50 Things They Donã¢â‚¬â„¢t Want You to Know Review
'The Godfather' at l
Al Pacino on 'The Godfather': 'It'south Taken Me a Lifetime to Accept It and Move On'
50 years later, the role player looks dorsum on his breakthrough part: how he was cast, why he skipped the Oscars and what information technology all ways to him now.
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone. He won the part over Paramount's objections. Credit... Paramount Pictures
Information technology's hard to imagine "The Godfather" without Al Pacino. His understated performance every bit Michael Corleone, who became a respectable war hero despite his corrupt family, goes nigh unnoticed for the outset hour of the film — until at last he asserts himself, gradually taking control of the Corleone criminal operation and the flick along with information technology.
But there would be no Al Pacino without "The Godfather," either. The actor was a rising star of New York theater with simply one film office, in the 1971 drug drama "The Panic in Needle Park," when Francis Ford Coppola fought for him, confronting the wishes of Paramount Pictures, to play the ruminative prince of his Mafia epic. A one-half-century's worth of pivotal cinematic roles followed, including two more turns as Michael Corleone in "The Godfather Part 2" and "Part III."
"The Godfather" premiered in New York on March xv, 1972, and fifty years later, you can imagine all the reasons Pacino wouldn't desire to talk about it anymore. Maybe he'd be embarrassed or bellyaching about how this i performance, from the outset of his pic career, nevertheless dominates his résumé, or perhaps he has said all there is to say about information technology.
But in a phone interview last month, Pacino, at present 81, was quite philosophical, even whimsical, most discussing the film. He remains an ardent admirer of the movie and of the lengths that Coppola and his co-stars went to support him, and he is all the same awe-struck nearly how it single-handedly gave him his career.
"I'thousand here considering I did 'The Godfather,'" Pacino said, speaking from his home in Los Angeles. "For an actor, that's similar winning the lottery. When it comes right downwardly to it, I had nothing to exercise with the film but play the part."
As Coppola recalled it, Pacino was who he saw in the role all forth and a candidate worth going to the mattresses for, despite his lack of a track record.
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"When I really read the 'Godfather' book, I kept imagining him," Coppola said in a separate interview. "And I didn't have a 2d option. Information technology was, for me, ever Al Pacino. That's the reason why I was then tenacious most getting him to play Michael. That was my trouble."
But for the player, delivering the performance of a lifetime brought its own burdens, every bit he would learn in the years that followed.
"It'south difficult to explain in today's earth — to explain who I was at that fourth dimension and the bolt of lightning that it was," Pacino said. "I felt like, all of a sudden, some veil was lifted and all optics were on me. Of class, 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 movie character like Michael Corleone after it. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.
When you go a call request you to talk near "The Godfather," is in that location some part of you that thinks, oh God, not again? Does it ever become tedious?
Well, no. You lot look it. You wait to talk about what things worked and what things didn't. You lot get a sense that somebody's going to come at you. Y'all just go: OK, been here, done this. But it's absurd. It beats talking to myself almost information technology.
How did the role of Michael Corleone first come up?
At that time in my life, I didn't have a choice. Francis wanted me. I had made the ane film. And I wasn't as interested in picture to the extent that I became interested. My head was in another infinite. I felt out of place in the early films that I made. I recollect maxim to my friend Charlie [his mentor, the acting teacher Charlie Laughton]: Wow, they talk about information technology being real, but meanwhile it's non. Because at that place are wires all over you. And also, you lot've got to do it again! [Laughs] Y'all do it and they say, well, go over again, do it again. It's existent and non existent at the same time. 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 office of a group. And I recollect seeing a few of them when Francis asked me to come to San Francisco after he had seen me in a play on Broadway. Exercise yous know that story? I'm telling quondam stories at present. [Laughs]
That'southward OK. It's why nosotros're here.
He saw me onstage [in the 1969 Broadway run of "Does a Tiger Wearable a Necktie?"] but I never met him. He had written "Patton" by that time, and he sent me a script for a wonderful love story he had written [which was never produced]. He wanted to see me. That meant I had to go on a plane and go to San Francisco, which is something I was not used to. I thought, is there any other way to go? I can't tell this guy to come all the way back hither, 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. Merely nosotros were rejected, of course. I was an unknown thespian and he had made a couple of films, "You're a Big Boy Now" and "The Pelting People." So I went dorsum habitation and never heard from him over again.
But you did, eventually. When was that?
"Panic in Needle Park" hadn't come out yet. And I got a telephone call from Francis Coppola — a proper noun from the past. First, 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"?
Yous didn't think it was possible that he was making it?
I've got to tell yous, it was a big deal already. It was a big book. When you're an actor, you don't even put your eyes on those things. They don't be for y'all. Yous're in a certain identify in your life where you're not going to be accepted in those big films — not yet, at to the lowest degree. And he said, not only was he directing information technology, [breaking into laughter] merely he wanted me to exercise it. I'm lamentable, I don't hateful to laugh here. Information technology merely seemed and so outrageous. Hither I am, talking to somebody who I think is flipped out. I said, what railroad train am I on? OK. Humor the guy. And he wanted me to do Michael. I thought, OK, I'll proceed with this. I said, aye, Francis, good. You know how they talk to you when you're slipping? They say, "Yes! Of form! Aye!" Simply he wasn't. It was the truth. And so I was given the part.
Paramount was famously opposed to the idea of your playing the role.
Well, they rejected his entire bandage! [Laughs] They rejected Brando. They rejected Jimmy Caan and Bob Duvall. There was conflict.
I recently watched some of your "Godfather" screen tests and you seemed to have this hangdog look on your face as you are asked to go through information technology once more and again.
Yep. I always had that look. [Laughs] It was a facade that got me through these auditions. Because peachy actors were auditioning for this thing. But here's the secret: For whatever reason, he wanted me and I knew that. You could feel that. And at that place'southward goose egg like that, when a director wants you. It'south the best matter an histrion could have, really.
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But you were not exactly a nobody. Y'all had already won a Tony Award .
Oh, on the isle of Manhattan, things were happening for me. I had done "The Indian Wants the Bronx." I was immature. I got the Obie Honour and so I won a Tony. Then I got fired from a play. [Laughs]
What play?
I got fired from some play. They allow me go. Allow's put it that way. Yous happen to be the lead, but nosotros're letting you go. That'due south how bad you are in this operation. So I was known in sure quarters. I wasn't looking for 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 great bargain, how did you hold your own?
I thought most the role. I but couldn't articulate it at the time. I could articulate it today. I was thinking that this is a graphic symbol that could be very effective if he comes out of nowhere. That was my vision for it. I couldn't, naturally, mention it to anyone because I didn't know how to say information technology. Just I could think it. And I felt it was mapped out for me when I read the script.
How so?
He'south not showing up a lot. He's there but non quite showing up. I guess a lot of information technology was simply building upwardly to that i voice communication where he says I'1000 going to get become those guys [the drug kingpin Sollozzo and the corrupt law officer Capt. McCluskey], and they all start laughing at him.
Meaning, Michael was being underestimated and that was something you lot could connect to and apply to your advantage?
Exactly. But I will tell you, they couldn't have been more comforting, all of them. I was immature, I was unknown, and they were then comforting. There was a dearest at that place. They understood information technology, Brando peculiarly. But the others, too. They were becoming those older brothers and advisers that they play in the moving picture. Those kinds of emotions and colors in them came out, both in the performance simply as well in life. They mesh.
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Was there ever a moment during the making of "The Godfather" that y'all realized it was going to be as corking equally it is?
You lot remember the funeral scene for Marlon, when they put him down? It was over for the evening, the lord's day was going down. So, naturally, I'thousand happy 'cause I get to go home and have some drinks. I was on the way to my camper, maxim, well, I was pretty skilful today. I had no lines, no obligations, that was fine. Every day without lines is a skillful 24-hour interval. So I'm going dorsum to my camper. And there, sitting on a tombstone, is Francis Ford Coppola, weeping like a baby. Profusely crying. And I went up to him and I said, Francis, what's wrong? What happened? He says, "They won't give me another shot." Meaning, they wouldn't allow him to film another setup. And I thought: OK. I guess I'thou in a proficient film here. Because he had this kind of passion and there information technology is.
Have you rewatched the film recently?
No. I might have seen information technology ii, three years ago. It's the kind of pic when you get-go watching it, y'all keep watching it.
Do you lot become self-conscious well-nigh watching your ain films?
No. I enjoy watching films I've been in. Sometimes I testify them. I say, "Hey, come this manner! Here it is! Hey, it's me, yes! Take a look at this!" Well, I don't go that far. But I would if I could. I think "The Godfather" plays no matter what. Simply y'all'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 lot in that? That was a picture show, wasn't it?" Yes. So was "Citizen Kane," by the mode — I was in that, besides. Why not? They don't know.
Is in that location anything about your functioning that you lot wish you lot could change at present?
Possibly I've been spared. It'due 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 information technology. I said, Al, yous simply accept to forget this. Put it out of your mind, OK? You lot know what volition happen to you if you keep thinking about it. And then, what I practice is, I don't recall virtually it.
Who from the pic doesn't get plenty credit for their contribution?
John Cazale, in general, was 1 of the cracking actors of our time — that time, any time. I learned and so 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 it. He was in five films, all Oscar-nominated films, and he was great in all of them. He was particularly great in "Godfather Two" and I don't think he got that kind of recognition.
There is an intense quietness to how you lot play Michael in "The Godfather" that I don't remember I ever saw again in your other picture show performances, even the afterward times you played him. Was that a part of yourself that went away or was it but the nature of the character that called for it?
I'd similar to recollect it was the nature of that particular person and that estimation. I tin can't call up of any other characters that I did that could have used that kind of framework. I was a young actor — on "Part III," I was no longer immature, but that's non my fault. [Laughs]
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Simply compared to other characters you lot're as well closely associated with, like Tony Montana in "Scarface" ——
Well, that character, Tony Montana, was written by Oliver Stone and directed by 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 "Canis familiaris Day Afternoon" with "Godfather," or "Serpico," I don't run across a resemblance in that location. Would you lot call Michael more introspective? That's what I would say. And I don't know of whatever other introspective characters I played. Merely if I sit downwardly with you lot and get to the almanac, we'll notice something.
You lot received your commencement University Award nomination for "The Godfather," all the same you didn't attend the anniversary that year. Were you protesting because yous were nominated as a supporting actor and not as a pb?
No, absolutely non. I was at that stage in my life where I was somewhat, more or less, rebellious. I did go back for others. Only I didn't become to them early on. It was the tradition. I don't think Bob [De Niro] went to one of them. George C. Scott didn't even go. They had to wake him up. [Laughs] Marlon didn't go. Expect, 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 about your rising fame?
I was somewhat uncomfortable with being in that situation, being in that world. I was also working onstage in Boston at that time [in "Richard Iii"]. Simply that was an excuse. I but was afraid to go. I was immature, younger than even my years. I was young in terms of the newness of all this. Information technology was the quondam shot-out-of-a-cannon syndrome. And it'due south connected to drugs and those kinds of things, which I was engaged in back there, and I recall 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 "Olfactory property of a Woman," was in that location some part of you that even so wished y'all'd won information technology for playing Michael Corleone?
Admittedly not. If I think virtually it now, I would say, "Sure, I should accept won! I'd have 3 Oscars! I would be like the big guys." [Laughs] No, I don't think that. It's a serious thing. Y'all're being honored for something.
So you lot're comfy now with the praise you received — and continue to receive — for your performance in "The Godfather"?
Oh, yes. I am securely honored past information technology. I really am. It's a piece of piece of work that I was so fortunate to be in. But information technology's taken me a lifetime to take it and movement on. It's not like I played Superman.
Practise y'all have any kind of metric yous allow yourself to use to rank your ain films?
I approximate the films I make myself, that I directed and wrote, none of which I call up anyone has ever seen, like "Looking for Richard" or "Salomé" with Jessica Chastain — but I'm talking most myself. I should exist talking nearly "Godfather." I don't know why I become on about myself. I don't know anybody else. [Laughs] Someone called me, he says, You must be lonely. I said, no, I'm here with my ego. [Laughs]
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/movies/al-pacino-the-godfather.html
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