THE GODFATHER PART I

You have Irish roots yourself, don’t you?

Yeah. My mother’s Dutch, French, German. And my father was Irish and Italian. I hitchhiked around Ireland when I was about 18,19. I’ve been trying for years to find relatives there. For some reason it’s not easy. Italy was easier.

What did you make of Martin Scorsese when you met him for the first time?

Well, Marty and I used to see each other when we were teenagers in Little Italy. We hung out with different groups of kids. And there was athere. He said, “What do you wanna do in it?” Harvey Keitel was playing the lead and I was trying to decide which part I would play. I kept going back and forth to Marty: “What should I do? This or that?” He sort of just let me figure it out. [He ended up choosing the role of livewire Johnny Boy.]