34 years later, Ray Liotta’s greatest film remains to be usually thought-about to be “Goodfellas,” the place he performs the amoral mob affiliate Henry Hill as his more and more darkish lifetime of crime unfolds. It is doubtless the position Liotta will likely be greatest remembered for; as he as soon as recalled in a Deadline interview, “‘Goodfellas,’ actually, it has been like 28, 30 years later and I’ve children coming as much as me as if the film had simply come out. These children who see it after they’re sufficiently old. That is simply unbelievable.”
Earlier than Liotta was forged as Henry Hill, nonetheless, one other actor practically obtained the position: Alec Baldwin, who at that time had not but starred in “Glengarry Glen Ross” however had starred in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice.” In a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, Baldwin defined how he had “went to Scorsese’s condo” to audition, did not get the half, and later talked to Liotta about it at a celebration. As Baldwin recalled:
“I mentioned to Ray, ‘You already know Ray, numerous occasions guys get elements that I’m going up for and I do not get the half and I believe to myself — I believe I might have been higher in that half. However you are the one instance of somebody the place I’m going that is not true. Ray, nobody may have achieved that higher than you.’ And he reaches over and goes, ‘I agree.'”
Might Alec Baldwin have pulled off the position?
Perhaps it is simply because I’ve watched an excessive amount of “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night time Reside,” leaving me to affiliate Baldwin extra with comedies as a substitute of dramas, however I are likely to agree that Liotta was a greater match for the position. A part of the attraction of Henry Hill in “Goodfellas” is that Liotta offers him a likable attraction to distinction along with his horrible deeds; it is that push and pull between liking him and being appalled that makes the film so thrilling. Baldwin, in the meantime, not often performs likable guys; from “Glengarry Glen Ross” to “The Cat within the Hat,” he appears higher suited to portraying sleazy characters you like to hate, not characters you hate to like.
The excellent news for Baldwin is that lacking this position was hardly the top of his profession. In actual fact, he is since gotten extra main roles than Liotta, and even hosted “Saturday Night time Reside” 16 extra occasions. (Granted, there is a good probability Liotta simply wasn’t that into that type of factor.) Baldwin additionally obtained his probability to star in a Scorsese film with “The Aviator” in 2004 after which once more with “The Departed” in 2006. Liotta, in the meantime, was oddly by no means forged in one other Scorsese movie after “Goodfellas.”
Baldwin working for Scorsese should’ve been a rewarding expertise for him, as he is had nothing however nice issues to say in regards to the director all through his profession. In a 2020 interview speaking about Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” Baldwin mentioned, “I used to be very emotional. I obtained a tear in my eye on the finish. […] I watched the movie, and I assumed, ‘We’re by no means gonna see these guys do that once more. That is it.'”
Baldwin added, “Scorsese, in his documentary about American movie, says, ‘For those who bear in mind the plot of a film, it isn’t a terrific film. You bear in mind moments.’ And what number of moments will we bear in mind, these guys? You simply cry.”