Nick Vallelonga, Tony Lip's eldest son, grew up hearing about his father's trip with Don Shirley. "This was a story I had in mind all my life since I was a child," says Vallelonga, who is an actor, writer, producer and director nowadays.
"I could make 50 movies about my dad," he says. "He was one of those biggest characters life gives you. When you entered a room, you knew he was there."
Admiration had a great impact on his son, as did Tony's friendship with Dr. Shirley and the story of how they met.
Because for Tony (played in the film by Viggo Mortensen), accompanying the tour of the musician Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) in 1962 opened his eyes for the first time to the difficult times of African-Americans in the southern United States.
"What my father experimented with Dr. Shirley on that trip changed the way he looked at the world because he saw things he had not noticed and had never seen before," says Vallelonga. "I think the same thing happened with Don Shirley," he said.
Director Peter Farrelly is the visual manager of Green Book, inspired by a true friendship that went beyond the restrictions of race, class and society of the early sixties.
