Trivia / GoodFellas

• Ability over Appearance:
  • The real Henry Hill stated that Joe Pesci's portrayal of Tommy was 90-95% accurate. Which is amazing, considering that Pesci looked almost nothing like the real Tommy, who was a tall, muscular man with a moustache.
  • The inspiration for Jimmy Conway, Jimmy Burke, was a very large man at 6'5", but is played by the 5'10" Robert De Niro.
• Actor-Inspired Element: For the scene where Tommy shoots Spider, Joe Pesci requested that the blanks mimic real .45 caliber bullets as closely as possible. Pesci later said that after his emptied the clip, the silence was more deafening than the gunshots had been, conveying the shock at what Tommy had just done.
• Approval of God: Ray Liotta claimed that the real Henry Hill told him he loved the movie.
• Billing Displacement: Ray Liotta is the lead, yet Robert De Niro gets top billing.
• Career Resurrection: Martin Scorsese began rebuilding his career throughout The '80s starting with Raging Bull, but hit a slight setback following the controversy surrounding The Last Temptation of Christ. This film becoming a massive success and getting hailed as Scorsese's finest one since Raging Bull fully placed him back on the map.
• Cast the Expert:
  • According to Nicholas Pileggi, some actual mobsters were hired as extras to lend authenticity to scenes. One of them, Louis Eppolito, was an NYPD detective and son of a Gambino family member who later turned out to have been doing hits for the mob while on the force. The mobsters gave fake Social Security numbers to Warner Bros. and it is unknown how they received their paychecks.
  • District attorney Edward McDonald played as himself, basically recreating his exact interview with the Hills.
  • In a more lighthearted example, Scorsese found the perfect person to play Mama DeVito, a sweet-natured old Italian-American woman—namely, his own mother, who actually was a sweet-natured old Italian-American woman.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Martin Scorsese originally offered Joe Pesci the role of Paulie, since Pesci was decades too old for the role of Tommy. Scorsese even auditioned young unknown actors for the role of Tommy, including Michael Imperioli, who would go on to play Spider in the film. However, Pesci eventually convinced Scorsese to cast him as Tommy and try to make him look younger using makeup.
  • When Frank Vincent went to meet Scorsese about being cast in the film, Scorsese asked Vincent which character he wanted to play, and he said he wanted the role of Paulie. Scorsese then said, "Don't play Paulie, play Billy Batts."
• Completely Different Title:
  • French: The Freedmen
  • Spanish (European): One of Us
• Creator Backlash: A minor example. Paul Sorvino almost quit the movie right before filming started, because he didn't believe he could play the role properly. After viewing the finished movie, Sorvino claims he felt embarrassed about his acting, believing he ruined the movie. He later came around and admitted the movie came out pretty good.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: Martin Scorsese cast Ray Liotta after seeing him in Something Wild and being impressed by his "explosive energy".
• The Danza:
  • Paul Cícero played by Paul Sorvino.
  • Detectives Deacy and Silvestri are played by Ed Deacy and Larry Silvestri, respectively.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Joe Pesci was 46 at the time of filming and plays Tommy starting his early twenties. Additionally, the real Tommy died at 28.
  • Similarly, Ray Liotta was 35 and plays 21-year-old Henry through the film's first act (through his courtship with Karen).
  • Same with Lorraine Bracco, who was also 35 when she played Karen, who is around the same age as Henry.
• DVD Commentary: In addition to a creator commentary, the Two-Disc Special Edition has a "Crook & Cop" commentary, which features Henry Hill and Ed McDonald (the prosecutor who used Henry as a witness in mob cases and put him into witness protection and played himself in the film). The pair provide an insight into what the gangsters were like in real life.
• Enforced Method Acting: A number of scenes are partially ad-libbed with actors not told beforehand
  • In the "I'm funny how?" scene, Pesci and Liotta were instructed to improvise, other actors didn't know what was going to happen so their surprised-to-panicked reactions and puzzled faces are genuine. The scene mirrors what happened to Pesci in real life; he told a mobster in a restaurant that he was funny and the mobster got angry. Scorsese implemented it once he learned about it, as it wasn't in the book.
  • For the scene where Sonny Bunz complains to Paulie, Martin Scorsese secretly told Tony Darrow to improvise more lines for his character without telling Paul Sorvino. Sorvino's confused reaction was real.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Improvisation was encouraged in a number of scenes, especially for the ones that had non-actors speaking. Scorsese had all the actors involved in the kitchen scene (while Billy Batts was still in the trunk) simply improvise their dialogue for that sequence. The final scene with Spider was also ad-libbed, with the only scripted line being "Why don't you go fuck yourself, Tommy?"
• On-Set Injury: Michael Imperioli was hospitalized while filming his death scene. He broke a glass in his hand and had to be rushed to the emergency room. When doctors saw what appeared to be a gunshot wound in his chest, they tried to treat it. When Imperioli told them what was really up, he was made to wait for three hours.
• Promoted Fanboy: Liotta had actually read and was fascinated by Pileggi's book, and campaigned aggressively for his role in the movie.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Lorraine Bracco's two real-life daughters played the part of Judy Hill at different ages. Margaux Guerard played Judy (aged 10) and Stella Keitel, played the part of Judy (aged 4 or 5).
  • Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine, plays Tommy's mother. She and the cast ad-libbed the dinner scene. Scorsese's father, Charles, plays Vinny the prisoner who puts too many onions in the tomato sauce and later murders Tommy.
  • The two girls who play Ruth at age 8 and age 11 are actual sisters.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Ray Liotta (Henry Hill) and Kevin Corrigan (Michael Hill) actually look like they could be brothers.
• Star-Making Role: For Joe Pesci. The actor had a long line of critically acclaimed films to his name such as Raging Bull and Once Upon a Time in America, and a scene-stealing comedy turn in Lethal Weapon 2. But it was his performance as Tommy that left an indelible mark on audiences and took him from an actor with some recognition to a household name (on top of Home Alone opening up two months later), also winning him the Oscar in the process. His amazingly short Oscar winner speech ("It's my privilege. Thank you.") also won him fans.
• Throw It In!:
  • When Paulie confronts Henry after Henry's release from prison, Paul Sorvino improvised the slap to Ray Liotta's face, hence Liotta's reaction.
  • According to Debi Mazar, when her character trips after meeting Henry it was actually Mazar tripping over the camera dolly track. Scorsese liked it because it looked like she was overwhelmed by Henry and left it in the film.
  • Morrie's wig falling off wasn't actually scripted, and neither was Henry laughing in response.
  • Near the end of Henry and Karen's bedroom argument, Liotta accidentally stepped on Bracco's hand, making her reel back in pain. He briefly paused in concern, but they stayed in character and worked it in.
• Wag the Director: De Niro didn't like the fake cash props and insisted on using real money when Jimmy is handing out cash. After each take, every dollar had to be returned and accounted for.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Warner Bros. suggested Tom Cruise for Henry Hill and Madonna for Karen. Nicolas Cage, Val Kilmer, Sean Penn, Aidan Quinn, Charlie Sheen, and John Travolta were also considered and Alec Baldwin auditioned.
  • Al Pacino was offered the role of Jimmy Conway but he turned it down due to fears of typecasting. Ironically, that same year Pacino ended up playing an even more stereotyped gangster - the Al Capone-inspired Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy. He regretted this decision. John Malkovich also turned it down.
  • Martin Scorsese wanted to use Frank Sinatra's original version of "My Way" rather than the cover version by Sid Vicious. Sinatra wouldn't allow it because he didn't want his music associated with a Mafia movie, due to the ongoing rumors of his involvement with the group.
• Working Title: Wiseguy, the title of the book it was based on; changed to avoid confusion with the TV series Wiseguy and the 1986 Brian De Palma film Wise Guys.

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