Gandolfini said filming the last series was "challenging"

Gandolfini, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano, said the role gave him mixed feelings.

"He's got a lot of rage, and you have to scrape that up. Eight or nine months a year, 14 hours a day, it starts to take its toll after a while," he said.

The show returns to America's HBO cable channel for 10 episodes on 7 March.

Gandolfini, 42, said the fourth season's critically-acclaimed finale - in which his character split with wife Carmela (Edie Falco) - had been especially challenging.

Difficult scenes

Gandolfini's own marriage ended in divorce at about the same time, and he said: "Having gone through something similar personally, it was difficult having to dredge those things up.

"Sometimes it was very hard to do some of those scenes."

This week the actor revealed he was engaged to a woman he met on the set of the film The Mexican.

Sopranos creator David Chase said the fifth season would introduce new characters as a number of mobsters serving lengthy prison sentences left jail.

Among them is Tony's cousin Tony Blundetto, played by Reservoir Dogs actor Steve Buscemi.