Several Actors Who Had Appeared in His Films Saying They Would Not Work With Him Again.
'The Godfather' at l
Al Pacino on 'The Godfather': 'It'south Taken Me a Lifetime to Accept Information technology and Move On'
Fifty years later, the actor looks back on his breakthrough function: how he was cast, why he skipped the Oscars and what information technology all means to him now.
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone. He won the role over Paramount's objections. Credit... Paramount Pictures
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It's hard to imagine "The Godfather" without Al Pacino. His understated performance as Michael Corleone, who became a respectable state of war hero despite his corrupt family, goes almost unnoticed for the first hour of the film — until at final he asserts himself, gradually taking command of the Corleone criminal functioning and the film along with it.
Merely there would exist no Al Pacino without "The Godfather," either. The actor was a rising star of New York theater with just i moving picture function, in the 1971 drug drama "The Panic in Needle Park," when Francis Ford Coppola fought for him, against the wishes of Paramount Pictures, to play the ruminative prince of his Mafia epic. A half-century's worth of pivotal cinematic roles followed, including ii more turns equally Michael Corleone in "The Godfather Part Ii" and "Part III."
"The Godfather" premiered in New York on March 15, 1972, and 50 years later on, you can imagine all the reasons Pacino wouldn't want to talk nigh it anymore. Peradventure he'd be embarrassed or annoyed about how this one performance, from the outset of his movie career, still dominates his résumé, or perhaps he has said all at that place is to say about it.
But in a telephone interview last month, Pacino, now 81, was quite philosophical, even whimsical, about discussing the flick. He remains an ardent admirer of the motion picture and of the lengths that Coppola and his co-stars went to support him, and he is still awe-struck about how information technology unmarried-handedly gave him his career.
"I'm hither considering I did 'The Godfather,'" Pacino said, speaking from his home in Los Angeles. "For an actor, that's like winning the lottery. When it comes right downward to it, I had nothing to do with the film only play the part."
As Coppola recalled information technology, Pacino was who he saw in the office all forth and a candidate worth going to the mattresses for, despite his lack of a track tape.
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"When I actually read the 'Godfather' book, I kept imagining him," Coppola said in a split interview. "And I didn't have a second choice. It was, for me, always Al Pacino. That's the reason why I was so tenacious almost getting him to play Michael. That was my problem."
Only for the player, delivering the performance of a lifetime brought its ain burdens, as he would acquire in the years that followed.
"Information technology's hard to explain in today's earth — to explain who I was at that time and the commodities of lightning that it was," Pacino said. "I felt like, all of a sudden, some veil was lifted and all eyes were on me. Of course, they were on others in the film. But 'The Godfather' gave me a new identity that was hard for me to cope with."
Pacino spoke further about getting hired for and making "The Godfather," the weight of its legacy and why he never played another film character similar Michael Corleone after it. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.
When you get a call asking you to talk about "The Godfather," is there some office of you that thinks, oh God, not again? Does information technology ever become tedious?
Well, no. You expect it. You lot expect to talk nigh what things worked and what things didn't. You become a sense that somebody's going to come up at you. You but go: OK, been hither, washed this. But it's cool. Information technology beats talking to myself almost it.
How did the office of Michael Corleone first come up up?
At that time in my life, I didn't have a choice. Francis wanted me. I had fabricated the ane film. And I wasn't as interested in film to the extent that I became interested. My head was in some other space. I felt out of place in the early films that I fabricated. I remember proverb to my friend Charlie [his mentor, the acting instructor Charlie Laughton]: Wow, they talk about information technology being real, but meanwhile it's not. Because at that place are wires all over you. And likewise, y'all've got to practice it again! [Laughs] You do it and they say, well, go over again, do it again. It'south real and not real at the same fourth dimension. Which takes some getting used to.
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When did you and Coppola meet?
To give a little history to it, Francis was this filmmaker who had Zoetrope [his production company, American Zoetrope], and people like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and [Martin] Scorsese and [Brian] De Palma were all part of a grouping. And I remember seeing a few of them when Francis asked me to come to San Francisco after he had seen me in a play on Broadway. Do you know that story? I'm telling former stories now. [Laughs]
That'southward OK. It's why we're here.
He saw me onstage [in the 1969 Broadway run of "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?"] only I never met him. He had written "Patton" by that time, and he sent me a script for a wonderful beloved story he had written [which was never produced]. He wanted to see me. That meant I had to get on a plane and go to San Francisco, which is something I was not used to. I thought, is there any other manner to go? I can't tell this guy to come all the way back here, tin can I? So I said I'll bite the bullet and I went. I spent five days with him. It really was special, this film. But we were rejected, of course. I was an unknown actor and he had made a couple of films, "Y'all're a Big Male child At present" and "The Rain People." So I went dorsum home and never heard from him over again.
Just you did, eventually. When was that?
"Panic in Needle Park" hadn't come up out yet. And I got a call from Francis Coppola — a name from the by. Offset, he says he's going to be directing "The Godfather." I idea, well, he might be going through a mini-breakdown or something. How did they give him "The Godfather"?
You didn't think it was possible that he was making it?
I've got to tell you, it was a big bargain already. Information technology was a big volume. When you're an actor, yous don't even put your eyes on those things. They don't exist for y'all. You're in a certain place in your life where you're non going to be accustomed in those big films — non however, at to the lowest degree. And he said, not only was he directing information technology, [breaking into laughter] just he wanted me to do information technology. I'yard sorry, I don't mean to laugh here. It just seemed so outrageous. Here I am, talking to somebody who I think is flipped out. I said, what train am I on? OK. Sense of humour the guy. And he wanted me to practise Michael. I thought, OK, I'll get forth with this. I said, yes, Francis, skillful. Y'all know how they talk to you lot when you're slipping? They say, "Yes! Of course! Yes!" Only he wasn't. It was the truth. And then I was given the office.
Paramount was famously opposed to the idea of your playing the role.
Well, they rejected his unabridged cast! [Laughs] They rejected Brando. They rejected Jimmy Caan and Bob Duvall. In that location was conflict.
I recently watched some of your "Godfather" screen tests and you seemed to have this hangdog await on your face as you are asked to become through it again and over again.
Yes. I always had that wait. [Laughs] It was a facade that got me through these auditions. Considering great actors were auditioning for this affair. Merely here's the surreptitious: For whatsoever reason, he wanted me and I knew that. You could feel that. And at that place's nothing like that, when a director wants you. It's the best affair an player could have, really.
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Simply you were non exactly a nobody. Y'all had already won a Tony Honour .
Oh, on the island of Manhattan, things were happening for me. I had washed "The Indian Wants the Bronx." I was young. I got the Obie Award and so I won a Tony. And so I got fired from a play. [Laughs]
What play?
I got fired from some play. They let me become. Permit's put it that fashion. You happen to exist the lead, but we're letting y'all go. That'due south how bad you are in this performance. So I was known in certain quarters. I wasn't looking for piece of work in that sense — I was engaging myself in things.
When you got into the filming of "The Godfather," working aslope people like Caan and Duvall, who had quite a lot more moviemaking experience, and Brando, who you admired a bang-up deal, how did yous hold your own?
I idea about the function. I just couldn't articulate information technology at the time. I could clear it today. I was thinking that this is a character that could be very effective if he comes out of nowhere. That was my vision for information technology. I couldn't, naturally, mention information technology to anyone considering I didn't know how to say information technology. But I could think it. And I felt it was mapped out for me when I read the script.
How so?
He'due south not showing up a lot. He's at that place but not quite showing up. I guess a lot of it was just building upwardly to that one speech communication where he says I'm going to go get those guys [the drug kingpin Sollozzo and the decadent police force officer Capt. McCluskey], and they all outset laughing at him.
Meaning, Michael was existence underestimated and that was something you could connect to and utilise to your advantage?
Exactly. But I will tell you, they couldn't have been more than comforting, all of them. I was young, I was unknown, and they were so comforting. At that place was a beloved in that location. They understood information technology, Brando particularly. But the others, too. They were becoming those older brothers and directorate that they play in the film. Those kinds of emotions and colors in them came out, both in the performance simply also in life. They mesh.
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Was in that location e'er a moment during the making of "The Godfather" that yous realized it was going to be as dandy as information technology is?
You recall the funeral scene for Marlon, when they put him down? Information technology was over for the evening, the sunday was going down. So, naturally, I'chiliad happy 'crusade I get to go dwelling and accept some drinks. I was on the way to my camper, saying, well, I was pretty practiced today. I had no lines, no obligations, that was fine. Every twenty-four hour period without lines is a farewell. And so I'yard going back to my camper. And in that location, sitting on a tombstone, is Francis Ford Coppola, weeping like a baby. Profusely crying. And I went upward to him and I said, Francis, what's wrong? What happened? He says, "They won't requite me another shot." Meaning, they wouldn't allow him to motion picture another setup. And I idea: OK. I gauge I'thousand in a skillful flick here. Because he had this kind of passion and at that place it is.
Accept you lot rewatched the film recently?
No. I might have seen it two, three years ago. Information technology's the kind of movie when you start watching it, you proceed watching it.
Practise you go self-conscious about watching your own films?
No. I enjoy watching films I've been in. Sometimes I testify them. I say, "Hey, come this mode! Here it is! Hey, it's me, yeah! Take a look at this!" Well, I don't go that far. But I would if I could. I call up "The Godfather" plays no matter what. Simply you're surprised when you realize how many people never saw it.
You're encountering people who are aware of "The Godfather" as a cultural phenomenon but haven't actually watched it?
They've heard about it. You get that. "Oh, I heard — were you in that? That was a movie, wasn't it?" Yes. So was "Citizen Kane," by the style — I was in that, also. Why non? They don't know.
Is in that location anything about your functioning that you lot wish yous could change at present?
Maybe I've been spared. It'south like when I once lost my wallet in my early 20s. I had no money, but what I had, I had in my wallet and I lost it. I said, Al, y'all simply have to forget this. Put it out of your listen, OK? You know what will happen to yous if you keep thinking about it. And then, what I exercise is, I don't think near it.
Who from the movie doesn't get enough credit for their contribution?
John Cazale, in full general, was one of the cracking actors of our fourth dimension — that fourth dimension, any time. I learned then much from him. I had done a lot of theater and three films with him. He was inspiring, he just was. And he didn't get credit for any of information technology. He was in five films, all Oscar-nominated films, and he was not bad in all of them. He was peculiarly smashing in "Godfather II" and I don't think he got that kind of recognition.
There is an intense quietness to how you play Michael in "The Godfather" that I don't think I ever saw again in your other film performances, even the subsequently times yous played him. Was that a part of yourself that went away or was information technology just the nature of the character that called for it?
I'd like to call back information technology was the nature of that detail person and that interpretation. I tin can't think of whatever other characters that I did that could take used that kind of framework. I was a young histrion — on "Part 3," I was no longer young, but that's not my fault. [Laughs]
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But compared to other characters you're also closely associated with, like Tony Montana in "Scarface" ——
Well, that character, Tony Montana, was written by Oliver Stone and directed past Brian De Palma, who wanted the heightened reality. Brian wanted to do an opera. All I wanted to do was imitate Paul Muni. [Laughs] But if I put "Dog Day Afternoon" with "Godfather," or "Serpico," I don't see a resemblance there. Would you telephone call Michael more than introspective? That'due south what I would say. And I don't know of whatsoever other introspective characters I played. But if I sit downwards with you and go to the annual, we'll discover something.
You lot received your first Academy Award nomination for "The Godfather," yet y'all didn't attend the anniversary that twelvemonth. Were you protesting because yous were nominated every bit a supporting player and not as a atomic number 82?
No, absolutely not. I was at that stage in my life where I was somewhat, more or less, rebellious. I did become back for others. But I didn't go to them early on on. It was the tradition. I don't call back Bob [De Niro] went to one of them. George C. Scott didn't fifty-fifty get. They had to wake him up. [Laughs] Marlon didn't go. Look, Marlon gave back the Oscar. How about that? They were rebelling from the Hollywood thing. That kind of thing was in the air.
So all of this is contributing to your feelings at the time well-nigh your rising fame?
I was somewhat uncomfortable with existence in that situation, being in that world. I was as well working onstage in Boston at that time [in "Richard Iii"]. But that was an excuse. I just was agape to go. I was immature, younger than even my years. I was young in terms of the newness of all this. It was the old shot-out-of-a-cannon syndrome. And information technology'due south continued to drugs and those kinds of things, which I was engaged in back there, and I retrieve that had a lot to do with it. I was just unaware of things back and then.
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When you did win an Oscar for "Scent of a Woman," was in that location some part of you that still wished yous'd won information technology for playing Michael Corleone?
Absolutely not. If I think about information technology now, I would say, "Sure, I should have won! I'd have iii Oscars! I would exist like the big guys." [Laughs] No, I don't think that. It's a serious affair. You're beingness honored for something.
So you're comfortable now with the praise you received — and continue to receive — for your performance in "The Godfather"?
Oh, yep. I am deeply honored by it. I really am. It'southward a piece of piece of work that I was so fortunate to be in. But it's taken me a lifetime to accept it and movement on. Information technology'south not like I played Superman.
Do you have any kind of metric yous permit yourself to use to rank your own films?
I guess the films I make myself, that I directed and wrote, none of which I call back anyone has ever seen, like "Looking for Richard" or "Salomé" with Jessica Chastain — merely I'm talking about myself. I should exist talking almost "Godfather." I don't know why I become on about myself. I don't know everyone else. [Laughs] Someone called me, he says, You must be lonely. I said, no, I'1000 hither with my ego. [Laughs]
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/movies/al-pacino-the-godfather.html
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