Interview With The Cast of “The Offer'
Iris Pritchard (they/them) and Tessa Kennedy (she/her)
From one of the greatest movies of all time comes the story behind its making, and it’s a lot more drama-ridden than one may expect. The classic tale of The Godfather is being reborn with a behind-the-scenes biopic, a look at the meltdowns and mobsters that almost stopped it from being made. The Offer, a mini-series about the making of The Godfather, premieres April 28, 2022, on Paramount Plus, and we were lucky enough to have an exclusive interview with various cast members from this show.
One of the first questions we asked cast members was about the tensions that surrounded the making of The Godfather, as many Italian-American members of the mafia were concerned about the stereotypes that could cloud them if the film was released. Stephanie Koenig, who plays Andrea Eastman, says “Well, I think the Italian mob really didn’t want it made,” believing it would make “a mockery of them.” She states “They were smart to let it happen eventually, because it ended up idolizing them, in a way.” Dan Folger, who played Francis Ford Coppola, said the amount of stress that the makers of The Godfather were under was “a very hard environment to make a movie.” He remarked that “many main people involved were close to being fired daily” The producers of the film had to deal with violent protesters who threatened those involved in the movie, he added. Patrick Gallo, who plays Mario Puzo, brought up how despite some people’s concerns that the film would interfere with their state of life, “At the end, it seemed to become their playbook and they respected it like a great painting.”
With so many people against the production of the initial Godfather movie, we thought that there would also be opposition to the making of The Offer. However, this was not the case. When asked about the resistance to the making of this series, Koenig told us that the character she plays (Andrea Eastman) was actually a casting director on the show. Anthony Skordi informed us that his character, Carlo Gambino, died in the mid-70s; thus Gambino has not responded to The Violet Magazine’s request for comment.
This series was filmed in the summer of 2021. As it has done with everything, Covid-19 made the filming of these series much different than a usual production. When we asked how the dynamic between cast and crew was altered due to coronavirus, Koenig commented “It’s harder to bond with cast and crew with the masks. You aren’t allowed to sit more than two to a table during lunch. There’s less small talk. You have to make more of an effort. I think everyone on this set really did make the effort to bond even though we were a bit restricted.” Anthony Skordi who plays Carlo Gambino said “This production was different from any other and not just because of Covid. The love and respect on the set was unbelievable.”
We asked the cast what shocked them most about the messy tale behind the writing and shooting of this classic film. According to Dan Fogler who plays Francis Ford Coppola, “Brando’s exploits were the most shocking and fun. Like the fact that he didn’t learn lines so sometimes he would paste large pieces of paper to the actors and read his lines off of them!” Patrick Gallo remained deadpan: “Knowing about the kind of people that wanted it shut down, nothing surprised me.”
The Godfather is a film close to the hearts of actors, directors, and cinephiles alike. To get some background, we asked cast members about their relationship with the film before they got their role on this show. Gallo first saw it at age thirteen, and said it felt like watching a home movie. “I knew people that fit the profile of so many characters in the film, so I felt familiar seeing it.” Fogler reminisced to when he saw the second then first film on a TV marathon and fell in love. “I went in search after to find every Brando, Pacino, and De Niro film that existed.” Alternatively, Eastman hadn’t seen the film until she was casted in The Offer. “I watched it on the plane ride back to LA right before rehearsals. Even though I watched it on a tiny phone, I was still hugely impacted by the film. It’s truly a masterpiece.”
We are so thankful to the cast of The Offer for giving us this exclusive interview, and we are even more grateful that Sophia Coppola has stayed far away from this production. Make sure to watch The Offer on Paramount Plus on April 28!
