Michael Imperioli was in the 1990 film Goodfellas. He played the young kid Spider, who gets shot by Joe Pesci twice. Once for not moving fast enough, which results in getting shot in the foot. The other time he's fatally shot for mouthing off to Tommy DeVito, a psychopathic mobster played by Joe Pesci. Michael explains in greater detail about those scenes.
During an interview with CNN's Chris Wallace, Michael Imperioli goes into detail about the scene in Goodfellas that sent him to the hospital and had doctors thinking he'd really been shot. At 23, this was Imperioli's big break into Hollywood. "Working with Scorsese was a dream come true. It's like going from college to play on the Yankees in the World Series or something." Working with actors like Joe Pesci or Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta was more than "thrilling" for Michael. "For some strange reason, I really like when the stakes are high. I like being under a lot of pressure, in terms of work." He gives credit to Scorsese with being comfortable on set. "Marty made me feel so comfortable. From the moment I met him, the moment I got there, he made me feel like I belong there. And I was an actor. And the very first job I had in film, the director did not make feel that way."
He says Scorsese "was very, very kind, and I think knew that - how important it was to me. Because I had been trying, I had been studying and trying to get work for, at that point, six years, you know? Most of what you see is all improvised, which is even more a testament to how trusting he is of actors, especially young actors. Working with legends here, you know, allowing them to just be free to say what they want and respond how they want to respond is pretty, pretty amazing." He also recalls a moment when he was injured while filming the iconic scene where he is shot and killed by Joe Pesci.
"I'm supposed to go flying back into the bar and hit the ground with three bullet holes. They have a stunt double. I said 'No, I want to do my own stunt.'" When he hit the bar, the glass he held in his hand broke, slicing open two of his fingers. "I look up and see Robert De Niro looking down at me. The injury was pretty bad." An assistant drove Imperioli to the hospital, where, seeing the fake blood and bullet holes, thought he had been shot pretty severely. He said "Three bullet holes in my chest and it's Queens, New York. They think I'm about to die. They think I'm delirious, talking about Robert De Niro." when he tried to explain he was filming a movie with Robert De Niro. "So, they put me on a stretcher, wheel me into trauma, and I'm telling them what's happening. They won't listen to me. Finally, they start going into my shirt and see all the squibbing, the wires. I said, 'Told you. I'm doing a movie. I cut my fingers.'"
Two hours later, the staff stitched up his fingers and sent him back to the set, where they filmed more scenes of his death. Imperioli focused on work and didn't "engage in a lot of chitchat" with the other actors on set. "The last thing I wanted to do was talk to them about acting, because, I knew that's not what they wanted to hear." He did make a suggestion that, as he put it, "really took a lot of b---s. I just kind of trusted my instincts, because of Marty because he made me feel that way." He asked the person in charge of props to allow him to reset the poker table where the wiseguys are gambling. His character, Spider, was their "errand boy". He got them drinks, cleaned ashtrays and more. It was Imperioli's idea to move the bottles so that he could face the wiseguys when he made their drinks instead of facing away, so he could see who needed a refill. Making a suggestion like that is "something an actor really would never do. Because first of all, it's a union job. And you don't mess with union workers, right? Or you really might get shot." He said. Also, "the props were very specific. They have these continuity issues, depending on how long they're moving the camera around, and everything's got to be the same."
Scorsese liked the idea and moved the bottles. "When I think about it now, I'm like 'I would probably never even think of doing that now because I just assume that the prop guy is going to do it right. I don't need to do that.' But there was something instinctual. And Marty made you feel like he wanted you to really live this."
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