When she was cast as Mona Lisa Vito, Marisa Tomei did not have a lot of big screen experience. Lynn talks about his decision to cast her in the DVD commentary, explaining that he’d seen a performance where Tomei played a 1920s blonde flapper, but he could tell she was incredibly funny and talented. Soon after, Tomei auditioned for ‘My Cousin Vinny’ and nailed it.
According to the director, he knew he made the right choice after reviewing the dailies of the first scene they shot with her, in which Mona Lisa and Vinny arrive in Alabama. The way she tells him, “Oh, yeah, you blend,” was all he needed.
The Character of Mona Lisa Vito Was Almost Cut from the Movie by the Studio.
In an interview with Writer Unboxed in 2007, Launer revealed that the studio had initially wanted to get rid of the colorful character of Vinny’s unemployed hairdresser/car expert girlfriend. Launer was forced to add a scene, specifically requested by the studio president, to the second draft in order to keep the character in the movie. He said, "He wanted Vinny’s girlfriend to complain that he’s not giving her enough attention."
Launer said that he eventually, “figured out a way where they’d HAVE to keep her and embellished her character … she does complain, but at least apologizes for bringing it up, and you don’t hate her for bringing it up largely because it’s funny. … Now, I thought if she brought this up at this point where he is simply going through hell—he should be pissed off. And he is. So he kinda tears into her.” In the end, the scene which features Mona Lisa’s tirade about her “biological clock”, became one of his favorites in the entire script.
Will Smith Almost Played Stan Rothenstein
Actor Mitchell Whitfield had just completed his move from New York to Los Angeles when he heard that auditions for 'My Cousin Vinny' were happening in New York and decided to fly back for the screen test.
Whitfield told Abnormal Use that Will Smith was also up for the role! He must have made an impression, because Whitfield got the part of Stan and had to drop 25 pounds in order to play him.
Although Tomei is from Brooklyn, She Doesn’t Share Her Character’s Way of Talking
Growing up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Tomei told The New York Times in 1992, “I really knew the neighborhood.” That doesn’t mean that she talked exactly like Mona Lisa.
“I don’t think that extreme, but I could be wrong,” she told NPR’s Fresh Air in 2010. “My mom was an English teacher, and she was on my butt about that kind of thing and correcting my speech from a young age.”
The Legal System is Portrayed Quite Accurately
Lynn, who has a law degree from Cambridge University, talks about the legal aspects of the film in the DVD commentary, saying, “I get terribly irritated when I see films in which the legal procedure is obviously wrong.” He made additional adjustments to the script which had already been researched by Launer in order to achieve maximum accuracy.
Lynn went as far as to sit in on a murder trial in the Monticello, Ga. courtroom which was the inspiration for the courtroom set. “Some of the lines in the [Vinny trial] came directly from that trial,” he said, including Lane Smith’s pronunciation of heinous (“high-a-nus”) and his line about “our little old ancestors” in the opening remarks.