How Joe Pesci got into the mind of a murderer for ‘Goodfellas’
Joe Pesci earned international acclaim for his performance as the murderous mobster Tommy DeVito in Martin Scorsese‘s 1990 film Goodfellas. The actor went on to win the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’, beating the likes of Andy García and Al Pacino. Yet, despite his success, acting is a profession that Pesci fell into, having performed in plays since the age of five and starred in a television variety show called Startime Kids.
After attempting to start a music career, Pesci became one-half of a comedy double act with Frank Vincent, finding popularity in the 1970s. The pair featured in a low-budget movie, The Death Collector, directed by Ralph De Vito, in 1976. Advertised with the tagline, “If You Liked The Godfather & Dog Day Afternoon, Then This Is Your Kind of Motion Picture”, the movie was seen by Robert De Niro, who was impressed by Pesci’s performance.
Subsequently, De Niro and his good pal Martin Scorsese contacted Pesci to offer him the role of Joey LaMotta in his upcoming feature, Raging Bull. When the struggling actor received the phone call, he lived above the restaurant where he worked, so he gladly accepted the part. The film allowed Pesci to demonstrate his talents, earning an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in the process.
Following his success with Pesci, Scorsese recruited the actor ten years later for his epic crime drama Goodfellas. Alongside De Niro, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino and Vincent, Pesci gave one of many incredible performances the film has to offer. However, in an interview with GQ, Scorsese explained that Pesci initially didn’t want to participate. “When I asked Joe to be in the film, he didn’t want to do it. We went up to my apartment, and he said, ‘Let me tell you a couple of stories. If you could find a place for this sort of thing, then I think we could make it special’.”
Pesci’s iconic line, “I’m funny how? I mean, funny like I am a clown?” was inspired by a real encounter between the actor and a mobster when he was working in a restaurant. Apparently, Pesci attempted to joke with a wise guy, calling him “funny”, but it didn’t go down too well. “Joe acted it out. Then we did a rehearsal with Ray and Joe and put it on audiotape, and I constructed the scene from the transcripts and gave it to them to hit those levels, the different levels of questioning and how the tone changes. It was never in the script,” claims Scorsese.
In Martin Scorsese: A Journey, Pesci revealed how he got into character. “What I do is think of somebody that I know very well who is the same type, and play him,” he said. “I do my Tommy. I do Joe Pesci as if I were this killer, this crazy, funny, wisecracking person”. He channelled his own “terrible” temper, which he has always made an effort to control, into his character, stating, “As Tommy, I use those urges to kill.” By the time he had got into character, “I did one of those murders like it was absolutely nothing.”
The actor also compared his way of working to De Niro’s. “Bob De Niro will find out everything about his characters, and take those traits and little things with him, and let it start to feel like that for him.” Although Pesci and De Niro work differently, they both came together to make an incredible film, which is now considered one of the most influential gangster movies ever made.
