DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Francis Ford Coppola also is a Kennedy Center Honoree for 2024. We're going to listen to the story he told Terry Gross in 2016 about how Marlon Brando came to be cast in Coppola's masterpiece "The Godfather." At the time she spoke with him, he had published the notes he had written while he made that film. The notebook contained his thoughts about each scene, including the pitfalls he wanted to avoid. It also included pages from the novel on which the movie was based, Mario Puzo's "The Godfather," with Coppola's notes in the margin.
Let's begin with the opening scene in which the character Bonasera has come to the Godfather, Don Vito Corleone, seeking justice. Bonasera's daughter was brutally beaten after she resisted two boys who had tried to take advantage of her. Bonasera says he went to the police like a good American. The boys were tried in court, but the judge gave them a suspended sentence, and they went free that very day. Bonasera wants revenge against those boys. The Godfather, played by Marlon Brando, offers this response.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE GODFATHER")
SALVATORE CORSITTO: (As Bonasera) I believe in America. Americans made my fortune.
MARLON BRANDO: (As Don Vito Corleone) We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you ever came to me for counsel or for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife was godmother to your child. But let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship. You were afraid to be in my debt.
CORSITTO: (As Bonasera) I didn't want to get into trouble.
BRANDO: (As Don Vito Corleone) I understand. You found paradise in America. You have a good trade, made a good living. Police protected you, and there were courts of law. You didn't need a friend like me. But now you come to me and you say, Don Corleone, give me justice. But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter's to be married and you ask me to do murder for money.
CORSITTO: (As Bonasera) I ask you for justice.
BRANDO: (As Don Vito Corleone) That is not justice. Your daughter is still alive.
CORSITTO: (As Bonasera) Let them suffer, then, as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
BRANDO: (As Don Vito Corleone) Bonasera, Bonasera, what have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then the scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then he would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.
CORSITTO: (As Bonasera) Be my friend, Godfather?
BRANDO: (As Don Vito Corleone) Good. Someday, and that day might never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this gesture as a gift on my daughter's wedding day.
CORSITTO: (As Bonasera) Grazie, Godfather.
BRANDO: (As Don Vito Corleone) Prego.
BIANCULLI: That's a scene from "The Godfather" featuring Marlon Brando. Terry asked Francis Ford Coppola if Mario Puzo had first suggested casting Brando.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: Well, it's true that Mario had always liked the idea of Brando. But, you know, Mario was often at Bay Shore. He was not really on the scene so much as - even a lot of my work with him was my sending him drafts and him writing notes. So although he had posed the idea of the Godfather being Brando, I don't even know if he told me that 'cause I just was hit by a whole bunch of ideas from the studio. Danny Thomas was one, Ernest Borgnine - it was a whole bunch of ideas. Even Carlo Ponti was suggested.
And finally I came down to the thing about the character, of that character was that, you know, you couldn't find anyone new, as we had done for all the other parts. Al Pacino was totally unknown. Johnny Cazale was, well - Bobby Duval was relatively unknown. So a lot of new people got big parts. But, like, a man who was supposed to be in his 60s, it couldn't be new and, like, had never been in anything before because, what was he doing all those years? So finally, with my colleague in casting, Fred Roos, we said, well, who are the two greatest actors in the world? So we said, well, Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando.
Each one had a difficulty for that part. Olivier was British. He was perfect age. He looked like one of the real guys, a Genovese. And Brando was only 47 years old. He was extremely handsome, as always. He had long, flowing blond hair. And most important, he had just been in some pictures, notably one by the great Pontecorvo called "Burn!" That was a huge flop, tremendous financial flop. So the studio felt that Brando was supposedly difficult to work with, sort of irresponsible, you know, would cause big delays. The film was only budgeted for $2.5 million dollars, you have to understand. It wasn't like we could throw money around. And my decision to make it in the '40s and have period cars and shoot in New York was already impacting the cost.
So that's one of the reasons why I was so unpopular. But they also hated my casting ideas. They hated Al Pacino for the role of Michael, and they hated Marlon Brando for the role of the Godfather. And I was told categorically by the president of Paramount - he says, Francis, as the president of Paramount Pictures, I tell you here and now Marlon Brando will never appear in this motion picture, and I forbid you to bring it up again.
TERRY GROSS: But you won. How did you win?
COPPOLA: Well, when he said, I forbid you to bring it up again I, like, feigned that I just fell on the floor on the carpet and, like, you know, as if, you know, what - and then I said, what am I supposed to do if you tell me I can't even discuss it? How can I be a director if I - if the part I think should be cast - that you won't even let me talk about it? And they said, all right, we'll tell you it this way. One, if he will do the movie for free; two, if he will put up - if he'll do a screen test; and three, if he'll put up a million-dollar bond that he will in no way have any misbehavior that causes the - you know, the overrun of the picture budget - then you can do it.
So I said, I accept (laughter), you know? So at least they were saying if I did three things - have a screen test, if I could get him to do the movie for nothing, and if I could have him put up a million dollars, which is absurd. But at least I said I accept, meaning, OK, now I can talk about it.
GROSS: So did he do the movie for free?
COPPOLA: No. I called him up and I said to Marlon, Marlon, you know, of course this is an Italian American. You know, wouldn't it be fun if we could, like, do a little experiment and kind of improv and see what playing an Italian might be like? That was my way to talk to an actor essentially asking for a screen test, but I didn't put it in those ways.
And I knew that if I could do something with this little screen test that was convincing, the absurd idea of him doing it for nothing - although they didn't pay him much more than nothing. I think they paid him scale, which was an insult. And obviously, the putting up a bond to prevent misbehavior was, you know - sometimes, you know, you say you accept terms meaning that you just have a way to continue. So the important thing was to do some sort of a little screen test that I could get on tape and show to all these executives.
GROSS: So you played this kind of little trick. And he did improv on - or whatever on film for you. What did he bring to that audition that he didn't realize was an audition?
COPPOLA: I had always heard the rumor that Marlon Brando didn't like loud noises and he always wore things in his ears, so I took a couple of my colleagues from San Francisco from this period of, you know, having young filmmakers all - have them come. And I told them all to dress in black. And no one was to speak. We would do sign language. And so we descended on Marlon's house early in the morning. He wasn't up.
And these dinges (ph) went to different corners and set up their cameras. And I also brought a whole bunch of, like, Italian salsiccia and little Italian cigars and provolone and little things, and I put them in dishes around just without even saying what I was doing. And then the door opened. They said he was going to wake up, and the door opened. Out came this beautiful man in a Japanese robe with long (laughter) flowing blond hair. And I'm - we're shooting all of this. And he came out and he didn't talk very much.
He - you know, he's - Marlon was a brilliant man, and he just knew what was going on instantly. And he - I remember he came and he took his hair, and he rolled it up and made it sort of like a bun in the back. And then he took shoe polish and he made - and he was mumbling the whole time. And he made shoe polish - and made his hair black. And then he put on the shirt that I had brought. And I remember him folding the lapel - those guys always - their lapel is always folded, he said.
And right in front of my eyes - but then he said, oh, he's shot in the throat in the story, (impersonating Brando) so he should talk like this. You know, his throat. And he started doing that. And right in front of my eyes, he transformed himself into this character. And I couldn't believe it. And then he started picking up the sausage and eating it. And he just gravitated to the props and was using it to create a kind of Italianness the way he did it. And the whole time he was just going like this, he was going (impersonating Italian accent) - he wasn't saying anything, which was funny because his phone rang. This was his home. His phone rang, and he picked up the phone and went (impersonating Italian accent). I said, my God, who was that who called? What are they going to think? But when it was all done, I had this tape, and it was quite remarkable.
BIANCULLI: Francis Ford Coppola speaking to Terry Gross in 2016. He and Bonnie Raitt are two of this year's Kennedy Center Honorees. The ceremony, held earlier this month, is scheduled to be televised Sunday on CBS. Other nominees for 2024 include the Grateful Dead, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and the iconic Harlem theater The Apollo. After a break, Justin Chang reviews two new films that have made many critics end-of-year top-10 lists, "Nickel Boys" and "The Brutalist." This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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