure".

Imagine being such a legend from your previous role that they pay you millions of dollars to not appear in anything else? Was he going to take the Deangelo Vickers role? If that was the case, not a bad gig getting paid millions for a few episodes. I can't imagine Gandolfini mixing it up with The Office cast. Going from Steve Carrell, who was this odd, upbeat, clueless character, to a grumpy, angry, old Italian in Gandolfini would've been quite the shift.

With the Sopranos movie coming out soon, we're probably going to get more great Gandolfini stories as his legacy continues to grow.