Sopranos star Robert Iler reveals reason he took his only acting job after HBO hit series ended

He disappeared from the public eye after his 8 year run as Anthony ‘AJ’ Soprano ended on The Sopranos.

But Robert Iler revealed the strange reason he accepted his one acting role after the HBO hit series -a part in a 2009 Law & Order episode- in an interview on the Talking Sopranos podcast on Sunday.

‘Twice, to get out of jury duty, I did an episode of Law & Order,’ the 35-year-old told hosts -and his former co-stars- Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa.

‘After Sopranos, I told my manager I wanted six months off to go play poker and hang out with my friends and just do whatever,’ the native New Yorker said. 

‘And [my manager] kept calling – “It’s been a year,” “It’s been two years.” The only thing I have done since Sopranos is I got called to do jury duty and I didn’t want to do jury duty.’

So Robert played Chad Klein in the episode titled Lucky Stiff – his last acting job. 

Not that he doesn’t get offers to go back to work. 

‘I still get calls randomly to do shows,’ said Iler, explaining that he credits the fact people in the industry still remember him to the enduring legacy of The Sopranos. 

‘It’s like you played for the [New York] Yankees and now people are like, “Hey, do you want to do this thing?” For me, I was extremely spoiled with my first thing. It was perfect.’ 

‘So there is a part of me that thinks if you do something else, I will mess it up. … There are times when I think “no, never.” And then there’s times where, like last week when in this quarantine, where I was watching Ozark… it blew me away … and I could see doing something like this and I would really enjoy it.’

Iler was also candid about his history with addiction. 

‘I was drinking a lot back in the day, so I would make money playing poker and then I would lose it betting on sports or roulette,’ said the former actor. 

‘I have not been drunk in over seven years and hardcore drugs is also seven years. But I was taking Xanax every day and it took to me a long time to get off Xanax, and I had to go see a specialist, so that has been five years.’

And he also admitted her finds watching The Sopranos ‘torture,’ after his TV dad James Gandolfini passed away in 2013.  

I’ve probably not seen 80 percent of the episodes,’ Iler explained.

‘[James] met me when I was 12 … and it was very [like a] father figure. … He always told me if you ever have any problems, you call Uncle Tony.’ 

‘He came to my confirmation … in a three-piece pinstripe suit, gave me a kiss on the cheek and a card with cash.’