Posted on 04/21/2023 10:56:37 AM PDT by nickcarraway
In a wide-ranging conversation at the 92NY, the actor, who revealed he's currently writing a book, also talked turning down 'Star Wars' and how "about half" of 'The Offer' is true.
Al Pacino sat down for a wide-ranging conversation Wednesday night in New York, touching on everything from his early days on The Godfather and his decision to turn down Star Wars to his views on retirement.
The 82-year-old star sat down with David Rubenstein as part of the 92nd Street Y, New York’s “People Who Inspire Us” series for an hourlong chat, where he looked back on his career and revealed he is currently writing a memoir. “You get to that age, you start to do things like that. I stayed away from it, but I think I’ve got to sort of talk about certain things,” Pacino said. “It’s fine, I have kids and all, it’d be a good idea, and I’m working on it,” noting his co-author was in the audience.
Starting with his big break in The Godfather, Pacino first asked the crowd who had seen recent Paramount+ series The Offer, which follows the behind-the-scenes making of the 1972 film. “I watched it and about half of it was true. Really, that’s a shock,” the actor said. He recalled starting work on The Godfather, and after the first day of shooting, “Diane Keaton and I got drunk and thought, ‘This is it, our careers are over. This is a mess.'”
The film obviously ended up being far from a mess, going on to receive 11 Oscar nominations. Rubenstein asked Pacino if he was upset that Marlon Brando was nominated (and won) best actor while Pacino was recognized as supporting actor, though Pacino had more lines in the film. “How does a story like that get out? I wasn’t upset, are you kidding me?” said Pacino, explaining that he didn’t go to the ceremony that year “not because of that. Let’s clear the air on that one. I’d been hearing about that up the grapevine.”
Rubenstein also asked Pacino if he thought The Godfather Part II was superior to The Godfather, to which the star replied, “No, I don’t. I really think it’s more — what would you call it — artistic or something, I don’t know. I don’t mean to play it down and be overly modest because I star in it with Bob de Niro, but at the same time, it’s a different film.”
“You see, The Godfather is more entertaining. Godfather II is this study, this personal thing for Francis [Ford Coppola],” Pacino continued. “Godfather I, I saw it recently, it’s always got two or three things going on in a scene. You’re always in the story, you’re going. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, it’s storytelling, it’s really storytelling at its best. Godfather II sort of linearizes, and [it’s] kind of different, somber, moves slowly. But it’s a great movie, I have to say.”
He also reflected on his later roles in Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Scarface. When asked if there were any roles he regretted passing on, he noted, “I turned down Star Wars” when he was new on the scene and being offered anything and everything to play.
“So I was there and all of a sudden they gave me a script that was called Star Wars. I said, ‘I got the script, they offered me so much money, but I don’t understand it,'” eventually deciding he couldn’t do it for that reason. He joked, “I gave Harrison Ford a career, which he has never thanked me for!”
After nearly 50 movies, Pacino said he currently has four more on the schedule and hopes to do an adaptation of King Lear next year. When Rubenstein asked about retirement, the actor joked, “I’m always retired. I was retired when I was 25. I mean, who cares? Please don’t call it retired, I just don’t want to work anymore.”
“I don’t know, sometimes I just don’t want to do it as much. I like the lead-up to it, you know what I mean? It’s sort of like foreplay or something. I like to get there and then see, ‘Will I make it? Will I not make it? That kind of thing. I don’t know anymore,” he continued, putting his hands on his knees. “I wake up in the morning, I sit at the edge of the bed like this. And I think, ‘Is it really possible that I’m gonna get through this day?’ And then I think, ‘But I did say that yesterday, and I said it the day before and the day before that, and I got through it.’ I said that this morning, ladies and gentlemen, and you’re seeing him today!”
Sequels very seldom work. Star Wars and The Godfather are the only two I can think of that did.
While Puzo would be right, Michael was big into killing all his enemies. No matter what. Hyman Roth was dying, Michael didn’t care, he had to KILL Roth, even if it cost him one of his best soldiers. And Fredo. That’s Michael’s arc, from “we’ll be fully legitimate in 5 years” to ice cold killer even willing to assassinate his brother.
I agree with Coppola’s logic.
Fredo may have been weak and stupid—but he managed to cause a lot of damage.
Fredo knew too much and talked too much—there was no safe way to keep him around.
If there were a future major law enforcement effort against the family Fredo would have been an obvious weak leak (as just one example).
GF I was the only movie where you saw Abe Vigoda smile.
I like all three very much, having seen them all multiple times. They are distinct and different; each a film in its own right. But of course seeing the total triptych deepens the story immensely. This series will remain a masterpiece of American film literature.
I would agree; it's just that Scent of a Woman would have been pluperfect for Robert Duvall, who would have fitted the part so much better, IMHO. Duvall is even married to an accomplished tango dancer and could have done that part so well. Pacino's physical frame looked too small for that rank of officer.
Star Wars was more because the technology and effects progressed in the business imo. The Godfather? Eh....
I have a copy of the Godfather Saga, in VHS and still available on E-Bay, where both one and two were edited into one long story and had a lot of scenes in it that were not in the originals. To me that is the one to watch. Frankly I didn’t care about the history of how the Don was a kid and got to America. I liked it when it picked up with the wedding and the story from there. I have always wondered why Coppola never did a definitive DVD of the Saga, now he could incorporate Godfather III into that put on everything left out in that film, that I would buy.
Agreed with DuVall. A brilliant actor who never over does it … just plays the part as it should be played. Maybe that’s why he didn’t get that part that required some “over-acting” … which I thought Pacino pulled off very well. Cheers!
I saw it. It’s a dog. Actually, that’s an insult to dogs. Let’s say it was terrible.
I didn’t see it when it was first released to theaters. But it got a lot of negative reviews. I waited until it was released to cable tv. When it did air on cable, I watched it to see for myself what others were talking about.
I knew it was going to be as bad as they said when the very first 15 minutes of the movie, a whole 15 minutes, were nothing but flashback clips from the first 2 godfather movies.
The movie went on and on with bad scenes, bad script, etc. One scene involved a very unbelievable and typically overblown Hollywood version of a mob hit, the helicopter hit scene.
And then there was the awful nepotism casting of Coppola’s daughter in a lead role as Pacino’s daughter. Her acting was atrocious. Coppola defended his casting of her by pointing out that the originally cast Winona Ryder, a much better actress, had to drop out at the last minute because she got sick. The studio attempted to get him to cast some other female name celebrity, but in his eyes they were all too old. So, in desperation, he cast his own real life daughter.
What, in the entire acting business all over the world he couldn’t find a more capable actress of the same age? There had to be thousands who would have gladly dropped everything at the very last minute for the chance to be the female lead in a Coppola film.
Years later they re-cut and re-edited the movie for a re-release. I noticed how they cut out that first 15 minutes of flashback scenes. Which was an improvement, but too little.
What they should have done is remake the entire thing with a new script. Get rid of the helicopter hit scene, get rid of the Vatican bank story angle, don’t send Mike to Europe. Keep him in America. And recast someone else as Michael’s daughter.
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