{"id":9960,"date":"2022-04-28T21:53:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T01:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=9960"},"modified":"2022-04-28T22:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T02:10:06","slug":"the-offer-an-exclusive-interview-with-actor-patrick-gallo-on-the-godfather-writer-mario-puzzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=9960","title":{"rendered":"The Offer : An Exclusive Interview with Actor Patrick Gallo\u00a0on “The Godfather” Writer Mario Puzo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Synopsis : The Offer\u00a0<\/strong>is based on Oscar\u00ae-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy\u2019s extraordinary, never-revealed experiences of making \u201cThe Godfather<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0The all-star cast includes Miles Teller as Albert S. Ruddy, Matthew Goode as Robert Evans, Juno Temple as Bettye McCartt, Giovanni Ribisi as Joe Colombo, Dan Fogler as Francis Ford Coppola, Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo, Burn Gorman as Charles Bluhdorn and Colin Hanks as Barry Lapidus.<\/p>\n

The 10-episode event series is created and written by Oscar\u00ae and Emmy-nominated writer Michael Tolkin (\u201cEscape at Dannemora<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cThe Player<\/strong>\u201d) and also written and executive produced by Nikki Toscano (\u201cHunters<\/strong>\u201d), who also serves as showrunner. In addition to Tolkin and Toscano, two-time Oscar\u00ae-winner Albert S. Ruddy (\u201cMillion Dollar Baby<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cThe Longest Yard,<\/strong>\u201d \u201cHogan\u2019s Heroes<\/strong>\u201d), Miles Teller, Russell Rothberg and Leslie Greif serve as executive producers on the series alongside Dexter Fletcher (\u201cRocketman<\/strong>\u201d), who also directed the first block of the series.<\/p>\n

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Pictured: Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo of the Paramount+ original series THE OFFER. Photo Cr: Nicole Wilder\/Paramount+ \u00a92022 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Exclusive Interview with Actor Patrick Gallo\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Mario Puzo wrote \u201cThe Fortunate Pilgrim\u201d prior to \u201cThe Godfather\u201d which is about his mother raising seven kids. How much did you research Mario Puzo, prior to his writing \u201cThe Godfather?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: I read as much as possible. I really wanted to find him within his work. I felt that this was really the best place to fish out all the beautiful things about him. Because he cared so much about his work, he put everything into it, and he was a poet. All of that stuff lives within his words and the way he put them on the page. As deep as possible \u2014 I felt that that was the best way to find him.<\/p>\n

Q: Yeah, his roots are there, particularly considering his creation of the family dynamic for \u201cThe Godfather.\u201d It makes sense to have that come out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: I think everything he did led up to that point; it had to. It just does with art. Whether it\u2019s conscious or not, everything that happened before goes into whether it\u2019s a stroke of a key or not. It comes into the art whether you like it or not. With anything, he needed all of that work to fuel what would eventually become a great commercial success.<\/p>\n

Which, he didn\u2019t really care all that much about. That\u2019s not to say that he wasn\u2019t happy with the money that came in from it. But he was an artist, really, a pure artist, and that meant the world to him.<\/p>\n

Q: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo were actually writing the screenplay together for \u201cThe Godfather\u201d \u2014 \u00a0that \u201cdynamic duo\u201d, picking each other\u2019s brain, in a way. That\u2019s so fascinating. Can you talk about creating that dynamic with Dan Fogler, who plays Francis Ford Coppola?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: It started with the fact that we were both very, very excited about doing what we were fortunate to be hired to do, which is play Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. So starting off there.<\/p>\n

Then it was this opportunity to be friends, hang out and get to know each other \u2014 for Patrick and Dan to get to know each other and create a friendship that just seeped into our work as actors. Then it was just there, it was effortless. When we came to the set, and it was Mario and Francis but underneath it was Patrick and Dan. We had inside jokes, we knew we looked at each other a certain way.<\/p>\n

We could read each other in a way that reflected a rich respect and enjoyment of each other\u2019s company. That was Puzo and Coppola. There was a mutual respect artistically, and a trust, and Danny and I established that as ourselves. We were very lucky actors that we were able to have that and bring it to set every day.<\/p>\n

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Pictured: Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo and Lola Glaudini as Candida Donadio of the Paramount+ original series THE OFFER. Photo Cr: Nicole Wilder\/Paramount+ \u00a92022 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q: Did you discover anything when they picked each other\u2019s brains, that you found fascinating? Something that is not in the series?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: It\u2019s a hard question to answer. It\u2019s a little bit in the series, the idea that they both came from these different places.\u00a0I think Coppola was out to prove that he could do it, but through a guise of angst and frustration, grudgingly taking on this project. Even though everybody was saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t do it,\u201d and other people were saying, \u201cYou have to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And for Puzo, it was like, \u201cI\u2019m this great success. I wrote \u2018The Godfather\u2019 and suddenly all this success that I\u2019ve worked for my whole life, now it\u2019s there.\u201d Then suddenly I have to prove myself, that I can write this screenplay, that I\u2019m not just looked at as an author; that I can actually be a screenwriter.\u00a0So there were these interesting different challenges that they had. But both challenges at the same depth of complexity.<\/p>\n

Q: I really find the relationship between Mario and his wife, Erika to be very interesting. She seems to have a say about what he says. Can you talk about that relationship?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: He loved her very much. Like in a lot of situations, your significant other can see what you\u2019re not seeing all the time. A lot of times, and this goes back and forth\u2014 even between me and my wife \u2014 where it\u2019s like I can see certain things she can\u2019t see and vice versa.<\/p>\n

When you realize that that exists between you two in your relationship, it\u2019s the rare person that can make you pause. I think that is that person that loves you and can stop you and say \u201cHold on a minute. You need to think about this a little bit differently. Because it\u2019s going to affect me, and I have something to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she spoke, he respected her and listened to what she had to say. I think that she had a lot to do with him giving himself a little more freedom to experiment with things that maybe he didn\u2019t necessarily believe in, but that led him down a new road that completely changed his trajectory as an author.<\/p>\n

Once again, that\u2019s trust, and love, and saying, \u201cThere\u2019s one person in this world that I\u2019ll let tell me what I might need to do.\u201d And that was Erika. Victoria Kelleher, who plays Erika in the show, she had that. I saw that in her. When I was doing those scenes with her, I loved her. I really did.<\/p>\n

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Pictured: Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo and Dan Fogler as Francis Ford Coppola of the Paramount+ original series THE OFFER. Photo Cr: Nicole Wilder\/Paramount+ \u00a92022 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q: I was fascinated by Michael Tolkin\u2019s own script. He told me that he talked to Al Ruddy, who is still alive. What was fascinating about Tolkin\u2019s script and the perspective that he had about \u201cThe Godfather\u201d? It takes you totally where you don\u2019t expect because there are so many things involved in making the film that we don\u2019t really associate with \u201cThe Godfather\u201d film.<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: I know that Michael was very inspired by the story of Puzo and Sinatra, and that was really the catalyst for the whole story.\u00a0I don\u2019t want to speak out of school, because I don\u2019t really know exactly how it became Ruddy\u2019s perspective, and that was the path Michael took to writing the script. I don\u2019t know exactly how it got to that. But interesting, for sure. Michael Tolkin knows the path.<\/p>\n

Q: In the series, Mario wrote the letter to Marlon Brando. I don\u2019t know if that was actually true. Did you research what he actually wrote about it or any relationship that happens afterwards? What was the relationship with Marlon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: Brando was very, very moved by that. At that time he wasn\u2019t getting a lot of deep love from the business. He really wasn\u2019t working, and people were afraid of him. I think that that was like a really unexpected injection of respect to Brando.<\/p>\n

He loved that: that Puzo had the courage to send that letter and say \u201cHey, man, I really, really love your work and I really want you to do this.\u201d And I think Brando respected that Puzo had the courage to do that, to just reach right out and say, \u201cHey, can you do this? We\u2019d really love for you to do it with you.\u201d I think that that Brando loved Puzo for that reason. Puzo saw him, once again, as an artist and nothing more.<\/p>\n

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The Offer: Miles Teller as Al Ruddy in The Offer, streaming on Paramount+, 2022. Photo: Miller Mobley\/Paramount+<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q: The John Fontaine character in \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d a lot of people believe that he is Frank Sinatra. In the series, Mario refutes that \u2013 it\u2019s not Sinatra. Did Mario ever meet Sinatra to discuss or argue about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: Yeah, they had come into contact with each other two or three times in different restaurants, and never really made a deep connection. Just the, \u201cHey, how\u2019re you doing?\u201d kind of a thing. Not terribly crazy to meet each other, frankly. Sinatra had issues, and so was never super-warm \u2014 at least from the stories that I know about and the stories that I\u2019ve heard of. They were semi-cold interactions. And that was it. That was it.<\/p>\n

Q: I\u2019m pretty sure you loved \u201cThe Godfather\u201d growing up. What makes this film so iconic now? After you’re working on this \u201cmaking-of\u201d series, and knowing the perspective on Mario Puzo that you have, what do you think makes the film so special for so many people?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PG: I think that it reflects the show that we\u2019re doing, which was so much that they had to go through to make it. When you go down through this process of making a film, it\u2019s riddled with challenges, sandbags, boulders and explosions that just deter and detour every single choice you make. When you can pull a piece of art out of that kind of landscape, it\u2019s going to be a beautiful piece of art. When you\u2019re faced with all those challenges, I think that\u2019s because of that.<\/p>\n

Mario wrote this incredible book about these incredible people from a perspective that was not seen at that time. You know, gangster movies — James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson \u2014 they made great films, but they were very much on the surface, the simple things about it. He\u2019s a tough guy, they\u2019re going to get money, someone\u2019s going to get killed, The End.<\/p>\n

This was about family, about how there was a love and a trust, and there was also betrayal. These are the things that we deal with every day in our own families. And when Mario put that in the layers of a story about, you know, \u201cthe Mafia\u201d, it changed how people were looking at it. It made it very real \u2014 frighteningly real.<\/p>\n

When you can trust it like that, without thinking about it, and just go, \u201cI believe everything that\u2019s happening with these people because they\u2019re real\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s what makes it an unbelievable film. It\u2019s that you believe everything that\u2019s happening, that\u2019s being discussed, every situation that every family member is dealing with \u2013- on their own and collectively \u2014between Fredo and Sonny and Michael, and things they\u2019re wrestling with. It\u2019s really an unbelievable way to put truth into art.\u00a0Puzo did it, with the book and the screenplay, and Coppola ingeniously put it on film. Rare moments.<\/p>\n

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Pictured: Juno Temple as Bettye McCartt of the Paramount+ original series THE OFFER. Photo Cr: Nicole Wilder\/Paramount+ \u00a92022 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Check out more of Nobuhiro’s articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n