: Martin Scorsese recounts when he knew Ray Liotta was perfect for Goodfellas #IndiaNEWS #Entertainment Los Angeles, Feb 25 (IANS) Actor Ray Liotta will receive a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk

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Martin Scorsese recounts when he knew Ray Liotta was perfect for Goodfellas #IndiaNEWS #Entertainment
Los Angeles, Feb 25 (IANS) Actor Ray Liotta will receive a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honouring almost 50 years of amazing work in TV and on film. After his turn in the 1986 film Something Wild, playing Henry Hill in Martin Scorseses Goodfellas was the moment that many cinephiles first discovered his charms.
Talking about the moment he knew that Liotta was the perfect choice for Hill Scorsese says it wasnt during casting, or even on set, but when the two crossed paths ahead of the beginning of production, reports Variety.
We were thinking about just a few actors to play Henry Hill, and Ray was one of them, Scorsese tells Variety.
I had one concern. I knew that he could handle a role like the one he had in Something Wild, but here he would have to carry the whole picture. He had to look like he could have come out of that world, he had to have a certain innocence, he had to have authority, but most of all he needed charm as a counterweight to the violence and the horrifying behaviour. I loved Rays work, we got along very well whenever we met and I knew we could work together.
But still, I wondered, he admits. And then, something clicked into place.
Scorsese said he was in Venice for The Last Temptation of Christ when they unexpectedly crossed paths.
I was staying at the Excelsior Hotel. I was crossing the lobby to do an interview and I saw Ray waving to me on the other side of the room he was there with Dominick and Eugene, he remembers.
He headed toward me to say hello and he was confronted by a phalanx of security. Anda he handled it. Perfectly.
Notwithstanding Scorseses own celebrity, Last Temptation generated a tidal wave of controversy for the filmmaker which required him to enlist additional protection death threats were issued for daring to adapt Nikos Kazantzakis portrait of Jesus. (Ray) reacted very quietly, very calmly, politely, he recalled.
He allowed them to observe their protocols and he defused the situation. He looked at me, I looked at him, we signaled to each other that we would talk at a more convenient moment, and we went our separate ways.
Shortly therafter, Scorsese officially selected him for the part. I took a little more time to think about it, but I realise now that I was just going through the motions, he admits. That was when I knew he would be Henry Hill.
Liotta appears in almost every scene of Goodfellas, a responsibility he shoulders with ease and consistency on screen. Scorsese reveals that behind the scenes, he went through at least one significant personal challenge that threatened to undermine the duos creative rhythm, much less the actors focus in what would prove to be one of his signature roles.

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