The Long Take: Who Did Ray Liotta Play?

As Far Back As I Can Remember, I Always Wanted Ray Liotta To Play A Gangster

I’m in a Facebook group that’s mainly for memes related to Martin Scorsese. A recurring joke is Ray Liotta being neglected by Martin Scorsese, while he relies on his frequent collaborators like Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Leonardo Dicaprio. Liotta said that he would love to work with Scorsese again, but it never happened. There’s a tragic undertone in his comments, especially as he suddenly passed away last week, while shooting another movie. I remember on Twitter joked about him playing an divorce attorney in A Marriage Story and his performance sounds like him letting steam out for not being cast in The Irishman, which was released in the same year. 

Ray Liotta is not the greatest actor out there, but he’s a legend. He has played restrained characters before, but even then, there’s an underlying goat-like grit that made Liotta so recognizable.

Until his recent renaissance in 2019, Ray Liotta was the butt of his own joke, with a distinct demeanour. One that features that loud and arrogant laugh which almost made him punchable. He was a good sport in playing himself in the baffling Jerry Seinfeld passion project Bee Movie, where he testifies in a court case where he is the honey business. Then, Seinfeld, the bee tells the jury that he’s ‘not a Goodfella, but a bad fella’ before Liotta could attack him with his Emmy.