Name: When Ray Liotta Met Real Life Goodfellas | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-05-26T17:24:25.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'When Ray Liotta Met Real Life Goodfellas | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-05-26. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'When Ray Liotta Met Real Life Goodfellas | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-05-26. Transcript available.

Our next guest has starred in some terrific motion pictures such as Goodfellas
and also Field of Dreams.
His latest movie is entitled No Escape and it opens on April 29th. Let's go see
that, Paul.
Folks, please welcome Ray Liotta. Ray!
Ray, nice to see you.
Thanks. I like the cold.
You like the cold?
I like the cold, yeah.
Well, good for you. There you go.
And also, I was on a soap opera in Another World and I worked with Biff.
Oh, you know, so you know Biff Anderson.
Yes.
He's very talented, don't you think?
Yes, he helped me with my commercial.
Oh, you did a commercial?
I did a Love Songs of the 50s. It was the first thing I've ever done and it
actually was just stills so we just looked in each other's eyes a lot.
What is your favorite Love Song of the 50s?
Nah, you know, I don't remember.
You, I don't see you on a lot of television shows and as Tom mentioned,
everybody has a television show.
Are you nervous about coming on shows like this?
Yeah, I'm a little uncomfortable with it.
What is the apprehension?
Oh, just making a fool of myself, I guess.
Hell, hell hadn't stopped me.
And this week has been especially bad because I had to throw the first pitch
out for the San Francisco Giants.
Oh, that's a great honor.
It was a great honor.
But I hadn't thrown a ball since I did Field of Dreams and I was nervous
because, you know, here are all these guys are, these big jocks and, you know.
50,000 people.
Right, exactly.
And you want to make sure you throw it to the plate and look somewhat manly.
And luckily, you know, I cheated of course and I threw it and I got it over and
Dusty Baker said that was great and Cindy Crawford was there the week before
and she threw it over the backstop.
So I felt madly.
Now, when you were doing Goodfellas, man, that movie just, I was like twitching
for weeks after that thing.
That was, ooh, geez, what a gritty, edgy, uncomfortable film that was, but
endlessly entertaining.
But, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Because I just, I just, I wanted to get home, you know.
I thought, ooh, let me just get away from these people.
They were just.
I had to live in it.
Yeah.
And did you hang around with guys like that?
Did you, did you ever meet the, the, I guess your character, Henry Hill?
Did you, what was that like?
Henry I met after, after the movie and that, he was glad that I didn't play him
as a dirtbag, as he said, which I wasn't to.
But when Marty and I, we went to a restaurant and we, Marty Scorsese, the
director, and these guys would be coming up like auditioning for him.
We were at this Italian restaurant.
They heard that Marty was there and that Marty uses real people in, in his
movies.
So these are like real life wise guys?
But they wouldn't admit it.
They all came up with stories as if they were auditioning for him.
And when, you know, they would all come in, talk in third person.
I knew a guy who did this.
Oh, I knew a guy.
I had to, I knew somebody who had to whack their, this guy in a diner and, and
his sister was there.
I knew a guy who had to whack this guy in a diner and his mother was, and
really, they actually was like competing with each other.
So.
And what was, what was Henry Hill himself like?
Now this guy, he's still in the federal witness protection program.
Yeah.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
I had met him that, that one time.
Then I met him and then the movie came out and he was very, he was seen around
town a lot.
And I was at a premiere once and he, he came over to me and I didn't know what
to say.
Here he is in a witness protection program.
I don't know what's going to happen.
Why is he going to premieres?
Exactly.
Exactly.
So he comes over, I'm sitting with a group of people and I'm not, I don't know
whether to introduce him or what to say.
I'm afraid, I don't know what's going to happen.
And, and he, so he's saying, hi, how are you?
And then he starts introducing himself to, hi, I'm Henry Hill.
Oh my goodness.
You never see a crowd disperse so quickly.
Yeah, I would think so.
But what do you, what do you know of his life these days?
Is he, I mean, do you know where he is?
Do you know how he is?
Do you know what he's up to?
Nope.
And I don't want to.
And that'll, that'll be it for him the rest of his life?
Well, actually he came up to me at one time at that same party saying that he
wanted to do a sequel of the movie.
And he says that you think the beginning of my, the beginning of my life was
tough.
Where do you see the rest of it?
But I mean, that must be, it strikes me as being insane that he shows up at the
premiere.
I know.
And then he's at the party having a couple of drinks.
I know.
Next thing you know, somebody slaps a sign on his back.
And tonight he's sitting in with a band.
And there he is.
Next thing you know, somebody slaps a sign on his back that says, shoot me.
Tell us about No Escape.
What kind of a film is that?
It's a nice big action movie.
We shot it in Australia.
What part of Australia?
In the rainforest.
I was doing a scene there in the rainforest.
And there's all kinds of creatures around.
And you never know what you're coming up against.
And I'm getting ready for a scene.
It's a real serious scene.
And I'm pacing back and forth, back and forth.
And every time I paced to my left, there would be a lot of noise.
A lot of, I didn't understand what it was.
I'm pacing back and forth, pacing back and forth again.
Get to my left, there's this noise.
And I just felt uncomfortable.
So I start walking away.
And I just felt like, I just felt like something was behind me.
I turn around and I was being attacked by a bird.
What kind of bird?
I don't know.
I called it a Hitchcock.
I don't know what it was.
Did it just actually get you?
Yeah, it just came after me.
And I'm running away, flailing my arms.
And the crew's getting ready.
And there's all these macho Australians.
And I'm...
Oops.
So you really impressed these big, tough Australian guys.
Where's your good fellas now?
Oh, look, it's Tippi Hedren.
Hello, Tippi.
That's funny.
But the film is, you are like at the last outpost for convicted nasty felons in
the year 2022.
Yeah, it takes place in the future.
And I'm a wrongly convicted marine.
I get sent to this penal colony where there's good bad guys and bad bad guys.
And it's just how I want to get off the island.
And you save the day for everybody.
Yeah.
All right.
Opens April 29th.
Yes.
A lot of fun.
You happy with how it came out?
Yeah, yeah.
Ray, it's a pleasure to see you.
Thanks.
Thank you very much for being here tonight.
Ray Leona, kid.