Edie Falco says James Gandolfini was her “true soul mate”

She told The New Yorker: "We had such a strangely specific, similar way that we work, and a similar background.

"I don’t know how to explain this. We were just really regular middle-class, suburban kids that were never supposed to become famous actors.

“My interpretation is that the whole time, he was, like, ‘What the hell is going on?’

“I remember, when we got picked up for the second season, he said to me, ‘Yeah, well, I just have no idea what the hell we did, but we’ve got to try to do it again.’ And I said, ‘I hear you. I don’t know. We’ll figure something out.’

“He was totally un-actor-y, and was incredibly self-deprecating, and he was a real soul mate in that regard.”

And the 'Nurse Jackie' star admitted she and James - who played Carmela and Tony Soprano - didn't spend a lot of time analysing their work.

She said: “We did not spend a lot of time talking about the scripts. It was like when you see two kids playing in the sandbox, completely immersed in their imaginary world. That’s what it felt like acting opposite Jim."

Edie admitted she is unable to watch old episodes of 'The Sopranos' - which aired from 1999 until 2007 - because she finds it too "upsetting" to see her late co-star, who died from a heart attack aged just 51.

She said: "I tried. It was too upsetting. To see Jim, of course."