Francis Ford Coppola remembers Robert De Niro’s “unforgettable” audition for ‘The Godfather’
nme.comRobert De Niro’s “unforgettable” audition for The Godfather in a new interview.The director, whose film Megalopolisarrives in cinemas this week (September 27), said even now, he is still impressed with De Niro’s audition.“He had an unforgettable audition for Sonny Corleone, that was so in advance of what I even could imagine because he really nailed that kind of a guy,” Coppola recalled at a Q&A before the New York premiere of Megalopolis this week (September 23).
De Niro was at the event with Coppola as well as director Spike Lee (via IndieWire).At the time of his audition, De Niro was an unknown and Coppola actually offered the part of Paulie Gatto in the film after the part of Sonny Corleone went to James Caan instead.
De Niro later appeared in The Godfather Part 2 playing a young Vito Corleone.One line that Coppola remembers in particular is De Niro delivering the line about “getting his brains all over your nice Ivy League suit, Michael”.He recalled: “I never forgot that.
And that’s one of the reasons why I went at this daunting opportunity to have him play the Vito Corleone part that had been made so famous by Marlon.“I thought I would do the outrageous and have someone other than Marlon play the role.
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