“Would work easily if they paid Pacino twice”: When Robert Duvall shared why he did not return for The Godfather Part III

The Godfather Part III was released in the year 1990 with the burden of film history! It was expected to be a huge hit following two movies that reinvented American crime drama. However, when people sat down to watch the last part of the Corleone story, there was one thing they could not overlook, and that was the absence of Tom Hagen!

To most observers that absence of presence was instantly problematic. Why not bring Robert Duvall back, whose performance as Hagen had been the focus of the first two movies, in The Godfather: Part III? Duvall himself applied the solution to the problem over the years. As per Slashfilm, he said,

"I said I would work easily if they paid Pacino twice what they paid me, that's fine. But not three or four times, which is what they did."

According to Faroutmagazine, he also added,

“[Mr Coppola] came to my house in Virginia. He always wanted my mother’s Maryland crab cake recipe. So I wrote it down for him and we talked about Godfather III. Then he left and forgot the recipe. He called me more concerned about the recipe than whether I would do Godfather III“.

His interpretation was neither melodramatic, nor introspective, nor imaginative; it was business.

Tom Hagen’s role before The Godfather: Part III

In order to figure out why the absence was necessary, one should revisit what Tom Hagen was in the previous films. Robert Duvall starred in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974), both directed by Francis Ford Coppola as Hagen.

Being an adopted son of Vito Corleone and the consigliere of the family, Hagen was a stabilizer in a turbulent world. He was the negotiator, legal counsel, and in many instances the calm mediator between conflicting interests. The character was also imperative to the story, as Duvall was nominated for the Academy award of Best Supporting Actor due to his acting in The Godfather.

By the time the tale came to The Godfather Part III, Tom Hagen had become well established as one of the pillars of the trilogy. His absence in the third movie was hence not a slight casting change, but a visible structural change.

Salary negotiations behind the Godfather Part III

Based on later remarks by Duvall, the reason why he did not come back to The Godfather Part III was reduced to salary negotiation. The problem was not time incompatibility and script discontent. It was compensation.

As Duvall has admitted, he received a far lower bid than Al Pacino in the third movie. By 1990, his character, Michael Corleone, who had become the main star of the series, commanded a much bigger salary than Pacino. Although Duvall did not argue with the prominence of Pacino, he believed that the income disparity was excessive.

He once said that he would have come in if there not a different financial set-up, and that has been reduced to him saying that he would have gone back had they paid him properly in comparison to Pacino.

Notably, Duvall has also not been afraid of contextualizing the larger picture. In other interviews, he admitted that everybody did it because of money since he understood that big studio films exist in the realm of commerce. According to his own testimony, this was a practical decision rather than an emotional one.

No personal conflict

The one thing that comes out in the interviews is that Duvall did not make the situation sound like a personal conflict with Pacino. He has indicated that he did not have any resentment towards his co-star and no regretful feelings about the decision. Indeed, he has said that he was comfortable with the decision being reached after the negotiation collapsed.

This distinction matters. The Godfather Part III somehow invites some speculation of what might have been happening behind the scenes. Nonetheless, the reports provided in the respective articles all present the case thus as a simple contract dispute between Duvall and the studio rather than an actor-to-actor confrontation.

How The Godfather Part III handled the absence of Tom Hagen

Since Duvall refused to come back, the filming of The Godfather Part III proceeded without Tom Hagen. Instead of remaking the role, the movie clarifies that the role had been killed before the events of the story occurred.

This option did not entail the replacement of a performer who was highly identified with this role. But it also deprived Michael Corleone of a major advisor in his inner circle. The third movie then focused more on other characters, one of them being Vincent Mancini, played by Andy Garcias who becomes a major protagonist in the story.

The fact that Tom Hagen was absent also made the dynamics of The Godfather: Part III very different. In the absence of his level-headed advice, Michael comes more and more isolated. Although the film has been interpreted differently, the fact that the structure has changed is unrefuted.

Reception and continued conversation

The Godfather Part III was met with regard that was relatively ambivalent to the near-universal praise that its predecessors received when released. It received a number of Academy Award nominations, but it was not as critically acclaimed as the original two movies.

With time, discussions on The Godfather Part III always mention the absence of Duvall as one of the things that made it a better addition to the precedents. Although it would be a speculation to say how much his absence would have changed the result, the discussion alone serves to emphasize the role that Tom Hagen had played in the identity of the trilogy.

The perspective in retrospect by Duvall

Robert Duvall has been consistent in giving his reasons even after the publication of The Godfather: Part III several years ago. He has cited it as something of equity and professionalism, and not the discontentment with the project. His other stress has been that he had no regrets about walking away.

The visibility of his position has influenced the minds in which the story is being remembered. The story is one of negotiation boundaries rather than dramatic fallout. Duvall evaluated the proposal, looked at his role in the franchise, and eventually decided not to take it.

The Godfather: Part III holds a complicated position in the history of the movie today. It completes the circle of Michael Corleone and thematically closes the saga that started in 1972. Meanwhile, it is also connected to the notion of what is not the same in it, such as the lack of Tom Hagen.

The reasons behind the choice by Robert Duvall are evident and well-reported in interviews and press reports in the industry. He refused to go back since the amount of compensation was not in tandem with what he felt he was owed in relation to his position. The film was adapted, and without him, The Godfather Part III was filmed.

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In the end, the story behind The Godfather Part III reflects a broader truth about filmmaking: even iconic trilogies are shaped by contracts, negotiations, and business realities. Robert Duvall’s decision was part of that process, direct, candid, and grounded in professional judgment rather than controversy.

Also read: Cast of The Godfather Part III

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