Is Joe Pesci the greatest supporting actor of all time?
Joe Pesci has played some of the most iconic characters of all time, lending his talents to flesh out the story worlds created by bold auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone and Oliver Stone. Over the years, he has played a whole host of shady characters, with gangsters, sidekicks and criminals becoming regular parts throughout his body of work. He’s often starred alongside the great Robert de Niro as a staple within Scorsese’s filmography.
Throughout all his years onscreen, he has been somewhat defined by his work as a supporting actor, with few films in which he plays the lead. He’s gained a similar reputation to the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman or Donald Sutherland, often bringing life and colour to the side characters and rarely taking centre stage. But while Pesci might often play supporting roles, there is one film of his that points towards his stellar talents as a leading man, thus leading us to perhaps rethink this sweeping title.
There have been many great courtroom dramas over the years, with audiences coming to know and love the studying montages, final takedowns and initial impossibility of the task at hand in many films like A Few Good Men, 12 Angry Men and Verdict. However, there is one criminally underrated gem within this genre that both changed the nature of it and Pesci’s career, which is, of course, the 1992 film, My Cousin Vinny.
Directed by Jonathan Lynn, the film follows two friends who accidentally find themselves being accused of murder, enlisting the help of their cousin Vinny, a former auto mechanic turned lawyer, to help dismiss their charges. Pesci stars as cousin Vinny, with a larger-than-life presence as the charismatic if slightly clueless lawyer. He perfectly captures the naivety and sheer determination of someone completely out of their depth after never having worked a murder trial before.
Pesci commands each scene he is in, desperately fighting to win the case while struggling to win the respect of the judges who look down on him for not fitting the typical image of a lawyer, with genius one-liner comments as he mocks the self-seriousness of the courtroom with opening statements such as, “Your honour, everything that guy just said is bullshit”.
While the actor has formed a reputation largely through dramatic roles in gangster epics and crime thrillers, he is an undeniably gifted comedian who earns every minute of being in the limelight through his razor-sharp humour and comedic timing, making audiences roar with a single look or pronunciation of the word ‘youths’.
Despite being known for his supporting roles alongside Hollywood heavyweights, his role in My Cousin Vinny proves that he has the gravitas to captivate people, no matter who he is on screen, with a versatility that many leading actors struggle to find in themselves. He might be more widely remembered for playing the likes of Tommy DeVito and Joey LaMotta, but Vinny will always have a soft spot in my heart for showing that he is much more than just a supporting actor.
