LOS ANGELES – Art was no escape from real life for “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini, who finds himself in Spiltsville on and off camera.

The Emmy Award-winning actor, who plays semi-sympathetic TV mob boss Tony Soprano, said breaking up was hard to do with both his TV wife, Carmela Soprano, and his real-life wife, Marcy.

“Having gone through something similar personally, it was a little a difficult to have to dredge those things up sometimes,” he said yesterday. “In terms of the acting . . . it just makes you think real deep.

“Sometimes it was hard, very difficult,” a wincing Gandolfini said.

The show just wrapped up shooting on its fifth – and penultimate – season on HBO, on the heels of Gandolfini’s December 2002 divorce from his wife of three years.

The fifth season debuts on March 7.