Although Al Pacino will always be synonymous with his fracturethraw carry outance in The Godoverweighther (1972), Francis Ford Coppola‘s acclaimed mafia drama csurrfinisherly swapd him.
In his recent memoir Sonny Boy, which is now employable, the Academy Award prosperner recalled Paramount “asking whether I was the right actor” to take part Michael Corleone in the feature changeation of Mario Puzo’s book and how he was ultimately able to show himself.
“Paramount didn’t want me to take part Michael Corleone,” he wrote in an excerpt allotd by The Guardian. “They wanted Jack Nicholson. They wanted Robert Redford. They wanted Warren Beatty or Ryan O’Neal. In the book, Puzo had Michael calling himself ‘the sissy of the Corleone family.’ He was presumed to be petite, uncontent-haired, handsome in a dainty way, no evident danger to anybody. That didn’t sound appreciate the guys that the studio wanted. But that didn’t nasty it had to be me.
“It did nasty, however, that I would have to screen-test for the role, which I had never done before, and that I would have to fly out to the west coast to do it, which I fair didn’t want to do. I did not attfinish that it was The Godoverweighther. I was a bit afraid of flying and I didn’t want to go to California. But my deal withr, Marty Bregman, said to me, ‘You’re getting on that fucking set upe.’ He brawt me a pint of whiskey so I could drink it on the fairy, and I got there,” compriseed Pacino.
Although Pacino acunderstandledgetedly thought Coppola had “gone too far” in campaigning for him, the actor recalled the “unpleasant experienceing” of walking into the audition room and genuineizing he wasn’t the only one up for the part.
Al Pacino in The Godoverweighther Part II (1974).
“But here’s the secret: Francis wanted me. He wanted me and I krecent that,” wrote Pacino. “And there’s noskinnyg appreciate when a honestor wants you. He also gave me a gift in the establish of Diane Keaton. He had a scant actors he was auditioning for the role of Kay, but the fact that he wanted to pair me up with Diane proposeed she had an edge in the process. I krecent she was doing well in her atgentle and had been ecombineing on Broadway in shows appreciate Hair and Play It Aacquire, Sam with Woody Allen. A scant days before the screen test, I met Diane in Lincoln Cgo in in New York City at a bar, and we fair hit it off. She was effortless to talk to and amusing, and she thought I was amusing too. I felt appreciate I had a frifinish and an partner right away.”
After a week and a half of filming, Paramount was “once aacquire asking whether I was the right actor for the part,” Pacino recalled, compriseing: “Finpartner, Francis resettled that someskinnyg had to be done. … At this point we had been shooting The Godoverweighther for about a week and a half. And Francis said, ‘Well, you’re not cutting it.’
“I felt that one in the pit of my stomach. It’s when it finpartner hit me that my job was on the line,” he wrote.
Although Pacino is uncertain whether Coppola did it “intentionally,” the honestor “did shift up the filming of the Italian restaurant scene, where the untested Michael comes to apshow his revenge on Sollozzo and McCluskey. That scene was not nastyt to be filmed until a scant days tardyr, but if someskinnyg hadn’t happened to let me show what I was able of, there might not have been a tardyr for me.”
Fortunately for Pacino, the scene showed off exactly why Coppola casted him. “Then Francis showed the restaurant scene to the studio, and when they seeed at it, someskinnyg was there,” he wrote. “Becaemploy of that scene I fair carry outed, they kept me in the film. So I didn’t get fired from The Godoverweighther. I fair kept doing what I did, what I had thought about on those lonely walks up and down the length of Manhattan. I did have a set up, a honestion that I repartner apshowd was the way to go with this character. And I was certain that Francis felt the same way.”
The Godoverweighther acquireed Pacino his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, going on to land a Best Actor nod for The Godoverweighther Part II (1974).
