20 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About 'Goodfellas'

These facts are here to f-ing amuse you.
20 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About 'Goodfellas'

Without Goodfellas, we wouldn’t have The Sopranos. Perhaps we wouldn’t have Breaking Bad either, and certainly we wouldn’t have Analyze This. Or Analyze That, for that matter. It's one of the most iconic movies over the past century with it's buckwild morality, buckwild characters, and buckwild story. It's in the AFI Top 100 Films of All Time and in the U.S. Library of Congress for a reason.

And yet, for such a milestone of a movie, there’s a lot we don’t know about it -- and by “we,” we mean Cracked writers, of course. So we started digging around, and found all these facts about its production and shooting (“shooting” as in filming the movie, not firing real guns -- we hope). And now we’re sharing this knowledge with you, because we are … hum … Nice pals? Kind comrades? Congenial gents? Cordial individuals? Okay people? Call us whatever, and enjoy these.

The You think I'm funny? scene actually happened to Joe Pesci. The scene was based on a similarly uncomfortable situation Pesci had with a real mobster, back when he was a waiter. All the reactions are genuine, as the extras had no idea what was going

Source: GQ

A lot of the extras were actual gangsters. It was hard to put the real-life wiseguys on the payroll, though- they didn't exactly have Social Security numbers, SO they just made them up on the spot when asked.

Source: GQ

The movie was expected to bomb. The test screening was disastrous-70 people walked out, grossed out by all the violence and blood. As a result, Warner Bros. scaled down the opening from 2,000 theaters to just 1,000.

Source: GQ

John Malkovich was considered to play Jimmy Conway. Malkovich turned down the role, as he was going through a rough patch in his life, and didn't feel like working. It's hard to explain why you end up in Eragon and not Goodfellas, he has said.

Source: GQ

Martin Scorsese's mom did the cooking. Catherine Scorsese didn't just play Tommy DeVito's mother- she also prepared the dinner herself. Whenever characters are having Italian food, it's her Italian food.

Source: GQ

The entrance into the Copacabana was quite the feat. The iconic long shot required building and then taking the hallway apart on the go -- and yet, it only took a handful of takes. One of those was ruined because comedian Henny Youngman (playing himself) forgot his own joke.

Source: GQ

The producer didn't want Ray Liotta. Scorsese was dead set on Liotta, but producer Irwin Winkler kept pushing him towards hiring someone with more star power. Liotta was able to pitch himself to Winkler during a chance meeting in a restaurant, winning him over.

Source: GQ

Goodfellas

Scorsese himself would tie Ray Liotta's tie every day. He was insistent that it had to be done in a very specific way.

Source: GQ

Goodfellas

A lot of the dialogue was improvised. Scorsese gives actors a lot of freedom to ad-lib, so the dialogue sounds as natural as possible. In the scene where Tommy DeVito kills Spider, the only line actually in the script is Spider's f-you to Tommy.

Source: GQ

The angry pistol whipping got too real. Ray Liotta was in real anger at the time, because of personal issues -- and during one take, he hit the other actor for real. “Ooh, this is going to be good,” Scorsese said, squirming.

Source: GQ

Jimmy Conway spends real money. The stack of bills Robert De Niro carries around is made of real, legal-tender greenbacks, belonging to prop master Robert Griffon. Special care was taken to keep track of every bill after each take.

Source: GQ

Goodfellas

Scorsese knew three years in advance which songs he'd use. GoodFellas Behind the Scenes I was told that Goodfellas is the most expensive movie soundtrack in history, actress Illeana Douglas has said. Marty used like thirty seconds of a Rolling Stones song; he had to have it.

Source: GQ

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