Even although Al Pacino will endlessly be linked along with his breakout efficiency in The Godfather (1972), Francis Ford Coppola‘s famend mafia drama almost displaced him.
In his contemporary memoir Sonny Boy, which is presently accessible, the Oscar winner recounted Paramount “questioning whether I was the correct actor” to painting Michael Corleone within the cinematic adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel and the way he was in the end capable of display himself.
“Paramount didn’t desire me to portray Michael Corleone,” he inscribed in a passage exchanged by The Guardian. “They needed Jack Nicholson. They desired Robert Redford. They desired Warren Beatty or Ryan O’Neal. In the novel, Puzo had Michael referring to himself as ‘the sissy of the Corleone family.’ He was assumed to be small, dark-haired, engaging in a fragile method, no seen menace to anyone. That didn’t sound like the lads that the studio needed. But that didn’t signify it needed to be me.
“It did signify, nevertheless, that I would have to screen-test for the part, which I had never accomplished before, and that I would have to journey out to the west coast to fulfill it, which I simply didn’t want to do. I didn’t care that it was The Godfather. I was somewhat fearful of flying and I didn’t want to travel to California. But my manager, Marty Bregman, communicated to me, ‘You’re boarding that blasting plane.’ He brought me a pint of whiskey so I could sip it on the flight, and I arrived there,” appended Pacino.
Even although Pacino admittedly felt Coppola had “gone too far” in advocating for him, the actor remembered the “unpleasant sensation” of getting into the audition chamber and realizing he wasn’t the only real one up for the function.
“But here’s the confidential: Francis desired me. He yearned for me and I understood that,” penned Pacino. “And there’s nothing like when a director desires you. He also bestowed me a present in the shape of Diane Keaton. He had a couple of actors he was auditioning for the part of Kay, but the fact that he desired to pair me up with Diane suggested she had an advantage in the process. I knew she was excelling in her career and had been performing on Broadway in productions like Hair and Play It Again, Sam with Woody Allen. A few days before the screen test, I encountered Diane in Lincoln Center in New York City at a tavern, and we just clicked. She was simple to converse with and amusing, and she thought I was humorous too. I felt like I had a buddy and an associate immediately.”
Following per week and a half of capturing, Paramount was “once again questioning whether I was the right actor for the role,” Pacino reminisced, appending: “Ultimately, Francis confirmed that one thing needed to be accomplished. … By this level we had been filming The Godfather for round per week and a half. And Francis declared, ‘Well, you’re not hacking it.’
“I sensed that one in the pit of my stomach. It’s when it ultimately struck me that my employment was on the line,” he inscribed.
Even although Pacino is unsure whether or not Coppola did it “intentionally,” the director “did move up the filming of the Italian restaurant scene, where the inexperienced Michael comes to exact his vengeance on Sollozzo and McCluskey. That scene was not meant to be filmed until a few days later, but if something hadn’t occurred to let me reveal what I was capable of, there might not have been a subsequent opportunity for me.”
Fortunately for Pacino, the scene showcased exactly why Coppola casted him. “Then Francis exhibited the restaurant scene to the studio, and when they examined it, something was there,” he penned. “Due to that scene I just executed, they retained me in the picture. So I didn’t get dismissed from The Godfather. I just kept executing what I did, what I had ruminated on during those isolated strolls up and down the length of Manhattan. I did have a strategy, a trajectory that I genuinely believed was the path to pursue with this character. And I was definite that Francis sensed the same manner.”
The Godfather garnered Pacino his preliminary Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, ultimately securing a Best Actor nod for The Godfather Part II (1974).
