Francis Ford Coppola had an expected encounter with George Lucas on the set of a Fred Astaire film when Lucas was still in college.
The award-winning filmmaker, known for writing and directing The Godfather trilogy, recently sat down with Ruthie Rogers of iHeartRadio podcast Ruthie’s Table 4 to discuss “vocabulary gangsters use when cooking, meeting an aspiring young filmmaker called George Lucas” losing a son “far too young – and everything in between.”
After revealing the secret to a “really good meat sauce” and discussing how his childhood experiences and Italian ancestry influenced details in The Godfather trilogy, Coppola opened up about meeting a young George Lucas, famous for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises among other film-related ventures.
“So what happened was I got a job to direct Fred Astaire on a big film called Finian’s Rainbow. And as I was directing this, I was a young guy with a crew of adults all wearing suits and ties. I noticed there was a skinny kid watching what was going on. I went over to him and I said ‘hi’ and he said ‘hi’, and I said ‘whatcha doing? Whatcha looking at?’ And he said ‘Nothing much.’ And I said well, ‘what are you doing here?’ He said ‘well I’m a USC student and I won a scholarship to observe. I came over to look at the Warner Brothers animation department but I heard there was a UCLA student directing this movie so I thought I’d watch.’ I said ‘Oh great! What’s your name?’ He said ‘George Lucas.'”
Coppola ended up inviting Lucas back to set, and challenged him to come up with a “brilliant idea everyday…and he did!”
For the full scoop, and to hear Coppola and Rodgers sing a duet of The Howdy Doody Show theme song, check out the latest episode of Ruthie’s Table 4 on iHeartRadio!
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