“He is completely incapable
of doing anything fake.”
Pacino by his peers…
“Scarface was my first demanding role
and I was so terrified. The two of us in a room together was a disaster. He was much more introverted and much less accessible [then]. I tell him things he did and he can’t believe it. He
says, “I did not do that.” I say, “Yes you did. And then you said this…”
Scarface co-star
Michelle Pfeiffer
“Women love him, men love him. He’s not very competitive with other men.
He has a very strong code about that. He’s truly a gentleman.”
First acting coach Charlie Laughton
“It was take 11. There were some harmonics and nuances that were almost impossible to describe…The interplay is like
two master musicians playing a duet.”
Heat director Michael Mann
“He’s a little tiny man. He’s just a shrimp, let’s kick his ass.
No, I like working with Al. Al’s a good man. I love the blond hair. You like that?”
Insomnia co-star Robin Williams
“Meeting Al Pacino is terrifying. But he puts you at your ease because he knows its terrifying – he’s been
dealing with that for a long time.
Insomnia director Christopher Nolan
“He was serious about the work –
I’ve never seen focus like it – but he was a funny bastard as well! He
was so smart and so intelligent, just really good company to be around, you know?”
The Recruit co-star Colin Farrell
“There’s no doubt that, by the
end of Godfather II, Michael Corleone, having beaten everyone, is sitting there alone, a living corpse. There’s no way that man will ever change. I admit I
considered some upbeat touch at the end, but honesty – and Pacino – wouldn’t let me do it.”
The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola
Secret History
Al Pacino:
Amateur Film Director
Looking for Richard,
Pacino’s love letter to the depths of Shakespeare may look like the actor’s first foray behind the camera, but
a little digging reveals he has directed two films previously that have never seen the light of day. Immediately following the failure of Revolution, Pacino financed a 56-minute film version of The Local Stigmatic, a play by Heathcote
Williams that Pacino had headlined in 1969. Introduced to American audiences
by Harold Pinter, the piece centered on Graham, a vicious greyhound-track bookie who arranges the brutal beating of an elderly
actor for no other reason than the actor’s notoriety. “Fame is the
first disgrace,” rants Graham, “because God knows who you are,” a line that echoes Pacino’s attitude
towards his own celebrity.
Co-directed by David Wheeler, who had staged
a revival of the play in the mid-‘70’s, The Local Stigmatic was really Pacino’s baby, who spent the next
few years chopping and changing the work, refining it in a process akin to theatrical rehearsal. In 1991, screenings at Harvard and the Museum of Modern Art saw the film make its public bow, yet Pacino declared it still needed more work.
It is still gathering dust in Al’s attic.
“It was experimentation,” is the
Pacino verdict on The Local Stigmatic, “an interesting way of learning more about making movies. You know, it surprised me that you could have been making films for 20 years and still not really understand
the mechanics until you make your own.”
Post-Looking for Richard, Pacino embarked on
another cinematic retread of a stage play. Based on a play by Ira Lewis, Chinese
Coffee sees two struggling Greenwich Village creative types (Pacino
and Jerry Orbach) discuss love, life and their own friendship into the wee small hours.
A kind of shouty version of My Dinner with Andre, Chinese Coffee screened at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals to strong notices.
The film is still awaiting anything like a proper exhibition.
“I have worked with many great film directors
and seen that there is a level of filmmaking that I can never get to so I don’t even bother,” says Pacino, justifying
his hardly full-on filmmaking appetite. “I just enjoy engaging in film
as an amateur. I don’t have the pressure of having to deliver. I am off the hook.”
*Written by Ian Freer, Empire Magazine, July 2004.
The World According to Al
Life Lessons
On agents....
"There was a period
when I didn't have an agent and I called William Morris. I said, "I'm looking for an agent.' The receptionist
said, 'What's your name?' I said, 'Al Pacino.' She said, 'Are you sure?'"
On switching off...
"My problem is I identify with all characters - characters I don't play and characters in real life.
I guess that's what all actors have the tendency to do."
On being single...
"Why have I never proposed in the past? I hate to say this, but marriage is a state
of mind, not a contract. When I think about the law and marriage, I ask myself, “When did the cops get involved?"
On himself..."I'm really
a fun-loving depressive."
On walking...
"I used to be one of the great walkers. That's over now. I'm visible. I get spotted. I used
to like getting into a kind of walking trance. All that up in front of me and around me, all the different kinds of
people and characters that I could soak up...I mean people are polite and gentle with me; it's just that you are constantly
confronted and reminded of what you do."
On why Michael kills Fredo in Godfather II...
"I guess there are reasons why Michael did it. If I go back and think
about it now, they have something to do with maintaining a certain sanity, because if Fredo was allowed to live, then that
would have discredited everything that happened before. That's the insanity."
On Italian-American actors...
"We seriously thought of changing our names because at
that time it was unthinkable to have a vowel at the end of your name and want to be an actor."
On valuing his talent...
"An actor with too much money will usually find a way
to get rid of it. I poured my own money into my own film, The Local Stigmatic, which I never released. I did some
plays. All of a sudden the years passed and suddenly I owed some back taxes and the mortgage was due and I was broke.
But you know what really hit me? I was walking through Central Park and this guy comes up to me - didn't know him at all - and he says, 'Hey, what happened to you? We don't see
you, man' I said, 'Well, I...uh...uh..' and he said, 'C'mon Al, I want to see you up there.' And I recognized that
I was lucky to have what I've been give. You gotta use it."
On happiness...
"Happiness is a word...I don't know...It's a dangerous word.
Maybe it's having a sense of...bringing a life to something.
On rage…
“Rage is in all of us. The actor has access
to it simply because he is an emotional athlete. It’s endemic.”
On modern movies…
It’s not a question of them being less good.
I think it’s a question of them being different. Somehow journalism,
television, the media have taken up a lot of issues and expressed them, while film is becoming more esoteric and fantastical. When you think of “Dog Day Afternoon,” that was the first time that you were seeing the media
deal with a real life situation, where this guy’s robbing a bank and it’s being televised. Now something like that is run of the mill.”
*The above excerpts are from the July 2004 Empire Magazine
(empireonline.co.uk), the UK’s No. 1 Movie
Magazine.
Classic scene
Dog Day Afternoon
the phone call
Sidney Lumet’s satire on the media’s hunger to participate in rather than
report the news is as pertinent today as it was in 1975. Pacino is Sonny Wortzik,
a bisexual fuck-up who attempts to hold up a bank to pay for his boyfriend Leon’s (Chris Sarandon) sex change operation. Harassed and hindered by bozo accomplice Sal (John Cazale), Sonny’s botched
heist degenerates into a siege-cum-media circus as cops, TV reports and Joe Public camp outside. Anchored by Pacino’s extraordinary ability to make his livewire idiot empathetic (it is also an early
example of a star playing gay), the movie builds to a phone conversation between Sonny and Leon (reputedly improvised) in
which Sonny tries to convince his lover to join him on the upcoming getaway.
CUT TO: INT. BANK
Sonny is on the phone to Leon (who is holed up in a barber shop), unaware that the cops
are listening on their intimate conversation. After listening to Leon’s hospital travails,
Sonny begins a barrage of self-pity that is quickly dismissed by Leon. Stung by
Leon’s venom, Sonny begins a stream-of consciousness defense of his mindset and actions.
Sonny: You know what’s happening with me. You know that. You know the pressures, you know about it. You’re
in that hospital there, with all them tubes coming out and want that fucking operation, right?
You’re giving me that shit. Everybody’s giving me shit. Everybody needs money, you know what I mean?
So you needed money. I got you money, that’s it.
Cut to: INT. BARBERSHOP
Leon: Yeah… well I didn’t ask you to go and rob a bank!
CUT TO: INT. BANK
Sonny: No. I know you didn’t ask me. I know you didn’t ask me. I want, ya know, look, I’m
not putting this on anybody, y’know? Nuthin’ on nobody. I did this on my own, you see. All on my own I
did it. But I just want you to know somethin’. I want you to know that I’m gonna…I’m getting outta here.
I’m getting a plane outta here. And I just wanted you to know it,
that’s all. I wanted you to come down and I wanted to just say goodbye
to ya or, if you wanted to, you can come with me. And then you are free to do
what you want. That’s just what I wanted to say to you, that’s all.
CUT TO: INT. BARBERSHOP
Leon: I’m free to do what I want?
Sonny: (down the
phone) Right.
Leon: Well, I’m trying to get away from you for six months and I’m gonna go with
you on a plane trip, huh? Where…where…where are you going?
CUT TO: INT. BANK
Sonny: I don’t’ know where yet. We said Algeria. I don’t know. So I’ll go
to Algeria. I don’t know yet.
CUT TO: INT. BARBERSHOP
Leon: Why are you going to Algeria?
CUT TO: INT. BANK
Sonny: I don’t know why. They’ve got a Howard Johnson’s
there. So I’m going.
CUT TO: INT. BARBERSHOP
Leon: you’re warped, you know that? You’re
really warped.
Sonny: (down phone) I’m warped. I know I’m warped.
Leon: God, Algeria…(hesitates)
They walk around, they got masks on, they’ve got things on their heads, they’re a bunch of crazy people there.
Sonny: (down phone) So what am I supposed to do?
Leon: I don’t know. You could have picked
a better place.
Sonny: (down phone) Like where? Sweden:
Denmark?
Leon: (laughing) Yeah, like that.
CUT TO: INT. BANK
Sonny: You know what? Sal wanted to go to Wyoming. I had to tell him it’s not a country.
He don’t know where Wyoming is. See I’m with a guy who don’
know where Wyoming is. You think you’ve got problems.
CUT TO: INT. BANK
Leon: Whew…So Sal’s with you, huh?
CUT TO: INT. BANK
Leon: (down phone) Why, you’re better off giving up.
Sonny: I’m not gonna give up because of what I’ve done so far.
I’ve gone so far with this. Why should I give up now? I can’t give up.
