The 30th anniversary ofGoodfellasis upon us, so it’s fitting thatMade Men,Glenn Kenny’s new book about the making ofMartin Scorsese’s crime classic, was just published this week.
I readMade Mencover-to-cover in two days and then read it again for this piece, and what I loved was the structure, and how Chapter 4 (of 10) is roughly 47 percent of the book. Kenny is a notable film critic, and though we’ve butted heads on social media numerous times, there’s no question that I respect him as both a writer and a thinker. His insider access here is impressive, especially when combined with his critical eye and deep knowledge of mob movies and their recurring tropes.
Goodfellas, orGoodFellas, as it was originally titled (the change is a mystery), is based on the 1986 book byNicholas PileggititledWiseguy, which soon became the name of an unrelated TV show the following year. Pileggi was in a position to write such a book for several reasons, but the most interesting is that because he wrote for the Associated Press, he never got a byline, so the gangster types he’d hang around never knew he was the one sharing their stories with the AP. Pileggi was datingNora Ephronat this time, and she wound up writing her ownHenry Hillmovie,My Blue Heaven, that was released just one month beforeGoodfellas, which is a wild story.
There’s so much good(fellas) juice in this new book that we picked out the top 10 threads, so take a look below and learn just a little bit more about one of your favorite Scorsese movies. And for more on the making ofGoodfellas, be sure and buy a copy of Kenny’s fascinating book, which is well worth a read. And if you’re just discovering Scorsese’s work,click herefor a beginner’s guide to his films.
1. The “Angry Little Man” & His Casting Conundrum
Warner Bros. executiveTerry Semelwas pushing Scorsese to cast movie starTom Cruiseas Henry Hill, who had just worked with the director onThe Color of Money, and was a big box office draw.Madonna, of course, was one of the biggest musical artists in the world, and she’d recently doneSuddenly Seeking Susan, and Semel thought the singer would be perfect to play Karen. Hollywood power playerMichael Ovitzis one of several figures who has taken credit for talking Semel out of casting Madonna and Cruise. Meanwhile, producerIrwin Winklerdidn’t think thatRay Liottahad the charm to play Henry Hill, but following a chance meeting at a Santa Monica restaurant, Liotta sold him on the idea.
Additionally, legend has it that Semel visited the set one day, and it just so happened to be duringJoe Pesci’s “How am I funny?” scene – which wasn’t in the script. Semel was livid that he didn’t sign off on the scene, and decided to punish the production by canceling the Tampa Zoo shoot, forcing Scorsese to shoot at a zoo that was either in Queens, or Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, depending on who’s telling the story. Regardless, that switcheroo wouldn’t stop the real Henry Hill from autographing tickets to the actual Tampa Zoo many years later.
2. The Folly of Youth
Kevin Corrigan’s father had a friend who went to grade school with Scorsese, and when Corrrigan got to set, he showed the director some old yearbooks. Marty got a kick out of them, but when Corrigan began showing the yearbooks to other cast members, Scorsese told him to stop. Meanwhile, whenMichael Imperioliauditioned, he was asked to read Tommy’s lines, and he actually thought he was being cast as Tommy until Scorsese told him he’d landed the part of Spider.
Imperioli initially played Spider as a wiseass until the director told him that he saw the character as “a little slow.” After that helpful bit of direction, Imperioli asked the prop master to let him reset the card table, and whenRobert De Nirosat down to do the scene, Imperioli stayed in character and asked ‘Jimmy’ what he could get the man to drink – an approach that De Niro found commendable.
3. The Director’s Girlfriend
Illeana Douglasmet Scorsese while working forPeggy Siegelin the Brill Building, where Scorsese was in need of an actress who could do a bloodcurdling scream forThe Last Temptation of Christ. They bonded over a joke from “The 2000 Year-Old Man” comedy bit, and later dated during the making ofGoodfellas. Douglas initially wanted to play Sandy, but Scorsese told her she “wasn’t ready” for that, and hiredDebi Mazar.
Douglas then came up with the scene about the product launch party, where she played Tommy’s girlfriend, Rosie. Initially, it was going to be a Tupperware party, but the company didn’t want to be associated with gangsters, nor did the cosmetics giant Mary Kay.Melissa Prophetwas also in that scene, and she later became Douglas' manager.
Douglas also reveals that she intentionally hammed it up in her very first scene, getting a laugh out of Scorsese, who quickly approached her and whispered in her ear not to do it again. That joke wound up being a $20,000 mistake, so it helped that she was the director’s girlfriend. Many years later, when Douglas went public with claims that disgraced CBS titanLes Moonvessabotaged her career, Scorsese backed her account, proving to Douglas that he was still the kind of guy she always thought he was.
4. No Pain, No Gain
People got hurt during the making ofGoodfellas. After taking a beating as Billy Batts (Frank Vincent), stuntmanPeter Bucossirecalls being quite sore and bruised – despite wearing pads – due to De Niro’s knack for kicking people. Liotta took a trip to the hospital after getting cut byChuck Lowas the actor flailed his arm during a scene, which caused some tension going forward. Scorsese himself has asthma, and found himself suffering from all the smoke in the Copacabana scene. Oh, and one time, when Henry and Karen were fighting in their bedroom after Karen pulled a gun on him, the weapon went flying and hit cinematographerMichael Ballhausin the head.
But the best story by far comes from Imperioli, who cut his hand squeezing a real glass during Spider’s death scene, and had to be rushed to the hospital. When he got there, they thought he’d been shot several times in the chest from the bloody squibs under his shirt. When they cut his shirt open and saw a bunch of wires, they sent him back to the waiting room with his hand still bleeding.
5. A Family Affair
Scorsese’s parents,Charles and Catherine(aka Katie), both appear inGoodfellas. Catherine’s role is a bit more pronounced, as she famously played Tommy’s mother, but the director’s father plays Vinnie, who is in charge of the meat in prison. Vinnie is also the character who breaks the news of Tommy’s murder to Jimmy, insisting that “we did everything we could.” That’s because De Niro asked Scorsese Sr. to talk around what happened rather than explicitly say that Tommy was dead.
Meanwhile, Marty instructed his mother to cook either pasta and beans or scrambled eggs for Liotta, Pesci and De Niro during their big kitchen scene together, because “if it was good enough for me, it’s good enough for them.” The “quiet Italian” joke came out of recorded improvs with Katie, and it’s actually her sauce that Henry’s brother, Michael (Corrigan) had to stir over the course of several days during filming.
6. The Property Master
For the scene where Jimmy is first introduced, De Niro insisted on real money being thrown around, so property masterBob Griffonwithdrew $2,000 from his own savings account, making sure to collect every last dollar when the scene was finished, given the number of real thieves on set.
There are a couple of good Griffon stories in the book, as he also wanted to get the wedding gift envelopes just right, so he used a graphic artist fromSaturday Night Liveto print them in gold foil and die-cut the envelopes.
Griffon was also in charge of creating the detailed prison log book that drives Karen mad when she sees Janice Rossi’s name among Henry’s list of visitors. Griffon asked different people on the crew to sign various names so they’d appear in different handwriting. One of those names was FT Long – get it?
7. Marty Loves… Marvel?
ActressWelker White, who plays the Hill family babysitter/Henry’s drug mule, said that she spent weeks scouring local comic book stores for the right title, settling on the 1973 Marvel comicTales of the Zombie. When she brought it to Scorsese, he loved it and put it in the movie, and to this day, Welker still has the comic in her basement. White also said that in Lois' big phone call with Henry, she actually traded lines with Liotta on the other end of the phone, something that’s quite uncommon in the industry, as those kinds of requests are rarely accommodated.
McDonald’s Nuggets
Ed Mcdonaldis the former prosecutor who offers Henry and his family the chance to enter the witness protection problem, and he actually plays himself in the movie. At first, real New York supercopBo Dietlauditioned for the role of Mcdonald, but he was ultimately cast as the cop who busts Henry in his driveway.Brian Dennehyvery nearly played the part, but when the production sent someone over to gather photos of Mcdonald and his diplomas, he asked the staffer who was playing him, and when the staffer told him the role hadn’t been filled yet, he jokingly suggested he’d do it himself. Scorsese was intrigued by idea of making a cinéma vérité movie, so he wound up, in fact, casting Mcdonald. Had Mcdonald still been working for the government, he wouldn’t have even been able to take the part.
As far as his performance goes, since Mcdonald lived it, he wasn’t asked to read lines, and he relied on his memory instead, which is where the “babe in the woods” line came from. That was something he actually said to the real Karen. Speaking of, Mcdonald tried to get a photo of his kids in one shot, butLorraine Braccokept intentionally putting her coffee cup in front of the photo. When Mcdonald changed it, much to her chagrin, Scorsese was fine with it, though he was less understanding when Mcdonald kept flubbing takes by using Jimmy and Paulie’s real last names rather than their movie names.
The last Mcdonald nugget that resonates is that in the courtroom scene, he was asked if everything looked okay, and he said yes, it did, except the judge in real life was older. Scorsese dismissed the original actor, but needed an older Black man for the part, so he turned to a member of the courthouse’s janitorial staff to play the part. So yeah, the judge inGoodfellaswas really a janitor at the courthouse. Pretty cool…
First Thing’s First
The first footage shot forGoodfellaswas Morrie’s wig commercial, which was based on an actual commercial for a window replacement company. Cinematographer Ballhaus and first ADJoseph Reidyworked with the head of the window company to put together Morrie’s ad, which was shot two weeks prior to principal photography. The whole reason there’s even an ad in the first place is because the real Jimmy was an insomniac who would see the real Morrie’s commercial on late night TV and get upset that the guy was spending money on TV ads instead of repaying certain debts.
The Things We Do For Love
In real life, Henry Hill underwent a circumcision around the age of 20 or 21 to marry Karen, who was Jewish. According to Kenny’s book, Hill had to walk around with a diaper for a month. Now that’s amore, folks!
