Actor extraordinaire Jack Nicholson, whose best movie performance is almost impossible to determine thanks to so many outstanding ones, turned down a role in The Godfather and now, in a viral video, his explanation is being seen by millions.
The viral 1982 video clip documents Nicholson being interviewed by Ian Johnstone for BBC television. Johnstone asks him why he turned down both The Godfather and The Sting, to which Nicholson initially responds by explaining that while he knew that both films were going to be successful, he chose two others over them, saying, “I happened to think that Last Detail and Chinatown to me were the more interesting of the films.”
For clarity, Nicholson was offered the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. However, Nicholson adds a detail that may be a surprise to many; that he wanted to work with Marlon Brando.
Nicholson claimed about the role of Michael Corleone, “I always wanted to work with Marlon and I was asked to play the lead in it and A) I felt it should be an Italian person and B) I didn’t have any scenes with Marlon in the script I read.”
It seems almost impossible that Michael Corleone — ultimately played by Al Pacino, who was born to Sicilian Italian-American parents — not to have any scenes with the Godfather himself. This was obviously changed, or perhaps it was initially slightly misunderstood in the original script. It’s worth noting that Marlon Brando had no Italian ancestry.
Nicholson did actually eventually work with Brando in the film The Missouri Breaks, which is a Western released to lukewarm reception in 1976. Since the experience of working together, Nicholson referred to Brando as a perfectionist.
The clip of the interview was uploaded by Historic Vids on X and already has over 3 million views. However, the full BBC interview is available to watch on YouTube, and can be seen below.
The funniest part of the full interview is near the end, when the phone rings. Apparently, the interview was conducted in Nicholson’s home. He quickly turns around and answers the phone with his sly voice, “Hello? Hi, darling,” almost in a Joker-like style, perhaps foretelling his future role, and then the cameras keep rolling as he and his then long-time partner Anjelica Huston finalize dinner plans. Perhaps the humor is in the fact that this was kept in the airing of the interview.
It’s difficult to envision Nicholson as Michael Corleone, but clearly all involved made the right choices —for themselves, and for their respective films.