Andy Garcia Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

I always try to go as deep into my subconscious.

Why is it that I'm attract...

wanna play this guy?

Why is it that I'm attracted to it?

Why...

Who is he and how is he somehow deeply rooted

in my own psyche?

[upbeat music]

The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.

I first heard that they were making another installment

of The Godfather, like in the '80s or late '70s,

1980, I forget now.

I was doing a movie for Paramount, my second or third movie.

And Mr. Mancuso, who's the head of the studio at the time,

Frank Mancuso, came to have lunch with myself

and his son, Frank Mancuso, Jr, who's producing the film.

And he said, What are you doing in September?

I'd like you to be in 'The Godfather'

and play this character of Vincent.

So I said, Let me check my schedule,

I'll get right back to you.

What does all this have to do with me?

Well, he's going on behind your back,

saying, [beep] Michael Corleone all the time.

See, that's one thing that has to do with you, right?

Say it to his face one time, say to his face one time!

Mr. Carleone, all bastards are liars,

Shakespeare wrote poems about it.

[Vincent] What am I gonna do with this guy,

[yells] what am I gonna do with this guy?

Dean Tavoularis, who was a great production designer,

always said that Francis's scripts are like a newspaper,

they come out every day.

You know, sometimes there'll be some new ideas

that he'd write and present 'em on the day to do.

But basically the character was, you know,

established in the first screen play that we kept.

He kept adjusting, but the character was there.

Bastardo.

[growls] [yells]

Vinny, for Christ's sake!

I remember having lunch when we started rehearsals,

and he'd have these big dinners after the rehearsal

that he would cook, and the cast,

the whole cast would be there.

And Mario Puzo was there,

and I sat one of the nights with Mario.

I said, Mario, what can you tell me about Vincent?

If I remember correctly, he said,

He has the strength of Sonny, the intelligence of Vito,

the coldness of Michael, and the warmth of Fredo.

And I said, Thanks very much, I'll work on that. [laughs]

You know?

You know, obviously he's carrying

all this sort of DNA in him.

Vito Corleone came, you know, to Ellis Island,

in Godfather II.

Having fled his country where his father was killed,

they stamp him Vito Corleone.

For me, there was a lot of personal parallels,

inherent in the mythology of the Corleones

and the generation of my father.

My father had to flee a country because of the repression

and the lack of freedoms that were being established.

So those things are part of the subconscious

of what you draw on, in any character,

you're trying to open those doors

Your father, my brother, we were opposites.

We would fight now, but I never doubted his love.

He would do anything for me.

[melancholy violin]

But his temper...

too much, clouded his reason.

I don't want you to make that mistake.

Al been such an inspiration to me,

and to all actors of all generations, all of his life,

since he first stepped on the boards, you know?

And one of the things that I noticed,

that almost every day of the week, we'd have dinner together

with Diane, and my wife and I with the kids.

You're gonna bring the kids?

You gotta bring the kids.

You know, if you wanna bring the kids.

I'm bringing my dog, you bring the kids.

And then we'd have dinner like that all the time, you know?

And there was a love and a familiar thing

that happened between us.

We didn't have to play, it was just already...

it was there, you know?

And that, for Al, as an artist,

was kind of part of the preparation.

It's not like we had to run lines or rehearse a scene,

it was about building the relationship,

the real relationship, which leads to a dramatic moment,

which he says, you know,

I am your son, command me as you will.

That's the price you pay for the life you choose.

Anybody who's ever known him, or worked with him,

can only say that, what an extraordinary privilege.

[upbeat music]

Ocean's Eleven.

Okay, tell me about Benedict.

That guy is a machine.

[Male Speaker] Good afternoon, Mr. Benedict.

[Linus] He arrives at the Bellagio every day at 2:00 PM.

Same car, same driver.

[Benedict] How are you, Tommy, how's the baby?

[Tommy] Very well, thank you.

[Linus] Remembers every valet's name on the way in,

not bad for a guy worth three quarters of $1 billion.

[Interviewer] Jeffrey Kurland, the costume designer,

said he wanted Terry's costumes to have an Eastern flare

to give you a sort of zen-cool.

How did that inform the character?

[Andy] Kurland designed that, he had bought

all these vintage kimono fabrics,

and we made a series of vests with these kimono fabrics,

which have a, you know, sheen and texture.

We talked about it, we came to sort of like the idea

to do kind of like a Nehru jacket,

kind of Indian, you know, collar.

So it did look like he was a guy

that was into sort of Eastern philosophy,

The Art of War, all that kind of stuff, you know?

He was precise, it's like, And okay, let's go.

He's moving, moving, moving, moving like a shark,

he doesn't stop.

Like I said, a machine.

You build the characters

with the people you work with, you know?

And Soderbergh, we met chatting, and I said,

I feel he's like a shark

moving through the thing, you know?

If someone sees him coming,

he knows that you have information for me,

so I'm gonna keep going, you gotta fall into place.

And give me the information, because you know you only have

like, 18 seconds with me, from when I go from there,

in the casino, to there.

All you need is a little gem, and then you kind of...

you're set in the character.

And again, you got the shoes, man,

you got have the right shoes.

If you look down and you don't have the right shoes,

you're not in character.

You recently were released from prison, is that correct?

[Danny] That's right.

[Benedict] How does it feel to be out?

[Danny] Not the same.

Danny was just about to-

I just stopped by to say hi to Tess

for old times' sake.

Stay and have a drink. He can't.

I can't. [chuckles]

I wasn't in the rat-pack group,

I was the outsider, you know?

But of course, in between takes, and you know,

in the process of doing the movie,

we're all enjoying the making of, as they say, you know?

The more time you spend with the actors

that are in your family, in the piece,

the more you're like, you're gonna feel like a family.

All those actors had a mutual respect and admiration,

and friendship.

Either it was already established before the movie,

or quickly established during the movie.

We talk about the most important work is done off-camera,

not on camera, you know?

So that the generosity of spirit

is always the best towards your fellow actor.

[upbeat music]

The Untouchables.

What's that you say?

I said that you're a lying member of a no good race.

It's much better than you, you stinking Irish pig.

Oh, I like him.

[Andy] Of course he was the hero

of growing up in the '60s, he was the cat, you know?

And there were others of course, you know, Steve McQueen,

and James Coburn, and people that were sort of in the...

action hero, you know, that kind of genre.

But Sean was James Bond, you know?

He was ready ina couple takes,

and if you wanted to do a third take, it was like,

[imitating Sean] Do you have any film in that camera?

[normal voice] Like, Let's go, everybody do their job,

let's get through this, we know what we need to do,

kind of, you know, work ethic, you know,

which I really appreciated.

And he was extremely funny, and dry,

and a great joy to to be a part of that experience with him.

We became friends, which was...

give it up to the man upstairs, you know?

[uplifting music]

Guys, let's go!

All right, [indistinct].

[gunfire]

Stone, take the first car.

Got it.

It wasn't in the script, the horseback riding thing.

It was something that was sprung on me

when I got to Chicago, and DePalma took me into his office,

shows a storyboard.

He had done a little index cards with little stick figures

that he drew, sort of like what he saw.

And then he got to one of them, he said,

And here you guys are gonna be...

those are you four guys on horseback.

And I said, On horseback?

I didn't read that there was no horse.

No, you're gonna gonna be on horseback,

we're gonna be attacking this bridge,

just crossing the Missouri River.

And I said, Oh, that's gonna be, I thought,

a great sequence, you know?

But I said, But you know, Brian, I said,

my character is from the South side of Chicago,

he's never been on a horse.

And he looked at me without missing a beat, and he said,

No, he's an expert horseman.

I said, Okay, I said, when are we shooting this thing?

I found a, I think it's called Hyde Park in Chicago,

there was a horse stable there for people to rent horses.

So I thought, Oh great.

My grandfather was an immigrant,

went to work in the stables, and he would take me

to work with him on the weekends, or after school I'd go.

And he taught me how to ride.

And that's why I'm an expert horseman.

But I said, Now, that's fine for the backstory,

but now I actually have to learn how to ride a horse.

So I started going to that...

those stables, and getting on a horse often as I could.

And then when it was time to shoot,

it was just a question of not falling off the horse

at the speed we were going.

'Cause my horse was like, Michael Jordan.

You know, had to hold on,

and carry this like, 30-lb Tommy gun,

and only hold on to the reins,

you couldn't hold on to, you know, the horn.

You were free styling, like this, you know?

It was hairy.

[Interviewer] I wanna talk a little bit more about

working with DePalma.

You said that he had story-boarded the whole thing.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] What was his style like on set?

[Andy] He was very well prepared

and had designed the movie.

You know, he had always been a master of designing

those sequences, like the sequence in the train station,

or the baby carriage.

[intense music]

[gunshot]

Come on, come on, let's get out of here.

[lullaby music]

Wait, what are you doing?

Shut up!

Come on! I said shut up!

[baby babbles]

Obviously it was an inspiration

he got from the Battleship Potemkin sequence,

but he did his own thing with it,

and he designed his own incredible...

It's really an incredible sequence.

It's just a whole tension of that with the Morricone score.

It's really ne of the classic sequences

I think people will look at

for a long time to come.

[upbeat music]

Internal Affairs.

The project was developed for me, you know, at Paramount.

I did not have a part in the development of it.

Once I got involved, naturally, you have some opinions

about certain things. And you say, What about this?

Do we think that...

You know, because you're in the creative process

at that point.

I boxed for a while for the character.

I think there's even a shot in the movie, or in my house,

where you see me.

And you know, I wanted him to have that kind of background.

You know, a kid that grew up like,

Golden Gloves in Los Angeles.

And not that we never see us boxing,

but what happens is I think, you know,

because when you learn how to box,

there's a way you throw punches, a trained punch,

and you know where your leverage is, you know?

There is this one scene where I knock

Richard Gere's character, then it's back down with one...

We just want... [smacking]

[thud]

The actors look for that all the time,

little additions or contradictions to what you would expect.

[upbeat music]

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

There's a story behind your casting there.

Apparently Cher had requested

that you play the role of Fernando.

That's what the director said.

And I said, You know, thank for the opportunity.

He goes, Cher picked you. [chuckles]

I said, She had like a lineup, or what's going on?

And he goes, Yeah, kind of, you know?

I thanked her, I said, I heard you picked me or whatever.

She went, Of course, 'Modigliani', of course.

I guess she liked that movie.

And, you know, kind of the deal closer, I guess.

♪ There was something in the air that night ♪

♪ The stars were bright, Fernando ♪

♪ They were shining there for you and me ♪

♪ For liberty, Fernando ♪

♪ Though I never thought that we could lose ♪

♪ There's no regret ♪

♪ If I had to do the same again ♪

♪ I would my friend, Fernando ♪

It was a natural thing, it was very easy.

The track was prerecorded.

We went into the studio there in London, and we just did it.

You know, we went through it until he was happy.

He said, Yeah, we got it. I said, Okay.

[upbeat music]

Father of the Bride.

My daughter, when they saw it, they kind of said,

Daddy, he's nothing like you, you know?

But he is all of me, at the same time,

and all of the fathers that I've experienced,

that somehow made sense to this guy.

And there are key things in the film

that are important to where you find the comedy.

They fall into place with a lot of the fathers

that I grew up, including myself,

traditional and conservative, like to have a good time.

But they're family first, very strong work ethic.

And because they came to this country again, as exiles,

in this case, they had to build a new life.

Whether it was...

they came as a lawyer, and they were a waiter,

and worked their way back to school, and get a law degree,

or a doctor, you know, people did that.

And then that journey creates

a certain pride of ownership of that.

Or also saying that that's what the opportunity

that this country has given us,

is a responsibility to deliver,

and do right by the journey that they've brought you here.

You know, there's a responsibility to contribute,

and to be a positive member of society,

and take advantage of the opportunity

that was taken away from you in your home country.

So he's some character of that cut like that,

because he feels that way, so strongly about certain things.

Of course, he steps in puddles,

because he's not looking down, he's looking...

There's a certain, you know,

tonality that you're working under.

There's not gonna be all of a sudden a drama, you know?

But there could be warmth and touching moments and all that,

but there's a buoyancy that has to have to happen.

I always kind of envisioned...

I saw him, or I saw myself,

as a sort of a Keaton-esque character,

that shit is happening around him, and he's so overwhelmed.

It's sometimes he's so overwhelmed

that he doesn't even noticed what's happening around him.

Those kind of things kind of stick in your head somehow,

and start spitting out a character.