Entertainment
In "Goodfellas," Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino) is one of the most powerful gangsters in New York.
However, that was almost the case for Paul Sorvino, who's performance as mob capo Paul "Paulie" Cicero, is perhaps the best-known of his entire career.
At a 25th anniversary celebration of "Goodfellas" at the Tribeca Film Festival over the weekend, Sorvino explained how he almost quit right before filming started.
"I was quitting after almost four weeks and we were supposed to start three days later and I called my manager and said, 'get me out of this, I can't do it,'" Sorvino said.
It might be surprising that Sorvino was having second thoughts about the role. His character of Paulie Cicero, based on real life mobster Paul Vario, has a lot in common with Sorvino. They are both middle-aged Italian-American men from New York, as Sorvino acknowledged. However, there was more to playing Cicero than just that.
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Nicholas Pileggi, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Robert De Niro, and Paul Sorvino discuss "Goodfellas" with Jon Stewart at the Tribeca Film Festival.
While the three main characters in "Goodfellas" (Henry Hill, Jimmy Conway, Tommy DeVito) are portrayed as violent sociopaths, Cicero seems the most cautious of them all. After all, he is the only one who stayed away from drugs and won't do criminal transactions over the phone.
Sorvino didn't think he would be able to channel the inner life of a gangster.
De Niro made sure to hold a ketchup bottle the exact same way that Jimmy Conway did.
He made an intimidating face and realized that he could play this guy.
"I was going to fix my tie and I saw this guy. And it scared the hell out of me," Sorvino said.
Sorvino might actually be "a poet, an opera singer, a sculptor" and an actor, but he sure made one convincing gangster.