Paul Sorvino, who played mob boss Paulie Cicero in Martin Scorsese's mafia classic Goodfellas, has said he thought he would "ruin" the film and asked his manager to help him to leave the production.
In an interview with the New York Times to mark the film's 25th anniversary, Sorvino recalled: "I would have done a 'Dinner is served' role in a Scorsese picture, that's how much I wanted to work with him.
"I met with him and saw immediately he wanted me for the role. I was overjoyed but very worried."
"I'd done a lot of comedies as well as dramas, but I'd never done a really tough guy. I never had it in me. And this called for a lethality, which I felt was way beyond me," he said.
"I called my manager three days before we started shooting and said: 'Get me out. I'm going to ruin this great man's picture, and I'm going to ruin myself'. He, being wise, said, 'Call me tomorrow, and if necessary I will get you out'."
Of his change of heart, Sorvino said: "Then I was going by the hall mirror to adjust my tie. I was just inconsolable. And I looked in the mirror and literally jumped back a foot. I saw a look I'd never seen, something in my eyes that alarmed me.
"A deadly soulless look in my eyes that scared me and was overwhelmingly threatening. And I looked to the heavens and said, 'You've found it'."
