James Caan Was Terrified After He ‘Upstaged’ Marlon Brando in ‘The Godfather’
James Caan had been working as an actor for years when he appeared in The Godfather, but co-star Marlon Brando had already been nominated for multiple Oscars. He even won in 1954 for On the Waterfront. While filming one of his early scenes with Brando, the two men made eye contact, and Caan felt a jolt of fear. He explained that through his acting, he accidentally upstaged Brando. He shared how the other actor reacted.
James Caan said he could make Marlon Brando laugh hysterically
In The Godfather, Brando played Vito Corleone, the head of a crime family. Caan played his oldest son, Sonny Corleone. On set, Caan said that he got along exceptionally well with Brando.
“I loved Brando by the way, man,” Caan told the A.V. Club in 2022. “He was the greatest, and I in turn served as his f***in’ clown because he laughed — everything I said, everything I did, he laughed. All day! I mean, it was hysterical.”
James Caan panicked when he ‘upstaged’ Marlon Brando in a scene
Caan explained that during one of his early scenes with Brando, he began playing with a bowl of walnuts.
“There’s a bowl of nuts to my left, walnuts,” he explained. “And I’m listening, hunched over. They’re to the left to me, the both of them, with a little table between them. And for whatever reason, Brando’s talking or [Robert Duvall’s] talking, I unconsciously picked a nut out of the bowl, but they were not shelled. The shell was still on. And all of a sudden, I started to play with the nut.”
He explained that while playing with the walnut, he made eye contact with Brando.
“Now I had it in my hand and I tried to open it a little bit, and right in the middle of a sentence of Brando’s, he just lifts his head and looks at me, stares at me. And I’m going as Jimmy Caan, oh f***.”
By toying with the walnut, Caan felt that he had upstaged Brando, the more established actor.
“I upstaged him,” he said, adding, “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even try to make noise. I’m sitting there with this f***in’ nut in my hand and I don’t know what to do with it now, you know, because it was Brando. And Brando just looked at me, and then I had to finish. So I opened it up very, very quietly and started eating it a little, little, little bit, little by little.”
The other actor didn’t have a problem with it
As it turned out, though, Caan had no reason to worry. Brando loved the choice.
“When he said cut, Brando started punching his fist and laughed and said, that was great. I said, what are you talking about?” Caan said. “Because he was talking about Sonny not being a Don, like his mind is so scattered and whatever with the girls, with this and that. And the idea that I was playing with the f***in’ nut proves it when he’s talking about serious business. So that turned out great. So that was a good scene.”
