Martin Scorsese says some Italian restaurants banned him after he made 'Goodfellas'
- Director Martin Scorsese says "Goodfellas" didn't land well with everyone.
- In an interview for GQ, the Oscar-winning director said he was "shunned" from some Italian restaurants.
Not everyone was a big fan of "Goodfellas."
"Oh my God. I was shunned for 'Goodfellas.' Shunned in certain Italian restaurants. They wouldn't let me in," director Martin Scorsese told Timothée Chalamet during a conversation about filmmaking for GQ Magazine.
Based on Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction work "Wiseguy," which chronicled the rise and fall of mobster Harry Hill, the 1990 crime thriller starring Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci depicted Italian Americans as gangsters.
Chalamet was asking Scorsese about violence in film, of which many of the legendary director's works, ranging from "Taxi Driver" to "The Departed," include.
"I grew up in a place that was, you know, violence was a form of expression… And it was serious," added Scorsese, who is Italian American and grew up in New York City's Little Italy. "There was a difference between a friendly slap and a slap. And that was up to you to determine. And you could see that in 'Goodfellas' when he says 'You think I'm funny?'"
Scorsese didn't say which restaurants refused him service, but at the 25th-anniversary celebration of "Goodfellas," which Insider attended in 2015, the Oscar-winning director mentioned the movie's portrayal of Italian Americans upset the owner of a restaurant he and Pileggi regularly visited.
"When the film came out, the owner of the restaurant said we're not allowed in anymore because we apparently denigrated a certain ethnic group for the picture," Scorsese said at the time.
Scorsese's latest movie, "Killers of the Flower Moon," hits theaters Friday and will be available to stream on AppleTV+ following its theatrical run.