Wake Up And Smell The Spaghetti

The casting choices for The Godfather were made by Coppola and legendary casting director Fred Roos.

"Fred really understands acting and who's got talent," Gray Frederickson, an associate producer on "The Godfather," said. "That's why Fred is brilliant in casting. The cast really sold those parts."

(Roos did similar casting magic several years later with "American Graffiti," which like "The Godfather," launched a whole new generation of talent).

James Caan, Robert Duvall and Al Pacino were still considered character actors back then instead of the traditional leading men the studios usually went for.

"We were being pushed to cast Ryan O'Neal and Warren Beatty," Roos said. "We were still in the era of pretty people. I think 'The Godfather' helped change that."

When Coppola and Roos were considering who would play the title role, they agreed it should be played by "the greatest actor in the world," who was then Marlon or Olivier.

Laurence Olivier was ill at the time and turned the offer down flat, so Coppola set his sights on Brando (before agreeing to make "The Godfather," Coppola also considered Brando to play the lead in "The Conversation," which eventually went to Gene Hackman).

The idea of casting Brando was treated by the studio as insanity. He had a number of flops in a row, and a reputation for being very difficult, making directors jump through ridiculous hoops, and driving movies over budget. Even Brando himself was convinced he was washed up, according to Peter Manso' biography of the actor "Brando: The Biography;" no one saw "The Godfather" as a potential comeback vehicle for the star.

The men of "The Godfather": Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan and John Cazale.

Brando of course had to be wooed, but he really bought Coppola's pitch and quickly agreed to do it. The studio forced Brando to do a screen test, a humiliating move for such a revered performer. But Coppola didn't use the term "screen test," he'd just bring over an early model of a video camera and they'd goof around a little. Watching Coppola's video, the Paramount execs were blown away at how Brando transformed himself into the role, and it turned the tide in his favor. Another well-known story in Godfather history is nobody at Paramount wanted Al Pacino either, and it was only after he got some heat from his role in "Panic in Needle Park" that the studio changed its mind.

Former Paramount head of production Robert Evans made the famous proclamation that with "The Godfather" he wanted to "smell the spaghetti," but he also wanted clichéd big name stars for the film, like Ryan O'Neal and Ernest Borgnine. Robert Redford was suggested to play Michael, but Coppola didn't want someone who could pass for a WASP and go on to become a banker. Coppola recalled to "Cigar Aficionado" that he wanted an actor who looked Italian "so it's like he can't escape his destiny..." As it turns out, Evans, a ridiculously vain former actor, reportedly wanted a good-looking star to play Michael because he wanted an actor who looked like him.

Coppola wanted the best actors he could get for the roles, and for authenticity, he and Roos wanted as many Italian actors they could hire. "Francis felt he would get touches that would work great for the movie from people who grew up in that kind of culture," Roos said. "So therefore I interviewed every Italian actor that wanted to be interviewed; it was an open door. A lot of them lied and said they were Italian!"

In spite of the resistance he faced with the casting and wanting to keep the film period, Coppola "just kept chipping away at 'em," Frederickson said.

"He's great in the room," Roos said. "He just sold them on his vision of it. He was a great salesman to take them out of their original thinking into what he wanted."

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