A long-ish interview in The Guardian but a good read.
‘I was told, you’re not cutting it’
When he bagged the lead role, he couldn’t believe his luck. But after just a week of filming he was on the brink of being fired. In an exclusive extract from his new book, the actor recalls the making of the film that changed his life.
...For a director to offer you a role, over the phone, not through an agent or anything, and this role of all roles – that was a hundred-million-to-one shot. Who was I, to have this fall into my lap? When I finally hung up the phone with Francis, I was kind of in a daze...
..[Michael] was supposed to be small, dark-haired, handsome in a delicate way, no visible threat to anybody. That didn’t sound like the guys that the studio wanted. But that didn’t mean it had to be me...
...Paramount had already rejected Francis’s entire cast. They rejected Jimmy Caan and Bob Duvall, who were great established actors, well on their way to what they would become. They rejected Brando, for ----- sake. It was quite clear walking into the studio that they didn’t want me either. ..
...When I knew I had the role for sure, I called my grandmother to tell her. “You know I’m going to be in The Godfather? I’m going to play the part of Michael Corleone.” She said, “Oh, Sonny, listen! Grandad was born in Corleone, that’s where he was from.” I didn’t know where my grandfather was born, only that he came from Sicily – once my grandfather got to America and no one was chasing after him, he left it at that. Now to learn he came from Corleone, the very town that gave my character and his family their name? I thought, I must be getting help from somewhere...
...Before we started shooting, I got together with Little Al Lettieri, who was going to play Sollozzo. He just said to me, “You should meet this guy. It’s good for what you’re doing.” I sort of knew what he meant by that, so I went along with him...
Little Al brought me to a traditional, beautiful, well-kept home. He took me inside and introduced me to the head of the household, a guy who looked like a normal businessman...I never asked Little Al why he had brought me here, but I thought about what he had said before we came, how this visit would be helpful for what I was working on. Little Al knew some guys. Some real guys. And now he was introducing me to one of them...
I was being given a taste of how this thing looked and operated in reality, not how it was shown in the movies... Many moons later, photos from that night surfaced, showing me in a sweatshirt, laughing away with a drink in my hand, while Little Al showed me a gun. A boys’ night out...
..Over the course of an April night I shot that [restaurant] scene. I spent 15 hours that day in a tiny restaurant, with Little Al Lettieri and the magnificent Sterling Hayden, who played McCluskey... we had no trailers to escape to, no production assistants coming up and asking, “Can we get you some water?”...
...eventually the script called for me to excuse myself to use the bathroom, find a hidden gun, and blow their brains out. Then I had to run out of the restaurant and make my escape by jumping on to a moving car. I had no stand-in. I had no stuntman. I had to do it myself. I jumped, and I missed the car. Now I was lying in a gutter on White Plains Road in the Bronx, flat on my back and looking up at the sky. I had twisted my ankle so badly that I couldn’t move...
They filmed the rest of the car-jumping scene with a stunt guy who appeared out of nowhere, and they shot my ankle up with cortisone until I could stand on my feet again.
‘I was told, you’re not cutting it’
When he bagged the lead role, he couldn’t believe his luck. But after just a week of filming he was on the brink of being fired. In an exclusive extract from his new book, the actor recalls the making of the film that changed his life.
...For a director to offer you a role, over the phone, not through an agent or anything, and this role of all roles – that was a hundred-million-to-one shot. Who was I, to have this fall into my lap? When I finally hung up the phone with Francis, I was kind of in a daze...
..[Michael] was supposed to be small, dark-haired, handsome in a delicate way, no visible threat to anybody. That didn’t sound like the guys that the studio wanted. But that didn’t mean it had to be me...
...Paramount had already rejected Francis’s entire cast. They rejected Jimmy Caan and Bob Duvall, who were great established actors, well on their way to what they would become. They rejected Brando, for ----- sake. It was quite clear walking into the studio that they didn’t want me either. ..
...When I knew I had the role for sure, I called my grandmother to tell her. “You know I’m going to be in The Godfather? I’m going to play the part of Michael Corleone.” She said, “Oh, Sonny, listen! Grandad was born in Corleone, that’s where he was from.” I didn’t know where my grandfather was born, only that he came from Sicily – once my grandfather got to America and no one was chasing after him, he left it at that. Now to learn he came from Corleone, the very town that gave my character and his family their name? I thought, I must be getting help from somewhere...
...Before we started shooting, I got together with Little Al Lettieri, who was going to play Sollozzo. He just said to me, “You should meet this guy. It’s good for what you’re doing.” I sort of knew what he meant by that, so I went along with him...
Little Al brought me to a traditional, beautiful, well-kept home. He took me inside and introduced me to the head of the household, a guy who looked like a normal businessman...I never asked Little Al why he had brought me here, but I thought about what he had said before we came, how this visit would be helpful for what I was working on. Little Al knew some guys. Some real guys. And now he was introducing me to one of them...
I was being given a taste of how this thing looked and operated in reality, not how it was shown in the movies... Many moons later, photos from that night surfaced, showing me in a sweatshirt, laughing away with a drink in my hand, while Little Al showed me a gun. A boys’ night out...
..Over the course of an April night I shot that [restaurant] scene. I spent 15 hours that day in a tiny restaurant, with Little Al Lettieri and the magnificent Sterling Hayden, who played McCluskey... we had no trailers to escape to, no production assistants coming up and asking, “Can we get you some water?”...
...eventually the script called for me to excuse myself to use the bathroom, find a hidden gun, and blow their brains out. Then I had to run out of the restaurant and make my escape by jumping on to a moving car. I had no stand-in. I had no stuntman. I had to do it myself. I jumped, and I missed the car. Now I was lying in a gutter on White Plains Road in the Bronx, flat on my back and looking up at the sky. I had twisted my ankle so badly that I couldn’t move...
They filmed the rest of the car-jumping scene with a stunt guy who appeared out of nowhere, and they shot my ankle up with cortisone until I could stand on my feet again.
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She must have "made him an offer he couldn't refuse" 
