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Martin Scorsese worked with a young Ray Liotta while directing the biographical mob movie Goodfellas. The esteemed director recently penned a column for The Guardian, where he shares fond memories and anecdotes about Liotta, who passed away on May 26.
After watching Liotta in a supporting role in the 1986 film Something Wild, Scorcese knew Liotta was a force. Still, he wondered if the young and fairly inexperienced actor would be able to pull off Goodfellas central character Henry Hill. In the column, Scorsese recalls a pivotal moment in his early interactions with the actor:
“When The Last Temptation of Christ had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, I was crossing the lobby of the Excelsior hotel on my way to an interview. Ray and I saw each other from across the lobby, and he headed toward me to say hello and check in with me. He came near and then he hit a wall of security. Instead of throwing a fit and demanding that he be allowed through, he reacted quietly and calmly, observed the rules and patiently defused the situation. He looked at me, I looked at him, and we signaled that we would talk, and he walked away. I watched it all very closely, and I saw him handle the situation with quiet authority and a real elegance. Actually, that was just what the role needed. When I look back on it, I believe that was the moment when I knew I wanted Ray to play Henry Hill,” Scorcese says.
On set, Scorsese says that Liotta “never missed a beat,” being able to improvise scenes alongside the seasoned cast that included heavyweight actors Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci.
The esteemed director also shares his regret that the two didn’t collaborate after Goodfellas. He recalls watching Liotta in Marriage Story and being impressed by the actor’s growth from the “young, sprightly actor” he first encountered on Goodfellas.
“I wish I’d had the chance to see him just once more, too – to tell him just how much the work we did together meant to me. But maybe he knew that. I hope so,” Scorsese says.
Ray Liotta’s Career
Liotta is best remembered for his performances as Ray Sinclair in Something Wild, Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, Figgsy in Cop Land, and, of course, Henry Hill in Goodfellas. Goodfellas debuted in 1990 and has since been regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.
Liotta received a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild. On television, he appeared as a guest star on ER in 2004, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2015, he appeared in the miniseries Texas Rising, for which he earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.
Liotta will appear posthumously on Elizabeth Bank’s Cocaine Bear, a thriller based on a real-life story about an American black bear that ingested cocaine. It is set for release in early 2023. Liotta passed away at the age of 67 in the Dominican Republic. He was on location filming the upcoming movie Dangerous Waters.
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