Damages co-creator: James Gandolfini took me out to dinner after David Chase fired me from The Sopranos

The Independent

Todd Kessler, who went on to co-create the shows Damages and Bloodline, was fired from his writing job after the end of Season 3. Speaking to Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa for their book Woke Up This Morning, Kessler said: “Jim called me up after he finished work that day. He knew what had happened, and he said, ‘I’m taking you out,'" according to The Independent. "They went to a restaurant in New York City, where Gandolfini introduced him as a Sopranos writer. “I shrunk, I was so embarrassed," said Kessler. "But they didn’t care. And we talked a little bit, they laughed, and then Jim said to me — and it was really one of those moments that will forever stick with me of Jim — he said: ‘You do not shrink. You have nothing to hang your head about.’” ALSO: Gandolfini sent Jamie-Lynn Sigler his acting coach following her MS diagnosis.