James Gandolfini Used This Painful Trick to Feign Illness for a“ Sopranos” Scene (Exclusive)

Chris Diamantopoulos caught a glimpse of legendary TV star James Gandolfini using a practical — if painful — acting technique during his time on The Sopranos.

In a recent conversation with PEOPLE, Diamantopoulos, who currently stars on Prime Video's The Sticky, chatted about his various TV roles, from guest starring in The Office to working alongside Gandolfini in The Sopranos.

Diamantopoulos, 49, appeared in the hit HBO series' final season's fourth episode, "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh,” as Jason Barone, a son in mourning for a father who was secretly working with Tony Soprano (Gandolfini).

In the episode, Gandolfini’s Tony was hospitalized, and out of respect for his late father’s friend, Barone visited him in the hospital. "His character had to have stabbing pains in his abdomen,” Diamantopoulos says of the "late, great" actor.

“I remember him outside on a break, looking for a particular stone. He wanted to find a jagged rock, and he hid it under his hospital gown and had his arm over it so that when it called for the character to be in pain, [Gandolfini] pushed his arm down and the rock dug into his gut, and it gave him a chance to react to it," Diamantopoulos says.

“I thought that was really a practical effect. A really neat thing to see.”

Related: The Sopranos Cast: Where Are They Now?

Diamantopoulos also shared his memories of working with the late actor Tony Sirico. When Diamantopoulos’ character didn't comply with mob orders, he earned a beating from Sirico’s Paulie Walnuts.

“It was a rite of passage to be whacked by Paulie Walnuts,” Diamantopoulos jokes. But he revealed that the scene didn’t go as planned.

“Sirico had two pipes, a lead pipe and a rubber pipe, one to use when the camera was on me, and one to use when the camera was on him,” he says. “Which one do you think he used on me the first time?”

“The answer is it wasn't the fake one,” Diamantopoulos says, joking that he "got whacked by Paulie Walnuts and lived to tell about it.”

Related: Jamie Lee Curtis' Energy 'Could Power a Small Country,' Says The Sticky Costar Chris Diamantopoulos (Exclusive)

Diamantopoulos has continued to act alongside Hollywood legends — most recently with Margo Martindale and Jamie Lee Curtis in The Sticky.

He says working with Curtis, 66, and Martindale, 73, “two masters of their craft at the height of their game,” was a “career highlight.”

“These two powerhouses have taken their combined experience, talent, wisdom, generosity and empathy, and they've poured it into this,” he said. "I am the lucky benefactor who is able to go along this journey with them.”

In the new Amazon Prime series, Diamantopoulos’ mobster Mike Byrne teams up with Martindale’s maple syrup farmer Ruth Landry and Guillaume Cyr's security guard Remy Bouchard to pull a multi-million dollar heist on Quebec’s maple syrup surplus.

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The Sticky season 1 is available to stream on Prime Video.

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