One character in The Godfather was supposed to be totally different - but Francis Ford Coppola's changes made the performance far better.
The Godfather
The Godfather is full of incredible performances from some of Hollywood's best actors at the time, but one actor required movie changes to make his role work. The opening wedding sequence sees Connie Corleone (Talia Shire) celebrating her marriage to Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), but it also features countless meetings for Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), as he famously can't refuse a request on the day of his daughter's wedding. This leads to his meeting with his number one enforcer, Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana), who doesn't want to make a request, but simply wants to thank Vito for being invited to the wedding.
In the original The Godfather book, Luca is a terrifying assassin and absolutely not to be messed with. That character was set up in the movie, as Michael (Al Pacino) tells Kay (Diane Keaton) about his violent work with Vito. However, he isn't the fearful enforcer in the 1972 release, as he's a nervous wreck and stutters his lines around Vito. But that wasn't originally a creative decision, and it was simply that Montana, a former wrestler, wasn't that good of an actor and was genuinely nervous working alongside Brando. However, audiences without this knowledge are generally none the wiser, as director Francis Ford Coppola expertly covered it up.
How The Godfather Covered Up Lenny Montana's Acting Nerves
Luca Brasi practices his speech in The Godfather
Audiences are introduced to Luca when Michael spots him in a quiet corner of the garden reciting his "thank you" speech to Vito. In the shot, Luca is clearly nervous while attempting to memorize the lines he's about to deliver to the mafia don. However, that shot was never originally planned or in the screenplay. The first scene Coppola shot of Luca was his meeting with Vito, which saw Montana completely struggle with his dialogue and made the scene totally unusable. What's worse is that Coppola couldn't get a better take than the one found in The Godfather film.
The scene couldn't simply be cut out, as it is instrumental in setting up the feud with the Tattaglias. However, Coppola came up with the idea to shoot the scene of Luca practicing his lines and what he intends to say to Vito, and insert it into the film moments before the meeting, which would establish how nervous of a character he is. Though it would ultimately completely change the foundation of the character, it was the only way Montana's scene with Brando was remotely usable. And without the few seconds of Luca in the garden, Montana would have been heavily scrutinized by critics.
Montana's The Godfather Acting Nerves Made Luca Brasi Better
Luca Brasi listens intently from The Godfather
Luca Brasi deserves his own origin story and is a brutal hitman in the novel of The Godfather, but Coppola softened him, and he wasn't anywhere near the kind of threat the book makes him out to be. However, so many characters in The Godfather have the exact same traits, as there are so many quiet-but-strong types. If Montana didn't fumble his lines, he would have just been another one of these types of characters, and wouldn't have been half as memorable. As such, the depiction of Luca was an expert and instinctual decision made by the best filmmaker of the era, and paid dividends in enhancing the movie itself.
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