Often casts his own real-life extended family members in his films. In the case of the Godfather films, their characters' relationships to "Michael Corleone" often paralleled their real-life relationship to Coppola. He cast his sister,
Talia Shire, as Michael's sister Connie, and his daughter,
Sofia Coppola, as Michael's daughter Mary - named for Coppola's other daughter. In addition,
Diane Keaton said that she modeled her performance as Kay Adams after Elanor Coppola, since both Kay and Coppola are protestants who married into Italian Catholic families.
