AceShowbiz - James Gandolfini threw a "tantrum" over a scene in "The Sopranos" which saw his character masturbate in a gas service station, according to author James Andrew Miller.

Miller shares behind-the-scenes secrets from the set of the beloved TV series in his book, "Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers", due out on 23 November (21).

An excerpt of the tome was published by Vulture, in which Miller detailed the row Gandolfini had with show bosses over the scene - which didn't even make it into the episode.

"Gandolfini, who once remarked that after a day of shooting, he often had to take a shower because he felt 'dirty' playing the role, would sometimes balk at a particular scene and instead of asking Chase (screenwriter David Henry Chase), 'Do I have to do this?' he would wonder out loud, 'What the f**k is this?' and then declare flatly, 'I'm not doing it,' " it's revealed.

"Gandolfini's longest and strongest tantrum erupted over a script that called for Tony to dash into a gas-station bathroom and masturbate during a period when Tony was having an affair with feisty Realtor Julianna Skiff, played forcefully by Julianna Margulies. But even that time, despite his earlier protests, Gandolfini relented and played the scene as written."

Miller continued, "As it turned out, the gas-station sequence was shot but then edited out of the finished episode. To his credit, Gandolfini never complained to Chase that the difficult scene ended up on the cutting-room floor."