Edie Falco says James Gandolfini once halted 'The Sopranos' filming when he went into a "sugar coma".

James Gandolfini and Edie Falco as Tony and Carmela Soprano

James Gandolfini and Edie Falco as Tony and Carmela Soprano

The 58-year-old actress - who played Tony Soprano's wife Carmela in the classic crime drama - has opened up about what it was like to film meal scenes on set with her late co-star.

She told The Guardian newspaper: "We learned tricks so it looked like we were eating, but we weren’t. But Jim ate in every frigging take, and he ate between takes.

"There was one scene we were shooting, where he was eating a bowl of ice-cream, and in every take he ate and would then re-fill the bowl, and then at one point, I realised he’s not really listening to me – he had gone into a sugar coma!

"We had to stop and shoot the rest of the scene another day. He was like a five-year-old: ‘The ice-cream is good, I like it!’ I was like, ‘You gotta stop, you’re gonna get sick!’ ”

Despite her character's culinary skills, Edie admitted she doesn't share the same passion for cooking.

She added: “Not even close. If you watch the scenes in the show where I’m supposed to be cooking, you’ll see the camera never showed my hands, because I have no idea how to do that.

"That food is not even the kinda stuff I eat. I was vegetarian on the show and I became vegan in the past 10 years.”

Meanwhile, Edie admitted she and her former co-star Aida Turturro (Janice Soprano) struggle to watch the show back after James' death aged 51 eight years ago.

She said: "It was too fraught, and a big part of that is Jim. People die and you move on, then you see them on screen, and it is too shocking. And Jimmy and I were kids then! "Neither of us knew what we were doing, but we worked in the same way, not preparing, but like kids in a sandbox. Aida and I watched a few episodes and I said, ‘This is killing me.' "