A Sopranos actor just got candid about a health condition that he was forced to deal with in his late 20s.
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Max Casella, who cut his teeth on Doogie Howser, M.D. as a teen before stepping into adult roles on hits like The Sopranos and Tulsa King, revealed that he struggled with growth hormone deficiency in the past.
The now 59-year-old says he didn't hit puberty until the ripe age of 27, and that was only thanks to medical science.
"It was insane," Casella, who played Benny Fazio across 28 episodes of The Sopranos, told Page Six recently. "Wouldn't have been my choice, but you know, given the cards you're dealt. You make the best of it."
The actor made the revelation at the Cinema Society screening of his latest film, Jimmy, earlier this week.
Max Casella Reveals That His Acting Career Nearly Derailed After Hitting Puberty at 27
Casella, who went on to have a solid career in other HBO projects like Boardwalk Empire, told Page Six that hitting puberty as he approached thirty sidelined his career, calling it "was pretty much dead."
"I went through the awkward phase that most people go through in high school," after already working in entertainment for well over a decade, he told the outlet.
"I had to start all over again. It was a humiliating experience," Casella added.
He also admitted that going from cherubic to full-tilt teen at 27 was an adjustment.
"I didn't wear it well right away," he confessed. "You know what happens to especially boys when they go through puberty. They get awkward and zits and fat, chubby, whatever."
The actor ended up burying himself in his work, appearing in Broadway's The Lion King. Snagging the part of Timon in the beloved play helped him stick the landing into full-fledged adulthood.
"I was dancing eight times a week, and I completely became an adult," he said.
Meanwhile, in Jimmy, a biopic about the legendary actor Jimmy Stewart, Casella finds himself embodying a film-directing icon. He plays Frank Capra, the Italian-American director who helmed Stewart in his most beloved film, It's A Wonderful Life.
Jimmy debuts in theaters on Nov. 6.
