Some of the mobbed-up characters in “GoodFellas” might not have had to stretch to play their parts.
Nick Pileggi, who wrote the movie and the book it was based on, introduced the flick at Film Forum on West Houston on Tuesday night to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
In a Q&A afterward, Pileggi said some actors who played gangsters behind Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci declined a check in the mail and demanded cash.
When Warner Bros. asked them to provide Social Security numbers, they recited too many digits, or too few.
“They were paid out of petty cash,” Pileggi said.
The actor who played Morrie, with the wig commercial, wasn’t a real actor either, but De Niro’s landlord, Chuck Low.
Pileggi also said the scene where Pesci takes offense at being called “funny” — “I’m a clown? I amuse you?” — was Pesci’s idea and totally improvised by the actor.