Martin Scorsese Said ‘Goodfellas’ Got Him ‘Shunned’ From Italian Restaurants

Martin Scorsese has a new picture out this weekend, which is a good excuse to do something fun: think about Martin Scorsese pictures. Some rank his beloved films. The big guy himself Well, he’s busy telling stories about making them. For instance, Goodfellas is a strong candidate for his best film. But not everyone is a fan.

Per Insider, the legendary filmmaker sat down with Timothée Chalamet for a GQ chat, where talk inevitably touched on his 1990 mafia classic. The film was a modest box office hit that scored six Oscar nominations, winning one for Joe Pesci. It went on to a healthy post-theatrical life, heralded as one of the ‘90s most beloved and rewatchable (and misunderstood) films. And yet it still received backlash, at least among a certain slither of the population.

“Oh my God. I was shunned for Goodfellas. Shunned in certain Italian restaurants. They wouldn’t let me in,” Scorsese told Chalamet.

Scorsese didn’t name names, but as Insider pointed out, he discussed at least one such incident during the 25th anniversary celebration in 2015. He and his co-writer Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the book, Wiseguy, upon which it’s based, used to go to a restaurant they loved.

“When the film came out, the owner of the restaurant said we’re not allowed in anymore because we apparently denigrated a certain ethnic group for the picture,” Scorsese recalled at the time.

During his GQ chat, Chalamet asked Scorsese asked him about one of the fixtures of his films (though not all of them, of course): horrible violence.

“I grew up in a place that was, you know, violence was a form of expression… And it was serious,” Scorsese recalled about growing up in Little Italy. “There was a difference between a friendly slap and a slap. And that was up to you to determine. And you could see that in Goodfellas when he says ‘You think I’m funny'”

Speaking of horrible violence, Scorsese’s latest, Killers of the Flower Moon, comes out on October 20.