EXCLUSIVE: Watch never-seen-before footage of James Gandolfini playing a tough guy pimp in $10,000 student film that launched his acting career



He rose to fame as mob boss Tony Soprano at the age of 37.

But before he made it big, James Gandolfini spent years as a struggling actor and made his debut in a $10,000 student movie in 1989 - playing, what else, but a bad guy.

James, who died last Wednesday aged 51 after suffering a heart attack while on vacation in Rome, was working as a bouncer at the famous Blue Note jazz club in New York when he auditioned for the film called Eddy.

Director David Matalon, 44, told MailOnline: 'When the camera rolled, something electrifying was happening.'

Youthful: James Gandolfini in his first ever movie, a student film called Eddy, made in 1989. He played a mean pimp.

Always the tough guy: James Gandolfini playing a pimp on the streets of Brooklyn - 10 years before he would find fame on The Sopranos.

Unknown: David Matalon then aged 20, talks to an as-yet unknown James Gandolfini after signing up to star in his student fim, Eddy, in 1989.

Mr Matalon was an NYU film student and desperately searching for a 'tough villain' to play the role of a pimp on the streets of Brooklyn for his movie when he met James.



He said: 'We shot Eddy in May 1989, there was no internet, so we had to print an ad in Backstage magazine.

'I lived in Brooklyn and at that time it was the 'Saturday Night Fever Brooklyn', you met a lot of tough guys along the way and we were casting a tough villain.

'When you’ve seen it for real, you know when people are playing at it…and so we hadn’t found anyone, I had no-one to play my bad guy.



'NYU gave you a camera for a few days and you got going and that was it, so we didn't have a lot of time.'

Although James had replied to the advert, he missed his appointment and Mr Matalon said: 'We were closing the room up for the night, it was late, almost 11pm, and this giant guy stepped off the elevator, he looked like he was going to kill us!

'He apologised and said he had been at work, he was working as a doorman at the Blue Note, if I remember correctly, and he said 'I would like to read for you guys'.

'He gave this very brutal intense monologue and he just killed it. I said 'you got the part' - he was riveting to watch.'

Born to be a star: James Gandolfini impressed his young director on the set of Eddy in 1989.

When he was young: James Gandolfini joked he would be able to prove that he once had hair when he bumped into filmmaker David Matalon years after making his debut in his NYU movie Eddy



Star: James Gandolfini won plaudits for the part of Tony Soprano in the hit HBO show - winning at the Best Actor Emmy in September 2000



And although James would later return to the streets of New York after winning the lead role in the hit HBO show The Sopranos 10 years later, his first proper role was filmed in less than salubrious conditions.

Mr Matalon said: 'I wrote Eddy when I was 19 and made it when I was 20.



'The film was a modern-day Oedipus Rex. It was about a working girl who falls in love with a character played by Jim Barcena and her boyfriend is the pimp. It ends badly for everybody.'



The filmmaker worked three different jobs and borrowed money from his parents and the bank to be able to make Eddy and edited it himself.



' 'This giant stepped off the elevator...he looked like he was going to kill us! He gave this very brutal, intense monologue and I said 'you got the part''

David Mat alon

The movie was filmed over 10 days, and Mr Matalon said: 'We shot in Hoboken, things were different then. We got our permit on a piece of stationary from the Hoboken council that just said 'Ok, Ed' - that was our permit.

'The cops would come to try and break us up, and we would have to show this piece of paper.'

But it was as if James was destined to be a star, as the director said: 'He was always prepared, always ready, always committed. He must have been 26 or 27 at the time and struggling as an actor at that point in his life.

' We were trying to figure out how to make a movie, but James was always great and ready to go.'

Demonstrating the qualities that would find him acclaim later on, Mr Matalon said: 'James was a very physical actor, full of unpredictability and danger, but in a good way, it was exciting.

'When the camera rolled, something exciting was happening. There was one very intense scene and I remember we called 'cut' and Colleen Stanton who was playing the girlfriend, she was still in the moment and she was crying.



'What had happened between them had really affected her. And James went over and picked her up in his arms and just rocked her, he just held her until she was okay.

'There were 15 people in the room, we didn't move - he was that kind of guy.'

Fierce: James Gandolfini was desperate to get his acting career off the ground and was working as a bouncer at New York jazz club the Blue Note when he won the role in Eddy.

Physical: Director David Matalon said James Gandolfini had clear star quality when he auditioned.

Co-stars: James Gandolfini and his co-star Colleen Stanton. The pair performed together in Eddy.

Mr Matalon later moved to Los Angeles and works as a scriptwriter. He recounted how he bumped into James a few years ago and offered to send him a copy of Eddy.

'He said it would prove he used to have hair', the filmmaker said, 'When we made Eddy, James was fit in and shape and looked great.'

Mr Matalon now has two scripts that have been picked up and admitted: 'I was always hoping to get a chance to work with him now as a professional, to have that chance on a different level.

'It was really nice to watch him make it and it's just tragic that he's gone, because he was a really special actor.'

Close: David Matalon said he always wished he had got the opportunity to work with James Gandolfini in later years







Back home: The body of James Gandolfini was repatriated to American soil on Sunday night after actor died of a heart attack in Rome on Wednesday.

James Galdofini's body was flown home on a private jet and arrived in Newark, New Jersey, on Sunday night.

His funeral is scheduled for Thursday at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City.