Joe Pesci broke into the family holiday film scene with the 1990 smash hit Home Alone, also starring
Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister and Daniel Stern as Pesci’s partner in crime Marv.
The character, much like the actor, has become a staple of Hollywood cinema. The actor has had an interesting history with language, given the whiplash that he experienced going from mob films to family-friendly projects. However, that wasn’t his only tussle with language, since he added a new word to his 1992 project.
Joe Pesci added a new word to his 1992 film
Pesci was immensely proud of the script that was turned in for My Cousin Vinny. The actor, on Later with Bob Costas, said:
“… My Cousin Vinny was written so well, that everthing was there. I didnt feel the need to do anything. I mean, I amy have turned a phrase here or there, I probably would have been allowed to do a lot, if I wanted to but there was no call for it”
Pesci felt it unnecessary to add something to the script. My Cousin Vinny was allegedly hilarious on paper, and even more so on the screen. Its dialogues were snappy and crisp. Pesci could have mutated his character to a great extent but didn’t need to because everything was just right. The only thing he ended up adding to the script was the word “Yutes”. Concerning this addition, the actor said:
“That was my contribution to that film. I remember it was Rocky Graziano, who I always love for this naturalness. Whenever he would do a benefit for somebody, or something, he was always interested in (doing something for) kids. And I remember him saying, I kept his accent intact, a really sweet guy. He was setting something up for kids, and I remember he was giving a speech, I was watching him talk and he said “You yutes!”‘
Pesci was referring to boxer Rocky Graziano, who was interested in philanthropy for children. The athlete’s accent caused him to pronounce the word ‘youths’ with a hard ‘t’ sound at the end, like in the word ‘jute’, hence making it sound like he was saying ‘yutes’ instead of ‘youths’. This word Pesci picked up and inserted in the dialogue, adding another layer of ingenious and timeless comedy to an already tight script.
Joe Pesci created a language to survive Home Alone
Joe Pesci was a part of Scorsese’s classic Hollywood mob film, Goodfellas. True to Scorsese’s films, the character that Pesci played used a lot of foul language. As time went on, it became a part of Pesci’s regular vocabulary, which helped him be a better part of Scorsese’s production. However, the same habit became a nightmare when he was cast for the family-friendly holiday film Home Alone. With young children on set, it would be a nightmare to keep that kind of language as part of his daily repertoire.
This compelled the Casino actor to make some adjustments to his vocabulary. The actor decided to invent his own language to compensate for the lack of swear words available to him in the day. This is the language he muttered whenever something went wrong with his character, which would have usually merited the character to swear if it were the real world or that kind of film.
