Gandolfini Tires of Sopranos' Violence

May 10, 2001 -- "My mobster days are over," James Gandolfini says in a recent interview, explaining that he doesn't have the stomach for the violence on his hit show, The Sopranos, anymore.

In an interview with the London Telegraph, the Emmy-winning actor says it bothers him that his character, Tony Soprano, bumped off his best friend on the show.

"That's why I can't believe it when people ask me to come and talk to their kindergarten class about Tony Soprano," says the 39-year-old actor. "It boggles my mind, and I say, 'Are you watching the show?'"

The actor, who mostly played heavies in the movies before landing the role of the sympathetic, therapy-going New Jersey crime boss, says he expects that the hit HBO show will last for only one more season. After that, he says, "I don't think I will do a Mafia character again. I want to get away from the violence a little bit, because it is starting to bother me personally."

The TV-MA-rated show has recently come under attack by NBC Chairman Bob Wright, who took exception to this season's plot lines, which featured violence against the show's female characters, including the brutal rape of Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) and the beating death of a pregnant prostitute from Tony's Bada Bing club. That's on top of multiple protests by Italian-American groups who object to the show's supposed mob stereotypes.

An HBO spokeswoman yesterday declined to comment to the New York Daily News about Gandolfini's remarks. She did admit that Sopranos creator David Chase has not decided whether or not there will be a fifth season.