“I wanted to work with him again” – Martin Scorsese pays tribute to Ray Liotta

"He never missed a beat," said Scorsese about Liotta's work on Goodfellas.

Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese has paid tribute to the late Ray Liotta, two weeks on from the actor's sudden passing at the age of 67. Liotta died in his sleep in late May in the Dominican Republic, where he had been shooting a new film. No official cause of death has been revealed. Though the actor enjoyed a prolific and impressive career, his role as Henry Hill in Goodfellas arguably towers over all. Tributes poured in thick and fast for Liotta following the announcement of his death, though director Martin Scorsese took some time to gather his thoughts and find the right words. Published in the Guardian on Monday, Scorsese talks of the first impression Liotta left upon him as an actor, his eventual admiration for Liotta's work on Goodfellas and his regret at not getting to work together again. "The word 'fearless' is used quite often to describe actors, and with good reason: actors need to be fearless," said Scorsese. "They have to jump in and just go, and they have to stumble and fail and risk appearing ridiculous as they’re finding their way into a role. That’s just part of the work. "On Goodfellas, we were working improvisationally in most scenes, and many members of the team had known each other and worked together for years, including my mother and my father. Into that walked the new guy, Ray Liotta, and he never missed a beat. It felt like we’d worked together for years." Scorsese goes on to tell a story in which Liotta was struggling with the news that his mother was ill, and though his director encouraged him to immediately step away from the production to go see her, Liotta was adamant that he finish shooting his scene first – a subsequent experience Scorsese describes as "extraordinary". Scorsese also addresses the fact that the pair never worked on a film together again, and how he had hoped to change that in recent years.

"We had many plans to work together again but the timing was always off, or the project wasn’t quite right," he said.

"I regret that now. When I watched Ray as the divorce lawyer in Marriage Story – he’s genuinely scary in the role, which is precisely why he’s so funny – I remember feeling that I wanted to work with him again at this point in his life, to explore the gravity in his presence, so different from the young, sprightly actor he was when I met him.

"I wish I’d had the chance to see him just once more, too – to tell him just how much the work we did together meant to me. But maybe he knew that. I hope so."

You can read Scorsese's full piece, which is well worth your time, right here.