Martin Scorsese acknowledges that one of the most iconic scenes from ‘One of Ours’ was improvised by Joe Pesci: “It wasn’t in the script”

Director Martin Scorsese has admitted what was an open secret: that The most iconic scene from ‘Goodfellas’one of the best mobster and gangster movies in cinema, it was not in the script.

In an interview with Deadline, Scorsese confirmed that one of the best moments of ‘Goodfellas’, the scene that surely declined the scales of the Oscar Award in favor of Joe Pesci, was not written by the filmmaker. According to the director, the “funny guy” dialogue was improvised by Joe Pesci based on the actor’s personal experience.

In that moment of ‘One of ours’, Tommy (Pesci) tells a story that makes everyone at the table laugh, prompting Henry (Ray Liotta) to compliment him on being a funny guy.. However, Tommy takes it as an offense rather than a compliment, turning a trivial comment into a tense and possibly dangerous confrontation, given Tommy’s demeanor. “Funny in what sense? Like a clown?“

Scorsese claims that much of the film was an open and collaborative process, allowing Pesci to develop the scene with Scorsese before shooting it. “Some things were spontaneous. For example, Joe Pesci would come in and say, ‘I want to do this scene…’ And, like in the whole movie, we’d say, ‘Just do it.’. We continually rewrote the script from rehearsals.”

As for THAT scene in particular, Scorsese recalls that “He [Pesci] he said, ‘something happened to me’. We were in a restaurant. I said, ‘tell me’. He says, ‘I can’t tell you here.’ I said, well, let’s go to my house. So we did. He told me about it and said, ‘I’m going to play him in the movie.’ And I said, ‘I know exactly where to put it.’ He’s not even in the script. I didn’t write it. We finished it in one day of filming”.

The late Ray Liotta also addressed the subject in several interviews, acknowledging that Pesci brought the scene to life and revealing that the idea was inspired by Pesci’s personal experience. When the actor was much younger and working in a restaurant, he told a guy he was funny, which caused a similar reaction to Tommy’s..

Starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, ‘Goodfellas’ is the story of Henry Hill’s life with the mob. The 1990 gangster film is considered one of Scorsese’s best films, and was nominated for six Oscars. (although Pesci was the only one who came home with the statuette).

‘Goodfellas’ has withstood the test of time to be considered a classicperhaps the best of the many acclaimed collaborations between Robert De Niro and Scorsese.