Al Pacino is 82 years old and still trucking. Still working, still giving interviews, still turning in interesting performances. When did I last see him on screen? Probably House of Gucci, where he had to act against Jared Leto doing an over-the-top “mamma mia” Italian accent. Pacino did his best to ground those scenes, to no avail. Anyway, Pacino has been around forever and he recently chatted with Variety about some roles he turned down and why Francis Ford Coppola was disappointed in him. Some highlights:
He was offered the role of Han Solo in “Star Wars.” “Well, I turned down ‘Star Wars.’ When I first came up, I was the new kid on the block, you know what happens when you first become famous. It’s like, ‘Give it to Al.’ They’d give me Queen Elizabeth to play. They gave me a script called ‘Star Wars.’ … They offered me so much money. I don’t understand it. I read it. … So I said I couldn’t do it. I gave Harrison Ford a career.”
Filming the Godfather: Pacino said Francis Ford Coppola asked to meet him one night after filming at a restaurant, where the director was having dinner with his family. “I came in, and he said, ‘You know, I had a lot of faith in you. And you’re failing me,’” Pacino said. “I’m standing there thinking ‘What the f–k, what did I do?’” “Go to Paramount,” Coppola told him. After watching his footage, Pacino understood the problem. In the film’s early scenes, the studio hadn’t realized his internal journey into Michael Corleone. “I wanted to come out of nowhere, and by the end of the film create some kind of enigma,” he said. “His transition is what interested me, and I thought I was unable to save it. After the first day of shooting, Diane Keaton and I got drunk. We thought ‘This is it, our careers are over.’”
What kept him in the film? “The Solozzo scene, where Michael shoots the cop. Coppola pushed that up, because he thought Paramount was about to fire me,” Pacino said. “I do the scene, they liked it, and they kept me in because I shot someone.”
On “Scarface”: “You can’t imagine what it was like to be there,” he said of the heavily armored shoots. “The smoke, everyday you have to put yourself in a trance. One day, we’re shooting, fighting — ‘Say hello to my little friend’ — I shoot thirty rounds, I get hit, the gun goes down, and I’m supposed to be wounded. I go to pick up the gun, and I put my hand on the barrel. My hand stuck to it, and I had to go to the hospital. I was out for two weeks.” (Covered in fake blood in the emergency room, the nurse mistook him for “some scumbag.”) “I was gone,” he described, “but they shot the shit out of it. They shot so much while I was away. Spielberg came down and had a crack at shooting someone. Everyone wanted to do it.”
Advice about how to watch Heat: “Here’s the thing with ‘Heat’: I hope you see it again, audience. I was playing this cop, and I found a way in, but this is a detective who’s kind of wild. I thought he probably chipped cocaine. That will explain to you some of my, uh…the thing is, there was no cocaine sniffing in the film, but I was.”
I’ve never seen Scarface. I know, I know. I also think Heat is a little bit overrated? It’s a good film, good direction from Michael Mann, good performances by Robert DeNiro and Val Kilmer, but overall – that film is too long and overwrought. As for his performance in The Godfather… he’s so good in that. My God. His stillness, his scenes with Brando. Of course, I’m a huge fan of The Godfather Part II, especially his scenes with Lee Strasberg and John Cazale. It’s insane that Cazale didn’t win the Oscar for Part II. Also: I honestly forgot that Pacino was offered the Han Solo role? What a weird sliding-doors casting for that role.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
The Universe intervened on that one. His greatest work was in the Godfather films and he’s done great work in other films. Robert De Niro is sexy as hell in Heat.
There were apparently soooo many people offered the role of Han Solo, if Wikipedia is to be believed. But, we live in the timeline where Harrison Ford got the role, sooo….I’m not complaining. It is what it is.
Christopher Walken also auditioned for Han Solo.
The legend is that Harrison Ford was doing the readings with other people who were auditioning, as a favor to Lucas, but wasn’t being considered himself, which annoyed him. He let some of that surliness creep into his audition work and wound up being considered for the role as a result.
Al Pacino was en fuego at the time of the Star Wars auditions, but he would have been a strange choice. Walken would have been a ‘different’ interpretation, that’s for sure.
Ford was the perfect Han Solo.
I’ve always heard Tom Selleck turned it down. No, maybe that was Indiana Jones?
You absolutely need to see Scarface! I just watched it the other day. The violence feels silly and cartoonish compared to what we’re now desensitized too, but the directing is still something to behold. For extra fun, start by first watching the classic film Public Enemy, and compare the way the scenes are shot in between the two films.
I think it was Indy. CBS wouldn’t bend his Magnum PI contract to allow him to film Raiders.
Yeah Tom Selleck was offered Indiana Jones (never Han Solo). He didn’t pass but was actually unable to do it because of his Magnum PI contract. Ouch! (But I’m sure the Magnum money was good too).
Good money, sure, and his career was fine, but global superstar he is not. That’s gotta sting a little? But you can’t know, right? Carrie & Mark didn’t work nearly as much as Harry after Star Wars, so who knows if a different Han Solo would’ve ended up as a global superstar.
Harrison Ford gave it a cowboy look. Al Pacino would’ve kept the character closer to the script. Either one would’ve been great. I would’ve liked to see Pacino version.
Not me. Harrison Ford gave it the irreverence that was called for, while every other character was in lock step, either with the force, or the rebellion. There needed to be one believable rebel.
They auditioned a lot of people for Han Solo. If you were a working actor at the time, you were given that script. My favorite what if is Christopher Walken
Al Pacino should have won the Oscar for Godfather 1 or 2.
Each were excellent performances.
Instead they Oscar him up for that piece of garbage Scent of a Woman “Whoo-Ya”.
Let’s not forget that Al has also taken some easy, easy big paychecks to appear in garbage movies. i.e. Jack & Jill with Adam Sandler. Embarrassing to watch.
Pacino and DeNiro, should retire or produce their own projects worthy of their talents.
They are becoming caricatures of their younger brilliant performances and I say that as a long time fan of both.
Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson have both retired from acting and public life.
OTOH, if Al wants to keep working at 82, he will get offers, certainly.
In De Niro’s defense he’s been taking those paycheck roles as way to produce different projects, support his Tribecca Film festival and strengthen the other arms of his business holdings.
Gene Hackman is at least a decade older than Pacino. Nichelson is said to be suffering from mild dementia.
I am in a very small minority here — but I think Al Pacino has been an overrated charicature of himself for many, many years. If a movie has Pacino in it, it’s an instant No from me.
@Granger, I tend to agree with you. Dog Day Afternoon was breakthrough, and the Godfathers weren’t terrible, but he’s been riding that buzz for 40-odd years.
On the other hand, if you’re in the mood for some real scenery-chewing, Al’s your guy.
Totally agree with you. “I gave Harrison Ford a career.” Oh please.
Early Al Pachino is phenomenal. Check out Dog Day Afternoon if you ever get the chance. He is great.
I guess if you haven’t seen Scarface by now you’re not going too – shame because its another phenomenal film.
Such amazing actors ih 70s -Al & De Niro & Nicholson ❤