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.”
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.
Marisa Tomei Was Relatively Unknown When She Got the Part
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 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.
The Character of Vinny Was Initially Dyslexic
In the first version of the script, when Vinny is questioned about having to take the bar exam six times, he replies, “I’m a little dyslexic.” Launer envisioned viewers literally seeing Vinny’s difficulty reading the enormous book of Alabama Criminal Court procedure, with the camera zooming in on an indecipherable word, which would become clear and readable and then moving on the next word which would again be impossible to read, and the pattern would repeat.
Launer told Abn ormal Use that in the final version, Vinny’s dyslexia was dropped because Lynn said "he did not know how to portray dyslexia. The screenwriter was very unhappy about the omission because it made Vinny seem “not so bright. You don’t know why it took him so long to get through the bar. And then suddenly he starts acting smart. What you have to do is make assumptions that he is actually a smart guy, and the law is just complicated and boring.” In the version of the film, which was ultimately released, there is no explanation given for the fact that Vinny only passed the bar on his sixth try.