40 Best-Kept Secrets From Behind The Scenes Of The Godfather

We’ve all heard of individual actors going “method” and refusing to break character, even when the cameras aren’t rolling. But how about a full cast? Well, that’s what it was like during rehearsals for The Godfather. Before the shoot got under way, the actors all gathered for a meal, during which they stayed in character. Coppola credits this dinner with helping to shape the characters.

As news of The Godfather going into production spread, members of the real mafia started to take notice. The Mob didn’t want the movie to be made, so they resorted to threatening one of the producers. Things got so bad that a meeting between the filmmakers and mobsters was arranged where a deal was struck so the Hollywood production could go ahead without fear of further intimidation.

When Talia Shire was cast in her big brother Coppola’s movie, it may have looked like nepotism was at play. But in actual fact, the director really didn’t want his sibling to play Connie. He had to be convinced by one of the producers that she was right for the part.

The wedding sequence of The Godfather is notable for its sense of realism, but that’s no accident. Coppola was on a really tight schedule at this point, so he didn’t have time to meticulously direct the scene. He instead told his actors and extras to improvise and act like they were at a real wedding. He just recorded them.

Though it’s widely considered to be his masterpiece, Coppola didn’t particularly want to make The Godfather at first. But like everyone else, he had to keep the cash rolling in. In fact, his film company was in debt to the tune of $600,000 at the time. With that on his mind, he decided to take the Godfather gig.

One of the standout features of The Godfather is undoubtedly the dark and shadowy lighting in each scene. But this was actually a bone of contention between the production company and Coppola and his cinematographer Gordon Willis. The studio wanted the movie to be brighter, but the other two eventually argued their case successfully.

Written by Mario Puzo, the novel upon which The Godfather was based was a huge success in its own right – but when it came out, not everyone was convinced. In fact, one of the book’s detractors was Francis Ford Coppola. The director thought it was too long, not yet realizing just how much he’d be studying it in future.

Not everyone involved with The Godfather was a seasoned pro – and it was sometimes pretty obvious. When former wrestler Lenny Montana was shooting his scene with Marlon Brando, for example, he nervously fluffed his lines. These shoddy takes actually made it into the movie, though, because it made sense that Montana’s character Luca Brasi would be a stuttering mess in front of Don Corleone.

Coppola was a perfectionist, and historical accuracy meant a lot to him. So, when he was shooting cars for his movie, he made sure they were true to the realities of the period piece. During the 1940s many cars had wooden bumpers, so a few in The Godfather are equipped this way, too.

In the case of Johnny Fontane and the actor who played him, reality and fiction blurred pretty closely together. Al Martino was a real-life singer who got involved with the mafia when his music contract was taken over by one syndicate. He actually had to turn to another syndicate for help, which also apparently helped him to land his Godfather role.

Brando is widely lauded as one of the greatest actors of all time, so it may surprise some people to learn that he used cue cards for his lines. But this wasn’t a failing, it was just part of his process. He felt it made his scenes more spontaneous if he didn’t fully know his lines, so that’s the approach he took on The Godfather.

Coppola’s direction on The Godfather is legendary, so it’s amazing to think that he was almost fired from the film. Studio bosses were concerned about his inexperience as a filmmaker, plus the production itself was proving to be extremely difficult. For what it’s worth, Coppola himself remembers this period as “nightmarish.”

Given the tough production, maybe it’s natural that Coppola had some negative feelings about The Godfather while he was making it. He really didn’t think it was going to be any good, fearing that the run-time was too lengthy, the scenes were too dimly-lit, and that the action was too slow. When it proved a hit, he was as surprised as anyone.

James Caan’s Sonny Corleone is a scary character, prone to terrifying acts of brutality. In a certain light, Caan could be pretty scary himself, but he needed something subtle to make his character seem even more menacing. So, his teeth were made to look larger and more vampiric during his scenes.

When Brando was considering whether or not to take the role of Vito Corleone, he studied the script and looked for a unique way to approach it. He eventually came to understand the screenplay as a metaphor for corporate America. Specifically, he viewed the Corleone family’s treatment of human beings as “so American.”

Steven Spielberg is known as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, but even he was blown away by The Godfather. In fact, he thought it was so good that it actually depressed him. According to website IMDb, the Jaws director once remarked, “I felt that I should quit, that there was no reason to continue directing because I would never reach that level of confidence.”

The cat that we see at the start of The Godfather was actually a late inclusion. The filmmakers decided to use the creature just before shooting the opening sequence, but it seemed perfectly relaxed in Brando’s company. Coppola has claimed that that’s because the actor had a great manner when interacting with animals.

Everyone has their own unique methods of preparing for a job, but Coppola’s approach was pretty meticulous. In the run-up to shooting The Godfather, the director filled some 720 pages of notes on the mafia and its ways. He also compiled images of grizzly acts attributed to the Mob, too.

The logo of The Godfather is unquestionably iconic. The image of a hand pulling some puppet strings first appeared on the cover of Puzo’s novel, but it was never meant to be on the posters for the movie. Coppola was adamant that it should appear, though, and he eventually won the argument.

It’s hard to imagine The Godfather without Al Pacino in it, but that was very nearly the case. Producer Robert Evans was really against the actor taking on the role of Michael, apparently principally because he felt he was too short. He instead wanted someone like Robert Redford or Ryan O’Neal to be cast.

If you don’t have any ideas for dinner tonight, maybe try out the tomato sauce recipe from The Godfather? The character Clemenza reels off the ingredients in a scene, but the concoction actually traces back to the Coppola family. Give it a go and see if the clan are as good at cooking as they are at making movies.

When Michael ties the knot with Apollonia, the setting of Sicily plays a vital part in the scenes. These parts of the movie really were shot on the Italian island, but not in the commune of Corleone specifically. This area was too built-up for the film, so the shoot took place in a couple of other towns.

When Michael gets hit square in the jaw, the character obviously sustains quite a bit of damage. But in real life, Pacino decided to really commit by actually undergoing a jaw-wiring procedure himself. So, he wasn’t faking it when his mouth appeared to be clamped down in the film.

If you ever thought Johnny Fontane seemed a little similar to Frank Sinatra, that’s no accident. As Coppola once revealed in a commentary of The Godfather, “Obviously Johnny Fontane was inspired by a kind of Frank Sinatra character.” In fact, this connection enraged the real-life Sinatra, who even took legal action against the production. This dispute led many scenes involving Johnny Fontane to be cut out.

It’s very difficult to imagine The Godfather working if Caan hadn’t been cast as Sonny and Pacino as Michael. But it could have worked out so differently, as Caan had initially auditioned for the part of Michael. Luckily, the casting directors could see the role to which Caan was most suited.

The Godfather changed film forever, but not just artistically. Its effect on the entire industry was huge, too, as one of the film’s producers Al Ruddy has explained. According to Time magazine, he said, “The Godfather brought in the era of the blockbusters, where they’re looking for the $100 million movie, the home run, the tent-pole attraction to build a schedule on. This had never happened before.”

Marlon Brando’s acting in The Godfather is legendary, and it was recognized as such in its own day. Brando won the Best Actor award at the 1973 Oscars, but he didn’t want it. Instead of accepting his award, he sent a Native American woman named Sacheen Littlefeather to the podium in protest against the racial stereotyping of her people in Hollywood movies.

During the scene where baby Michael Francis Rizzi is baptized, there’s actually a future star on the screen. The baby is actually portrayed by Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter Sofia, who arrived in the world in 1971. Sofia Coppola would grow up to become a filmmaker in her own right, with the Oscar-winning Lost in Translation perhaps being her most acclaimed feature to date.

The score of The Godfather is a vital component of the film’s tone, but it wasn’t recognized by the Academy Awards. Composed by Nino Rota, the music was initially nominated – but then the academy U-turned. That’s because a small part of it had been used in another movie and was therefore ineligible for the awards.

The iconic horse’s head scene was shot at a massive property in Beverly Hills, but this place has plenty of other claims to fame, too. First off, it used to belong to American media mogul William Randolph Hearst. But it was also where John F. and Jackie Kennedy honeymooned in ’53.

Though it might not be tremendously clear to see, George Lucas left his mark on The Godfather. A close friend of Coppola, Lucas worked as a set assistant on the film and ultimately helped to forge an iconic scene. During the atmospheric hospital sequence, we can hear footsteps but not see them. That was Lucas’ idea.

Coppola and his team had to make the scenes of New York appear genuine, so a lot of work was necessary. Vintage cars were used for the production, while specially made props and signs were created to adorn the streets. It was surely painstaking work, but it was undoubtedly worth it.

Oranges often appear throughout The Godfather before some grizzly event takes place, so fans have pondered their symbolic significance. But according to The Godfather Legacy, a book about the movie’s production, the choice of oranges was incidental. Author Harlen Lebo claimed, “For [production designer] Dean Tavoularis, oranges were simply another carefully chosen compliment to otherwise somberly dressed sets. ‘We knew this film wasn’t going to be about bright colors, and oranges make a nice contrast,’ said Tavoularis. ‘I don’t remember anybody saying, Hey, I like oranges as a symbolic message.’”

Gianni Russo was an acting newcomer when he was cast in The Godfather, so Brando was reluctant to work with him. He supposedly changed his mind, though, when Russo took him aside and threatened him for real. Brando was apparently so impressed by this behavior that he was comfortable with Russo acting in the movie.

After his crime in the restaurant, Michael jumps into a getaway car and gets away from the scene. In real life, though, this sequence messed Pacino up. As he tried to get in the car, he ended up twisting his ankle quite badly. He was forced to use crutches and a walking stick for a couple of weeks after that.

The humor in Montana’s scene with Brando can apparently be partly attributed to Caan. It’s said that Coppola asked Caan to make Montana seem funnier in the scene, so Caan stuck tape to Montana’s tongue and included a rude message on it. This made Montana speak in a contrived manner, which remained the case even after it was removed.

The Corleone family matriarch was portrayed by Morgana King, but she wasn’t exactly the right age for the part. In reality, she was only a little bit older than the men who played her sons. The slim age gap was actually only about five to ten years in some cases.

Caan’s oddly onomatopoeic description of the act of shooting someone – “bada-bing” – is unquestionably iconic, but it was actually an improvisation. The expression was never written into the script, with Caan just saying it on the fly. He once explained to Vanity Fair magazine, “It just came out of my mouth – I don’t know from where.”

It might seem strange that in a film explicitly about the mafia, neither the terms “mafia” or “Mob” are ever said aloud. But that’s the case in The Godfather. The reason is that Coppola made an agreement with the Italian-American Civil Rights League to never use them in his film.

Brando used to focus hard on the minute physical details of his character, such as the clothes he wore and the way he styled his hair. He also used to wear a mouthpiece that made Don Corleone look more like a bulldog. Of course, it’s impossible to imagine the character in any other way now.