James Caan wasn’t originally cast as Sonny Corleone. He was initially cast as the film’s star, Michael Corleone.
It was only after he and director Francis Ford Coppola agreed that Caan should play Sonny, and insisted Al Pacino be brought in to play Michael, that the swap was made.
As for why Caan, the first generation immigrant son of a German-Jewish family was brought in to play an Italian-American, well that comes down to attitude and upbringing, a bit of luck in meeting the right friends early on and a talent for bringing a hard-edged intensity to his roles.
Well before his acting career started, Caan was a quintessential, rough and tumble, working-class New York City kid.
Born in the Bronx and raised in Queens, he enjoyed boxing and motorcycles and getting into street fights. Exactly the kind of childhood you’d associate with an urban tough guy of his era.
He ended up going to Michigan State University in the hopes of playing college football, but that never quite worked out. He might have been a tough kid, but playing for MSU was a bit more than he was capable of. The Spartans, after all, were the best college team of his era.
So he transferred to Hofstra University on Long Island, where he was coincidentally classmates with a young Francis Ford Coppola.
From there his star was on the rise throughout the 1960’s. His performances were electric and people could pretty much tell he was going to make it big from the very start. On top of this, that hard-edge he carried from childhood was pretty evident on screen – he came off as virile, tough, intense and full of unpredictable energy.
Caan eventually hooked back up with Coppola in 1969, where he had a role in Coppola’s film, The Rain People. The role cemented their relationship,
So when Coppola was casting The Godfather, it made perfect sense to cast Caan. Who cared if he was Italian-American or not? He oozed New York City tough guy energy and intensity, most of which he wasn’t even faking. That was just who he was, and the kind of roles he excelled at.
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