20 Things You Didn't Know About Goodfellas

For the duration of the film's production, the cast and crew contacted many of the people involved in the true story to make the film as authentic as possible. Nicolas Pileggi contacted Henry Hill many times while writing the script. However, there was one person that Scorsese didn't want to contact Hill, that being Ray Liotta.

Scorsese reportedly didn't want Liotta to meet with Hill because he had never directed him before, and he was afraid that Hill would have an influence on Liotta's performance, which he wanted to avoid.

After Hill died in 2012, Liotta claimed that he did have a few meetings with Hill, but only a few, and he never got to know him well.

Liotta also revealed that he would listen to taped interviews of Hill and Nicholas Pileggi while driving to and from set, noting that Hill casually discussed murders and other crimes while eating potato chips.