Although Al Pacino will always be synonymous with his breakthrough performance in Godfather (1972), Francis Ford Coppola's acclaimed mafia drama almost replaced it.
In his new memories SonnyBoywhich is now available – the Oscar winner recalls The most important “doubts whether I was the right actor” to play Michael Corleone in the feature-length adaptation of Mario Puzo's book and how he could ultimately prove himself.
“Paramount didn't want me to play Michael Corleone,” he wrote in an excerpt shared by Guardian. “They wanted Jack Nicholson. They wanted Robert Redford. They wanted Warren Beatty or Ryan O'Neal. In the book, Puzo had Michael call himself “the man of the Corleone family.” He was supposed to be small, dark-haired, handsome in a delicate way, and pose no visible threat to anyone. This didn't sound like the guys the studio wanted. But that didn't mean it had to be me.
“But it meant that I would have to screen test for the role, which I had never done before, and that I would have to fly to the west coast to do it, which I just didn't want. Down. I didn't care that it was the Godfather. I was a little afraid of flying and didn't want to go to California. But my manager, Marty Bregman, told me, “You're getting on the fucking plane.” He brought me a glass of whiskey to drink on the plane and I got there,” Pacino added.
Although Pacino admitted that Coppola “went too far” in campaigning for him, the actor recalled the “uncomfortable feeling” he had when he walked into the audition room and realized he wasn't the only one right for the role.
Al Pacino v The Godfather Part II (1974).
“But here's the secret: Francis wanted me. He wanted me and I knew it,” Pacino wrote. “There's nothing like a director who wants you. He also gave me the gift of Diana Keaton. He had several actors auditioning for the role of Kay, but the fact that he wanted to pair me with Diane suggested he had the upper hand. I knew she was doing well in her career and had appeared on Broadway in shows such as Hair AND Play it again, Sam with Woody Allen. A few days before the screen test, I met Diane at a bar in Lincoln Center in New York and we just hit it off. She was easy to talk to and funny, and she thought I was funny too. I immediately felt that I had a friend and ally.”
After a week and a half of shooting, Paramount “once again had doubts about whether I was the right actor for the role,” Pacino recalled, adding: “Finally, Francis decided something had to be done. … We were filming at that point Godfather for about a week and a half. And Francis said, “Well, you won't stop.”
“I felt it in the pit of my stomach. That's when it finally dawned on me that my job was in jeopardy,” he wrote.
While Pacino isn't sure Coppola did it “on purpose,” the director “speeded up the shooting of the Italian restaurant scene where the inexperienced Michael arrives to take revenge on Sollozzo and McCluskey. This scene wasn't supposed to be shot until a few days later, but if something hadn't happened to show me what I was capable of, maybe it wouldn't have happened later.”
Fortunately for Pacino, the scene showed exactly why Coppola hired him. “Francis then showed the studio the restaurant scene and when they looked at it, there was something there,” he wrote. “Because of that scene I just did, they kept me in the movie. So I didn't get kicked out Godfather. I just did what I did, what I thought about during those lonely walks around Manhattan. I had a plan and a direction that I truly believed would be the right path for this character. And I was sure Francis felt the same.”
Godfather earned Pacino his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, followed by a nod for Best Actor in a Leading Role The Godfather Part II (1974).
