The Godfather‘s most iconic characters were played by some of the most talented and well-known movie stars today, and Marlon Brando had a great influence on the character he played. The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the best movies of all time, and though the third movie in the Godfather trilogy was not as critically acclaimed as the first two, it is now considered an underrated film. The Godfather is a dark and intense saga of mafia politics and revenge, and tells the story of the Corleone mafia family.

There are many memorable characters in the Godfather trilogy, but Marlon Brando’s Don Vito Corleone is arguably the face of the trilogy, even though he only appeared in the first Godfather movie. Vito Corleone is the imposing head of the Corleone family, who must decide which of the other New York crime families to ally with. However, he makes the mistake of trusting his son, Sonny, to become the next Corleone family Don, which leads to his downfall. Vito Corleone has a distinctive voice, manner, and appearance, and many of these traits are due to Marlon Brando’s influence.

Don Corleone’s Distinctive Appearance Was Invented When Marlon Brando Stuffed His Cheeks With Tissue During A Screen Test

Marlon Brando Also Contributed His Ideas To Another Key Scene In The Godfather

Paramount Studio didn’t want to cast Marlon Brando in The Godfather, as Brando had a reputation for being difficult to work with and had a unique approach to acting, rarely memorizing his lines and preferring to improvise. This might have frustrated the studio, but Brando’s creativity and spontaneity often improved his characters. When auditioning for The Godfather, he used shoe polish to turn his hair black and stuffed tissue in his cheeks. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Francis Ford Coppola said that Marlon Brando wanted Vito Corleone “to look like a bulldog.”

While the movie is an adaptation of the novel by Mario Puzo, there are several moments in The Godfather that are not in the original script or book. Many of these scenes were improvised by Marlon Brando, including a playful scene with Vito Corleone’s grandson. Coppola was unsure how to make the scene realistic, and Brando improvised in a way that he played with children in his own family. When Vito is playing with Michael’s son, he uses an orange peel to give himself vampire fangs, amusing his grandson. The scene perfectly humanizes the imposing character just before his death.

What Marlon Brando Actually Had In His Mouth While Filming The Godfather

The Godfather Was Not The Only Movie That Marlon Brando Improvised In

Francis Ford Coppola liked Marlon Brando’s idea for Vito Corleone’s appearance, but tissue paper would have been impractical for shooting a movie. By the time The Godfather began filming, a dentist had made a proper mouthpiece for Brando. The device, known as a “dental plumper,” was famously uncomfortable. It was fitted to his lower jaw like a dental retainer, with a thin metal wire running across the front of his bottom set of teeth. Two molded resin pieces stuck out at the side, pushing Brando’s cheeks out and giving Vito Corleone his distinctive appearance.

The Godfather was one of the movies that defined Marlon Brando’s career, yet he was not onscreen for long. That said, by the time he made The Godfather, Brando was memorable no matter how long he appeared in his movies. Brando’s improvising also defined one of his other movies, as he improvised almost all of his lines in Apocalypse Now, including an 18-minute speech, which was drastically cut for the final version. These two movies are Brando’s best-known, with him playing powerful characters fighting their eventual death in both, though The Godfather‘s Vito Corleone arguably left the best legacy.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter