James Caan’s favourite scene from ‘The Godfather’
While James Caan has given notable and memorable performances in the likes of The Gambler, Thief, Misery and even Elf, it’s hard to remove the New York City-born star from his role as Sonny Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary 1972 crime film The Godfather, as well as the sequel movie, Part II, that arrived two years later in 1974.
The eldest son of Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone, Sonny is the complete opposite of his cool-headed father and possesses one hell of a temper that can erupt into shocking violence at any moment. As the eldest sibling, Sonny is also incredibly protective of his sister, Connie, and brother, Michael, who eventually rises through the ranks to take on the position of the family’s Don.
Caan delivered a mighty fine performance when it came to portraying Sonny, and it was only right that he subsequently received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his effort in the first movie. Caan had once spoke of his favourite scene in The Godfather, which showed his working relationship with Marlon Brando.
The scene in question has Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen return from the infamous “horse’s head” scene, and he, Caan and Brando are sitting in the living room, talking about what Tom has just seen. This scene was the first that Caan had shot with Brando, as the actor once told AV Club. “There’s a bowl of nuts to my left, walnuts,” the actor explained. “And I’m listening, hunched over. They’re to the left to me, the both of them, with a little table between them.”
As the scene progressed, Caan started “unconsciously” picking a nut out of the bowl, but he soon discovered that they had not been shelled. “The shell was still on,” Caan said. “And all of a sudden, I started to play with the nut. Now I had it in my hand and I tried to open it a little bit, and right in the middle of a sentence of Brando’s, he just lifts his head and looks at me, stares at me.”
Naturally, considering this was the first time that Caan had ever acted with Brando, he was mortified at the belief that he had just “upstaged” the legendary actor. “I didn’t even try to make noise,” he said. “I’m sitting there with this fuckin’ nut in my hand, and I don’t know what to do with it now, you know, because it was Brando.”
With Brando’s eyes glaring at Caan, the younger actor had no choice but to continue with his acting choice, so he opened up the nut and started eating it very slowly. When the scene finished, Caan thought he was in for a rollicking from Brando, but the truth was that his elder star was impressed with his decision to pick up and play with the nut.
Caan explained, “Brando started punching his fist and laughed and said, ‘That was great’. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’” In the end, it transpired that in the scene, Vito Corleone was talking about Sonny not being suitable to become Don, which Brando thought Caan was playing into, “like his mind is so scattered and whatever with the girls, with this and that”.
The actor signed off on his favourite scene in The Godfather, “And the idea that I was playing with the fuckin’ nut proves it when he’s talking about serious business. So that turned out great. So that was a good scene.”
