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Robert De Niro has “thanked” Francis Ford Coppola for not casting him in The Godfather.
The actor, 81, famously starred in the sequel to Coppola’s crime epic in 1974, earning his first Oscar for his supporting role as Vito Corleone.
De Niro, however, did miss out on the original 1972 film, which featured Al Pacino and Marlon Brando.
Losing the part of Sonny Corleone to James Caan, however, turned out to be the best twist of fate De Niro could’ve asked for.
The Taxi Driver star spoke about the stroke of luck at the AFI Life Achievement Award gala on Saturday (26 April) honouring Coppola’s contribution to cinema.
“Francis, thank you for not casting me in The Godfather,” De Niro said to the audience who laughed in response.
“It was the best job I ever, never got. And it meant I was available for The Godfather Part II,” he continued.
“Francis, you changed my career, you changed my life. We’re all here tonight because of you. We love you.”
Pacino, who played Michael Corleone in The Godfather, was also present at the star-studded event where he delivered his own tribute to the filmmaker.
Quoting Coppola himself, Pacino said: “The things you do when you’re young that you get fired for, are the same things that years later, they give you lifetime achievement awards for.”
The actor, who earned Oscar nominations for his roles in The Godfather and its sequel, added: “You know, none of us were fired from The Godfather, but some of us got pretty close. I got the closest. And Francis just fought for us all the time.”
“He fought for his film and his vision, which he always does,” the 85-year-old continued. “Yet, it could have gotten him fired. Everything was a firing threat. It could have had all of us fired, but it didn’t.
“Now, years later, here we all are to celebrate him for it. So, thank you Francis. Thank you for believing in me even more than I believed in myself. I am eternally grateful in kind to be part of your Godfather family.”
Adam Driver, Morgan Freeman, Spike Lee, Harrison Ford, Diane Lane, and Ralph Macchio were also in attendance at the event.
Coppola is regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers of the 21st century, with The Godfather trilogy commonly regarded as his best work. His filmography also includes Apocalypse Now and The Conversation.
His latest film Megalopolis was a self-funded $120m epic, which Coppola spent decades trying to get off the ground. The film, which is set in a futuristic New York bearing resemblance to ancient Rome, received mixed reviews from critics.
“You can’t help but marvel at his gumption (and folly) in making a blockbuster in which town planning features so prominently, and characters quote ancient philosophers like Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius at length,” writes The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab in a three-star review.
“Box office prospects for Megalopolis look wretched, though it will be no surprise at all if the film achieves cult status by dint of its wondrous oddity.”
As expected, the film did flop at the box office, estimated to have made $14m from a $120m outlay.
English (US) ·