Miles Teller and Juno Temple talk wild ‘Godfather’ origin story

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the making of The Godfather might just be the greatest story never told.

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Long heralded as one of the best movies ever made, the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s pulpy gangster novel was the stuff of legend. From the near-firing of his co-writer and director Francis Ford Coppola, to the decision to hire a then-unknown Al Pacino as the film’s leading man, to the real-life Mafia’s anger at the project, the fact that the movie got made with producer Albert S. Ruddy leading the charge still surprises.

The story chronicling the making of The Godfatherwhich turned 50 last month, is told in the Paramount+ limited series The Offerfeaturing Miles Teller (Top Gun: Maverick) as Ruddy.

Centring on Ruddy, Paramount Studios chief Robert Evans (Matthew Goode), a pair of penny-pinching execs (Burn Gorman, Colin Hanks), Coppola (Dan Fogler), Puzo (Patrick Gallo), Pacino (Anthony Ippolito) and Ruddy’s assistant Bettye McCartt (Juno Temple), the 10-episode series recounts the arduous journey and the various players that helped make the cinematic masterpiece.

Created by Michael Tolkin (ThePlayer, Escape at Dannemora), the series takes its title from Don Vito Corleone’s line at the beginning of the film: “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

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Based on Puzo’s 1969 best-selling novel, The Godfather told the story of Michael Corleone, a war hero who is drawn into his family’s criminal empire despite his ailing father’s (played by the late Marlon Brando) objections. The film, which debuted in theaters on March 24, 1972, was crowned best picture at the 45th Academy Awards, with Coppola winning an Oscar (shared with Puzo) for best adapted screenplay. The cast dominated the acting categories with Brando (who won for his portrayal of Vito Corleone), Pacino, Robert Duvall and James Caan all nominated.

Released two years later, The Godfather: Part II was also a best picture winner. The Oscar-nominated The Godfather: Part III hit theaters in 1990. Coppola cut the third entry entirely in 2020, delivering the movie he had always intended.

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So many careers hinged on the performance of The Godfather. All of the players involved had everything to lose on this. I think that’s why they fought so hard for it.

Miles Teller on the stakes behind making the classic mafia movie

But Tolkin, who sat down with Ruddy before committing to the project, said he knew little of The Godfather’s tumultuous backstory.

“Al said, ‘Every day of making The Godfather was the worst day in my life,’” Tolkin says. “We’ve made a show that is a love letter to how hard it is to get a movie made.”

Ruddy, as the series details in its first three episodes, was the perfect producer for the film because he was a relative newcomer to the film industry. Directed by Rocketman filmmaker Dexter Fletcher, we see how he went from being a programmer at the Rand Corporation to getting his Hollywood launch as the mastermind behind the television hit Hogan’s Heroes.

With McCartt by his side, Ruddy launches an uphill battle to get The Godfather made, taking on fearsome crime boss Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) — who viewed Puzo’s book as an insult to Italian-Americans — in the process.

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“I didn’t know anything about it, really,” Teller, 35, tells the Sun in a virtual chat from Los Angeles.

For 32-year-old Temple, who is best known for playing Keeley Jones in Apple’s beloved ted lasso, The Offer highlights the idea that it was Ruddy and McCartt as two dreamers trying to make The Godfather to reality.

“It’s really about the belief in each other that they had,” she says.

But the Emmy-nominated actress also thinks that the film caused a shift in how filmmakers approached the crime genre going forward.

“I think it changed the way people told gangster tales because this one was told through the eyes of real human people,” she says.

The story is one that Hollywood will engage with again. An upcoming movie surrounding the roller-coaster behind The Godfather is also in the works with Oscar Isaac and Jake Gyllenhaal starring as Coppola and Evans.

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“I think it has resonated in so many different circles with so many different cultures as well,” Teller says.

With the first three episodes available to stream now, Teller and Temple spoke more about the making of The Offer and weighed in on the legacy of The Godfather.

I’ve seen The Godfather a number of times and I’ve spoken to some of the people involved with that film, but I had no idea it had such a rocky road to the big screen. How much did the two of you know about its troubled history?

Teller: “I had seen the picture of Duvall with the cue cards and I had read about Brando’s process a little bit. But as far as the extracurriculars and the stuff going on behind the scenes, I had no idea. My first introduction to that was when I read all of these scripts and I found it so fascinating how the movie got made. It really is exceptional.”

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Temper: “I knew nothing. I remember reading the first three episodes and thinking, ‘This is going to be interesting.’ But then I got to the rest and I couldn’t believe this all really happened before (The Godfather) became the extraordinary masterpiece that it is. There were so many different levels of stakes to get that film made. Whether it was convincing Bob Evans to put in a little extra money or (insisting) Mario Puzo, who wrote the book, had to co-write the script or convincing everyone that Al Pacino shouldn’t be fired because he was extraordinary and (the hiring of) Francis Ford Coppola. There was just so many things. It wasn’t just one suggestion that everyone easily agreed with that went into making this.

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“Then on top of that, you have the actual Mafia trying to shut down the production and Al Ruddy, who had to navigate all these different kinds of people. It took such an understanding of all that to try and stay alive and make the picture.”

Really, what we see is how everyone in this series is in a fight for their future in Hollywood. Did you view the story that way?

Teller: “Absolutely. I think everyone felt like they had to provide themselves. So many careers hinged on the performance of The Godfather. All of the players involved had everything to lose on this. I think that’s why they fought so hard for it.”

Early on in The Offerwe see Ruddy making his pitch for The Godfather. What’s the best pitch you’ve ever gotten?

Temper: “I’m not sure. I’ve been sent scripts and then talked through them or I’ve had friends pitch me something as it’s happening. So I’ve been lucky. Maybe I’ve had to pitch myself more for other people’s great ideas.”

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Teller: “I agree with Juno. I feel like you go through many years of — in subtle and maybe not-so-subtle ways — pitching yourself to the powers that be. So a good pitch to me is, ‘We had you in mind.’ That’s good enough for me (laughs). After that, we’ll figure it out.”

The film just turned 50 last month. why do you think The Godfather have you hardened?

Teller: “There’s a level of expertise in that movie. This wasn’t a one-time thing for the people involved. Many of the people who made that movie matched or exceeded the expectations with the sequel to The Godfather. So everyone involved with that movie was at the top of their game. They brought humanity to the Mafia. These are men who kill, but it’s about family and it’s about loyalty. There’s a lot of love and seeing those sides to those characters was different.

“At the time, they were saying, ‘We don’t want to make another gangster film.’ And everyone involved with this said it wasn’t going to be that, and it wasn’t.”

The first three episodes of The Offer are streaming now on Paramount+ with new episodes available weekly.

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