Martin Scorsese tells a story recalling the chance encounter that led him to cast the late Ray Liotta as gangster Henry Hill in Goodfellas.
Martin Scorsese recalls the chance encounter that led him to cast Ray Liotta as gangster Henry Hill in Goodfellas. Liotta was a relative unknown when he entered the chase to star in Scorsese’s Goodfellas, the director’s 1990 return to the gangster genre. But the actor’s lack of cinematic experience ultimately did not deter Scorsese from choosing him to hold down the movie’s lead role alongside such movie heavyweights as Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Paul Sorvino.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY As Liotta’s many fans wait to celebrate the late actor’s posthumous induction into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Scorsese took a moment to remember the Goodfellas star, and relate a fun story about why he chose Liotta over the other actors up for the role. Speaking to Variety, Scorsese said that he liked Liotta’s audition, but still wasn’t sure if the young actor had the goods to carry a whole movie.
“We were thinking about just a few actors to play Henry Hill, and Ray was one of them. I had one concern. I knew that he could handle a role like the one he had in Something Wild, but here he would have to carry the whole picture. He had to look like he could have come out of that world, he had to have a certain innocence, he had to have authority, but most of all he needed charm as a counterweight to the violence and the horrifying behavior.
“And then, something clicked into place. I was staying at the Excelsior Hotel. I was crossing the lobby to do an interview and I saw Ray waving to me on the other side of the room — he was there with Dominick and Eugene. He headed toward me to say hello and he was confronted by a phalanx of security. And… he handled it. Perfectly.
It is indeed somewhat remarkable that Liotta was not recognized more for his great performance at the time Goodfellas came out, but in 1990, he was somewhat overshadowed by co-stars De Niro and Pesci. But as the years have gone on, Liotta’s work in the film has come to be properly recognized for how great it truly is. Goodfellas is indeed a classic, and Liotta is at the center of the whole thing, holding it together just as Scorsese believed he would be able to do.
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