Which actor deliberately tanked a scene in Pine Barrens?

This was revealed by Emmy-winning director Phil Abraham, who had worked on 48 episodes of The Sopranos. Since he spent a lot of time on set, it was only natural that he had a good rapport with the cast, including Gandolfini.

During the Talking Sopranos podcast, he recalled the episode titled Pine Barrens and how, after filming the actor pulled him aside and confessed:

Listen, I need you to keep an eye on him (director) because I just tanked that last shot to see if this guy knew what he was doing. And he just printed it and moved on.

He performed badly on purpose just to see if the director would notice or not. To his surprise, the director went ahead, said cut, and moved on, approving the scene. This left the actor frustrated by the fact that the director wasn’t paying much attention to his performance. But for the fans, they would never know the scene in which he pulled this stunt.

"Pine Barrens" The Sopranos episode Episode no. Season 3 Episode 11 Directed by Steve Buscemi