 Ben Gazzara was unhappy with the role initially, unable to find a  way to connect to Cosmo Vitelli. That changed when shooting a scene,  Cassavetes spoke to Gazzara about the gangsters in the film as a  metaphor for the people who are constantly trying to steal or ruin  peoples dreams. Cassavetes started to cry and Gazzara saw that  playing Cosmo was representing John Cassavetes and the movie was a  metaphor for the directors struggles for his own dreams.