Talia Shire: Why I shouldn’t have been in ‘The Godfather’
Apparently it really was an offer she couldn’t refuse.
However, Talia Shire told The Post that if she had been in her brother Francis Ford Coppola‘s shoes, she wouldn’t have hired herself for the role of Connie Corleone in 1972’s “The Godfather.”
Alluding to the fact that Paramount Pictures execs were mulling whether to fire director Coppola from the production, she revealed, “it was really tough for Francis.”
Shire, 75, added, “And I think the last thing he needed was his sister at that time … It added one more tension for him … I wouldn’t have had me on the set.”
But the actress also noted that she “had to audition” for the role — and she and her big bro, now 82, eventually “enjoyed a collaborative professional relationship on that movie.”
Shire, who played the challenging role of the only daughter of Don Vito Corleone — married to ne’er-do-well Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo) — said that the harrowing scene where a clearly pregnant Connie is throwing dishes while dodging blows from her on-screen husband was difficult to shoot.
“It’s a rough thing to see a pregnant woman being knocked around,” she acknowledged before explaining that legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis was “in the center of the action.”
“And I had to move from place to place, and I was honestly terrified because you didn’t want to do another take. Another take meant everything had to be reset, and I just wanted to keep going and sometimes things wouldn’t break. And I remember my shoes came off, and I kept running, hoping, ‘Feet don’t fail me now. I don’t want to get cut.’ But it was a marvel to shoot, and I think it was very potent.”
Shire admitted she had no idea the film — which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with a limited revival run starting Friday in movie theaters — was a masterpiece while filming until Marlon Brando came on set.
She reminded The Post that Brando was only 46 when he played the Mafia don.
“He walked onto the set as an incredibly young and handsome man,” she said, “And then he would come onto the set fully made up, and he was this other person because he was a great actor. He had enormous craft. But it was something about that great artist with all of his craft and the collaboration with Francis. That was quite quite … You knew it was going to be great.”
Shire praised all the cast but especially wanted to remember John Cazale, who played Fredo Corleone and who died in 1978 at the age of 42.
“I feel I need to mention him,” she said. “He was one of the great actors that you wanted to act with or wanted to be with because he was the most generous artist around.”
The actress, who scored an Oscar nomination for her role as Adrian in “Rocky,” comes from an artistic family — her other brother, August, was a literature professor, Nicolas Cage and Sofia Coppola are her nephew and niece, and one of her sons is actor Jason Schwartzman.
“My father [Carmine Coppola] was first flutist with [Arturo] Toscanini,” she explained. “When I was a little girl, I would hear him practice and it would stop me dead because it was so beautiful. So I think it began there for me. And just the way my brothers were, they were different.
“Maybe it’s just genetic, I don’t know, but boy, there was a love of beauty and all the hard times that went with that.”
