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Marisa Tomei's Oscar-winning My Cousin Vinny performance almost didn't happen - twice

20th Century Fox was not sold on Tomei's breakout role... or the character in general

Features by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Published on Tue Nov 12 2024

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If there’s one thing everyone remembers from the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny, it’s Marisa Tomei’s Mona Lisa Vito, an all-time great character who gleefully steals the show from under the noses of an all-star cast that also includes Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio and Herman Munster himself, Fred Gwynne. She’s such an icon of '90s cinema that it’s difficult to imagine the movie without her — yet that’s what almost happened thanks to studio 20th Century Fox on not just one, but two different occasions.

“It Makes Her Look Smart”

“I remember my first creative meeting with Roger Birnbaum, who was the president of Fox, and Riley Ellis, who was the senior vice president. I remember word-for-word how Roger started the meeting: ‘Good work. Very funny. Good work. Do you think you could cut the character Lisa out of the movie? She has so many great lines, it would be great to give those to Vinny, since it makes her look smart,’” writer Dean Launer explained to Rolling Stone in 2022, revealing that apparently studio heads can miss the entire point of a character. (And a movie.)

According to Launer, he told the studio that Lisa actually helps demonstrate how smart Vinny actually is. “I said, ‘You gotta understand that when Vinny puts her on the stand at the end, Vinny has to know where she’s going. Vinny has to know everything she knows. It’s just more impressive coming out of a woman’s mouth. And because they have a bit of a row, this becomes a romantic thing for them. And when she realizes she’s up there to help him win the case, she’s in her element. It becomes an important part of the movie.’”

The studio backed down… but that didn’t mean that Mona Lisa was safe just yet. After all, now came the hurdle of casting.

“We Had An Argument With The President of the Studio For About Half An Hour”

Finding the right actress for Mona Lisa wasn’t easy, especially given her importance to the story — something that Launer and director Jonathan Lynn, who was also responsible for a rewritten screenplay, both agreed on even if the studio had yet to be convinced. Tomei ended up attached to the project through a chance meeting when Lynn visited the set of Oscar, a movie she had a small role in… but just because he knew who he wanted, that didn’t mean she was immediately cast.

“I said to Fox, ‘I know who I’m going to cast.’ They said, ‘We want to see a screen test of your first three choices,’” Lynn told Rolling Stone. “We did a test of three women, including Marisa. Then I took the test to Joe Pesci, who was filming Goodfellas. I said, ‘I’ve got these three screen tests. I want you to know if you think it’s the same person I think it is.’ He said, ‘Yeah, Marisa Tomei.’ I said, ‘Right, I agree’ I then went to Fox. They picked somebody else from the screen test. We had an argument with the president of the studio for about half an hour.”

Although the movie clearly displays that Tomei was right for the role, it’s also almost understandable why the studio was so nervous about the choice; at this point in her career, Tomei was a relative unknown with little movie work under her belt; if audiences knew her from anything, it was likely her one-season stint on Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987. Lynn, however, wasn’t backing down.

“Finally I produced my trump card,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Joe Pesci thinks it should be Marisa.’ Studios never want to have a fight with a leading actor, especially shortly before a film begins. There was a pause and then he said, ‘Look, it’s your film. You cast who you want.’”

Amongst the actors who were also up for the role? The Sopranos star Lorraine Bracco, who passed on the role according to writer Dane Launer. Carole Davis, who appeared in small roles in everything from the movie Mannequin to TV’s Veronica Mars (with some Sex and the City and The A-Team thrown in for good measure) also auditioned, and according to Launer, accidentally came up with one of Mona Lisa’s lines in the finished movie.

“We’re friends, and I called her when I was down in Butler, Alabama, doing research for the movie,” he said. “I remember she said, ‘I bet the Chinese food down there is terrible.’ I thought that was funny, so I took it and gave it to Lisa.”

And The Oscar Goes To…

In the end, Tomei’s performance was easily the takeaway of the movie for most viewers, netting her the Academy Award for Best Performance by an actress in a supporting role in the 1992 Oscars, beating out actors from Howards End, Damage, and the Woody Allen movie Husbands and Wives. Somewhere, someone in 20th Century Fox was very happy that they backed down when Joe Pesci’s name was mentioned, no doubt.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.