| Vincenzo Coccotti | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | True Romance |
| Last appearance | True Romance |
| Created by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Portrayed by | Christopher Walken |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Anti-Christ Vincent |
| Occupation | Gangster |
| Children | 1 son |
| Nationality | Sicilian |
Vincenzo Coccotti is a fictional character, portrayed by Christopher Walken in Tony Scott's 1993 film True Romance. He is, along with Gary Oldman's Drexl Spivey character, one of two antagonists in the film.
The character is notable for his sole scene in the film, which gained a cult following and has come to be known as "The Sicilian scene".
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The right-hand man of mobster "Blue" Lou Boyle, Vincenzo "Vincent" Coccotti is a sadist who enjoys intense psychological torture sessions with those who do not co-operate with him. Vincenzo is called up to find Christian Slater’s character, Clarence Worley, after he kills Spivey, a pimp in Coccotti's employ, and unwittingly takes off with drugs belonging to the mob. He is from Sicily, Italy.
Coccotti pays an unwelcome visit to Clarence's father, Clifford Worley (Dennis Hopper), in order to find out where Clarence has gone with the narcotics. Clifford realizes during the interrogation that Coccotti is going to kill him no matter what, and so decides to make him angry in one last act of defiance and heroism knowing that the last act he did was that of not giving up his son. To that end, Worley brings up Sicilians' background. Worley is quoting history on the claim of Sicilian people having Black people's ancestry through the Moors — or, as Hopper puts it in the film: "Sicilians were spawned by niggers." Coccotti is amused by the story and admiring of Clifford's bravery, but kills him anyway and spits on his corpse.
This scene has been nominated by Tarantino himself (on the True Romance Unrated Director's Cut DVD commentary) as one of his proudest moments. "I had heard that whole speech about the Sicilians a long time ago, from a black guy living in my house. One day I was talking with a friend who was Sicilian and I just started telling that speech. And I thought: “Wow, that is a great scene, I gotta remember that.”
In an interview with MOJO magazine in September 2006, Walken commented on his genuine friendship with Hopper, implying that this helped create the warmth that exists between the otherwise antipathetic characters: "We really like each other, but I kill him anyway." He also expressed admiration for the Tarantino dialogue which was too good to improvise around, instead being delivered meticulously as scripted.
On an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, Hopper was questioned by one of the film students if "the Sicilian scene" was scripted or improvised. After laughing for a moment, Hopper replied that the scene was mostly done as scripted, and the only part that was improvised was the "eggplant" and "cantaloupe" remarks.
Christopher Walken said of his scene with Hopper, "First of all, he made me laugh, and that was very important in the scene. The fact that I was really enjoying this guy, and then I shoot him anyway. And the same is true of him - he really enjoyed telling me that story. And you could see it was delightful, don't you think? It happens to end with me shooting him in the head. But up until then, wasn't it delightful?"[1]
This scene has been colloquially named "the Sicilian scene" and become a cult favorite - and is included in Tarantino's original script.[2] The dialogue from the scene can be found in wikiquote.