Sorvino Acted Like a Good Fella to Get Juicy Part in Scorsese Film

Paul Sorvino was so eager to work with Martin Scorsese on his new film “GoodFellas” that he told the director he would even play an extra in the drama chronicling three decades in the Mafia.

“That’s true,” admits the actor. “I’ve been wanting to work with him for the past 10 years.” Scorsese, though, had Sorvino in mind for a bigger part, that of Don Paul Cirero, a Mafia gangster who holds tremendous power in the world of organized crime.

Before meeting with Scorsese, Sorvino got his hands on an early draft of the script, which is based on Nicholas Pileggi’s best-selling book “Wiseguy.” ’I wasn’t supposed to have a script,” says Sorvino. “I got one on the sly. The role isn’t that prominent and I felt there weren’t too many corners to be turned, yet I said (to Scorsese), ‘I will take whatever role you want to give me.’ I was happy to do it.”

Working with Scorsese, says Sorvino, was like dying and going to director’s heaven. “I am a director too,” he says. “I have my own theater company and have directed off-Broadway and on Broadway, but to watch what he does . . . He puts the actors in the scenes and watches what happens. He lets you feel (like) a collaborator on equal footing with him. He creates a nurturing climate in which the actor at his most vulnerable can function at his very best.”

“GoodFellas” vividly depicts the violent world of the Mafia. “There is such extreme violence without provocation,” Sorvino says. “I was shocked. It’s like (they are) rabid dogs. New York Magazine calls this a dark comedy. I don’t see the comedy, do you? It’s a documentary of extreme brutality.”

Sorvino has been working steadily since he appeared on Broadway 18 years ago in Jason Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “That Championship Season.” “It established me as a star on Broadway,” he says. “I made three movies that year. I also won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor from the New York Drama Critics. It put me on the map.”