It’s been a long time since Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas hit theatres. But people’s love for the Joe Pesci starrer fails to die down. And this success is in no small part down to the leading troika of Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci. Each of them put their best foot forward. Famously, the Jimmy Hollywood star once made a strange request to the crew in order to get into the zone. He (literally) asked them to load his gun.
Joe Pesci brought his A-game to the fore for Goodfellas
Every actor on set brought their A-game to the fore for Goodfellas. Martin Scorsese would settle for no less after all. The host of Award nominations and wins that the movie got is a testament to the same.
There is one man who deserves special credit though. The only star to have won an Academy Award for the 1990 flick – Joe Pesci. Playing the iconic Tommy DeVito, the Home Alone star left no stone unturned for this role.
How Joe Pesci prepared himself for killing a man
When Joe Pesci read the script, he understood the size of the task before him. He knew hitting the right straps would be far from a walk in the park. And he had no qualms about it. Who wouldn’t appreciate a good challenge after all?
The Man on Fire star put in all he had behind his role. It was not something he was familiar with. There was a scene where he had to shoot Michael Imperioli’s character at point blank. And Pesci was not at all prepared for the scene.
Joe Pesci wanted everything to be real
In an interview years down the lane, the 80-year-old would recollect what went down in his mind while he was shooting the scene. He said in a clip shared by Omid Films
“It was a frightening thing. I was out of my body for a minute y’know. I had to put myself in a frame of mind to really kill someone.”
What is shocking is how he got in the zone. The Lethal Weapon 2 star made the crew put full loads in the 45 mm. Why? Because he wanted it to feel real. He said,
“I wanted to hear the echo. I wanted the gun to really kick like a 45 mm.”
He was not ready for it though. Pesci said that what was more deafening to him than the gun was the silence after the last shot rang out. This doesn’t mean he would shy away from doing the same in another movie.
Tommy DeVito would have shot him if he did.
