Robert De Niro had been applying for different roles since the first film, however, he rejected the one they offered him for another project.
One of the most important films in the history of cinema is turning 50 years old, the premiere of The Godfather on March 15, 1972, was an event that marked a before and after in the entertainment industry, positioning great artists of the decade such as Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Diane Keaton or Robert Duvall and giving director Francis Ford Coppola recognition for the critically acclaimed film.
The film based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo was so successful that only two years later Coppola released the second part of the film, The Godfather II, integrating stars of the stature of the first film into the cast, such as Robert De Niro, who played a young Vito Corleone to tell his origin story and how he became one of the most important mafia bosses in history.
Robert De Niro was present from the first installment
Robert De Niro is one of the actors with the longest career in the film industry and his participation in The Godfather II earned him the nomination for best supporting actor at the Oscars, where he won. However, the actor was present in the first film when he was in the castings for the roles of Santino “Sony” Corleone and Michael “Mike” Corleone and although he was not selected, he was offered a third option which was to play Paul “Paulie” Gatto but De Niro turned him down.
The actor turned down the role-playing Mario Tarantino in James Goldstone's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, which was one of his first leading roles. However, the actor returned for the sequel because Coppola took him into account for the project.
When De Niro got the role of young Vito Corleone he said that he wanted to give himself completely to the character and wanted to guarantee that he was on par with Marlon Brando to be able to play the same character but in a younger version of him. So the actor told an interview on CNN what he did to be able to study the character:
“I went with Gray Frederickson (film producer) to the Gulf and Western Building – which is now Trump Tower – and I went up to one of the projection rooms on the 28th floor and with an old video camera I had I recorded all of Brando's scenes. ”De Niro recalled in the interview with CNN. “I took them and studied them,” he added.
Although he was not selected for the role he was looking for in the first installment and rejected the one offered to him at that time so as not to miss the project, waiting and playing Vito Corleone marked a before and after in his career.
