Prior to 1990, the general consensus in the film buff community was that Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather could never be topped as the greatest gangster movie ever made. That was before Martin Scorsese came along with his fast-paced biopic of Henry Hill starring Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro. Now, the question of which mob movie is the best is a debate that will probably never be resolved.
With its unconventional narrative structure, morally ambiguous antiheroes, and soundtrack featuring more oldies pop hits than Guardians of the Galaxy, Goodfellas arrived as a breath of fresh air. Here are 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Goodfellas.
Most of the F-bombs were improvised
Goodfellas is a famous for a number of reasons, and one of them is that it has one of the highest F-bomb counts in film history. The F-word and its derivatives are uttered a grand total of 321 times throughout Goodfellas’ 146-minute runtime, and about half of them are spoken by Joe Pesci. When Pesci showed the film to his mother, she said that she liked it, but wondered if he had to curse quite so much. In the script, there are only around 70 F-bombs. The rest that made it into the final cut – around 80% of all the film’s F-bombs – were included in improvised lines of dialogue.
Al Pacino was the first choice for Jimmy Conway
Martin Scorsese originally offered the role of Jimmy Conway – the character that was eventually played by the director’s go-to guy Robert De Niro – to Al Pacino. However, Pacino turned down the role due to fears that he would be typecast as a gangster. The logic of this is sound in theory, although Pacino did end up playing a cartoonish caricature of a gangster called Big Boy Caprice in the Dick Tracy movie that was released in the same year as Goodfellas. If anything, that role was a self-aware jab at such a typecasting. The actor has admitted that he regrets this decision.
The long tracking shot in the Copa took seven takes to get right
The long tracking shot in the Copa – the shot that inspired legions of student filmmakers to put long tracking shots in their films, without having the thematic reason to use the shot that Martin Scorsese and his cinematographer Michael Ballhaus had – took seven takes to get right.
One of the takes was ruined when Henny Youngman, the comedian playing the Copa in the scene, forgot his lines, which is unusual, considering he was one of the greatest one-liner comics who ever lived. The shot achieved on the seventh take has gone on to become one of the most iconic ever filmed, so it was worth it.
Paul Sorvino almost pulled out of the film before shooting began
Paul Sorvino landed the role of Paulie Cicero with no problem, but before Goodfellas went into production, the actor became fearful that he wouldn’t be able to depict the character’s cold-hearted personality. He even called his agent, three days before the movie was due to begin filming, and asked if he could get him out of his commitment to the project. Sorvino’s agent told him to take a day to think about it, then decide if he wanted to pull out. That night, the actor scared himself in the mirror with a facial expression and realized that with this look, he could play Paulie, and he remained on board the movie.
Jimmy’s watches and pinky rings match his outfits
Robert De Niro’s Goodfellas character Jimmy Conway is always wearing a watch on his wrist and a ring on his pinky finger, but depending on the outfit, these watches and pinky rings are different. The wardrobe department meticulously shopped around and picked out a different watch and a different pinky ring to match each of Jimmy’s outfits in the film. It’s a shame that the costume designers of movies don’t get the recognition that their work deserves. The ironic thing is that when a movie’s wardrobe works, it blends seamlessly into the characters and the production design, so it’s practically unnoticeable.
Real mobsters were hired as extras
According to Nicholas Pileggi, whose book Wiseguys formed the basis of the screenplay that he co-wrote with Martin Scorsese, some real-life mobsters were brought on to appear as extras in certain scenes. This was done to give a sense of authenticity to these scenes, since no actor will ever look more convincingly like a mobster than an actual mobster. When these guys were brought on board, they were required to give their Social Security numbers to Warner Bros., so they provided the studio with fake ones. To this day, it’s unclear how they managed to collect their paychecks after shooting.
The rule precluding Henry and Jimmy from becoming “made” has since been changed
In Goodfellas, one of Henry Hill’s voiceover narrations notes that neither he nor his friend Jimmy Conway could ever become “made,” because they’re not 100% Italian. This rule was changed in 2000 (10 years after Goodfellas was released) by the Commission, the collective governing body comprised of New York City’s five major crime families. Now, men can become made if only their father is of Italian descent and their surname is Italian. Ironically, despite this change, Henry and Jimmy could still never be made. Henry’s father is depicted as Irish in the film, and Jimmy’s surname Conway isn’t an Italian name.
Robert De Niro called Henry Hill several times a day to discuss his character
The life of Henry Hill, the basis of Goodfellas, was chronicled in the documentary The Real Goodfella, which aired on television in the UK. In the documentary, Hill talks a little bit about the dramatization of his life, and he claims that while Goodfellas was shooting, Robert De Niro would call him up seven to eight times a day to discuss his character. He would ask about little details, like how the real-life mobster his character was based on would pour ketchup onto his food, or hold a cigarette. This is a testament to De Niro’s commitment to the role.
Test audiences hated Goodfellas
While Martin Scorsese was hard at work on Goodfellas as a then-fading Hollywood presence, the studio began to worry about its excessive use of profanity and graphic violence. When the film was presented to test audiences, it received the worst response in the studio’s history. Scorsese said that the response from test audiences was so negative that it was laughable.
Still, the studio decided to release the film with no alterations, which are usually made to address test audiences’ concerns, and surprisingly, it received unanimous acclaim from critics and revitalized Scorsese’s career, keeping him working steadily for the next three decades.
The “How am I funny?” scene was inspired by a true story
One of Goodfellas’ most iconic moments arrives near the beginning when Henry Hill tells Tommy DeVito that he’s a funny guy and the atmosphere suddenly turns tense as Tommy questions Henry’s compliment. Apparently, this is based on a real anecdote that Joe Pesci brought to Martin Scorsese’s attention. When Pesci was working in a restaurant as a young man, he told a mobster he was serving that he was a funny guy, and the mobster was furious. Scorsese liked this and included it in the film, although he didn’t put it in the script so that the background actors would have a genuine response to Pesci’s interactions with Ray Liotta.
