The actor Robert Duvall called his mentor: “One of the very best”
Art is subjective, and so, there aren’t any assurances in the industry. But is everything up for debate? Can anybody truly claim anything but The Godfather series to be the greatest set of movies in history when so many actors say it is true? And with a glittering cast, including Robert Duvall, Al Pacino and Diane Keaton, it makes it even harder to argue the point.
The series serves as an alumni for a who’s who of greats. But one actor, who carried the first film, sits above the rest in terms of iconography. He’s an actor who took the catalogue of greats that starred alongside him, nestled them under his wing and showed them what it took to become Hollywood royalty. That actor is, of course, Marlon Brando.
Brando played Vito Corleone in the 1972 original film and set the series on the path of success, both commercially and culturally. But perhaps more importantly than that, for the late Duvall especially, was the close-quarters mentorship he gave him on the set of that film. At that point, Duvall had watched from afar, as a film fan, marvelling at the brilliance of Brando’s acting, and upon sharing a set with him, that appreciation only multiplied.
“There was one actor I always looked up to,” Duvall once explained. “When we were coming up, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and I used to sit in a place called Cromwell’s Drugstore in New York City, two or three times a week. And if we mentioned Marlon Brando’s name once, we’d mention it 25 times.”
Duvall was then cast in the ‘72 epic, and his acting life changed. Recalling that experience, Duvall lamented, “People have heroes, and I think you always look up to somebody. Brando was unique. It was just who he was, his work. Sometimes the people around him weren’t as good, but he’d carry the movie. Young up-and-coming actors all look up to Brando and his work – he was one of the very best.”
Duvall remembered how Brando’s initial demeanour was frosty, as he commanded an aura on set. But it wasn’t long until he formed a sense of brotherhood with his Godfather co-star, to the point where they started pulling pranks on each other on set.
Duvall said, “I remember when we mooned each other on the set of The Godfather. I went for his belt, he went for mine, he said, ‘You can’t do that to women and children!’ and we mooned.”
He continued, “We all mooned each other – Pacino too, and Jimmy Caan. We tried to have humour and mess around on set. We’d fool around and Coppola would go, ‘Come on, we’ve gotta be serious’. But he knew it caused relaxation, and I think Brando appreciated that.”
Behind the curtain of one of Hollywood’s most glittering film series was a ragtag group of actors, led by arguably the greatest of all time, simply messing around. A very different story from the one that came out of the Apocalypse Now set, that the pair shared a decade later.
