Lenny Montana: a nervous actor who created an iconic character in ‘The Godfather’

Posted On August 31, 2024August 31, 2024

The making of The Godfather is the stuff of Hollywood legend. As recently as 2022, the tumultuous production was dramatised in the Paramount miniseries The Offer. While many view the tempestuous creation of this classic mob flick as an anomaly, it’s actually a prime example of filmmaking’s collaborative, fluid nature and the method behind Francis Ford Coppola’s madness.

There are many stories from The Godfather and beyond that highlight Coppola’s singular ability to craft a film around his actors and his quick thinking when it comes to filmmaking. One of those stories is the case of Lenny Montana, the actor who played Luca Brasi.

Brasi, an enforcer for Don Corleone’s crime family, is the subject of some of the film’s most memorable moments—even before he’s sent to “sleep with the fishes”. Our first impression of Brasi comes when he stumbles into Don Corleone’s study, fumbling his words as he wishes for a bright future for Vito’s only daughter on the day of her wedding.

This picture of a man stumbling in admiration is at odds with the more brutal presentation of Brasi in Mario Puzo’s novel. It paints a much more human portrait of the mob, one that captures the awkward nature of situations when boundaries between work and family collide.

“By suppressing Puzo’s version of Brasi, who is marred by a more unforgivable past, Coppola gives us a Brasi who is known only by his loyalty,” The Annotated Godfather states. “This Brasi exhausts himself with perfecting a memorised speech of gratitude, and even gives money afterward for the bridal purse of the Don’s daughter. Yes, he kills for Don Corleone, but he also receives an invitation to an exclusive family wedding; we come to know him purely through this bond to Don Corleone.”

Oddly enough, the scene itself was never intended to be presented as it is in the film. It was a happy accident. A result of the seemingly impromptu casting of Montana, a wrestler and mob enforcer.

Sources vary with regard to how Montana ended up on the set of The Godfather. Some say he was there to monitor the set for the Italian-American Civil Rights League, which sought to ensure the film did not contain “anti-Italian sentiment”—going so far as to ensure that the word “mafia” was never uttered in the film. Other sources state that Montana was moonlighting as a bodyguard for a real-life don who was visiting producer Al Ruddy at the time. What we do know for certain is that when Coppola spotted the six-foot-six-inch, 320-pound frame of the former wrestling champion he instantly knew he’d be perfect for the character.

The only problem was that Montana had never acted before. He simply couldn’t get through his lines. When Coppola realised the scene was coming across as stilted and awkward rather than cordial, he had an idea: “I thought to add a scene before where he’s practising what he’s going to say. So when he goes in and totally blows it, you realise how nerve-wracking it is. The truth is, in real life, he was just totally blowing it.”

The story is emblematic of the kinds of happy accidents filmmakers come across – and how they eventually contribute to a much better film. In a 2012 interview with Backstage, Alden Ehrenreich, just 18 at the time, put it best.

“That’s the perfect example of the way Francis creates the energy of a film by picking up on the dynamism of a set and what’s going on… Or not going on,” Coppola interjects. Embracing improvisation and spontaneity can lend cinema a mythic weight – when the camera’s rolling, film is “truth, 24 times per second”.

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