JAMES CAAN, costar, The Godfather (1972)

He was always trying to figure out a way to stop eating. He had this plan. He'd say to Alice [Marchak, his assistant], “Listen, after 9 o'clock I want you to lock up all the cabinets. After 9 o'clock no matter what I say don't give me the key.” At 9:20 he says, “ Alice , give me the key.” “No.” He says, “I swear to God I'll fire you.” “No.” So he went and got a crowbar and just busted all the locks.

He got in my dune buggy and we came to crowded Sunset [Boulevard] and he took his jacket and wrapped it around his head. I mean, it was Marlon Brando riding in a dune buggy down Sunset. I said, “What are you doing?” He didn't say a word. Just wrapped the jacket around his head like it was a burka.

I made him laugh all the time. I don't know why. He just thought I was hysterical. I'd tell him a joke and he was like a 12-year-old. I'd tell a joke at lunch and everybody would laugh except Marlon and about two hours later in the middle of a scene he'd get the joke and start laughing.

Just watching him work you'd learn so much. You'd learn to trust your instincts to the point where [you're] really available to anything that happens. A train could run through the middle of the set and it wouldn't bother him. Nothing you could do or say would throw him.