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Magazine: Interview Al Pacino is one of America's truly great acotrs. His performances in Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, and the Godfather films have made him an American institution.He has given a relentless emotionality to the characters he has portrayed, to the extent that I am surprised he can still stand at the end of the day. He has inspired a generation of young actors. He is Tony Montana. He is Michael Corleone. This interview is not about The Godfather Part III but is with a man who is an integral part of the familial consciousness of this country.
The first time I met Al Pacino was about four years ago. Diane Keaton knew I wanted to meet him. She was familiar with my Tony Montana impersonation. I remember her telling me, at my house before going to dinner, "Whatever you do, don't do your Tony Montana routine." We were in an Italian restaurant on Tenth Street, and the din of the glasses, plates, waiters, and the crowd brought me back to that scene in Scarface when a disgusted Tony Montana gives his opinion of a restaurant's dinner guests. Before I knew it, the words popped out: "So, Manny, eez theez what it's all about? Eez theez what I worked so hard for? Is this it? Is this was it's about...?" To which Al said, with a smile on his face, "Then what did he say?" [Interview commences]AP: Is that coffee fresh enough? JS: Is it mine? I don't care if it's fresh or not. Pour some of the coffee out of the other cup right there. That reminds me of The Godfather, when Clemenza is showing you how to make his spaghetti sauce, and he says, "You throw in your meatballs, you throw in your sausage, a pinch of sugar--and that's my trick." A little sugar's the Sicilian way. Where are you from originally? I was born in Manhattan. I was raised in East Harlem in my early years, and then we moved to the South Bronx. What did your dad do? My dad was in the army. World War II. He got his college education from the army. After WWII he became an insurance salesman. Really, I didn't know my dad very well. He and my mother split up after the war. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and grandfather, and by my mother. It's so funny to talk about all this. You don't know these things yet. The only thing I know is what I've seen on the screen. But there's a difference. Of course. That's what we're trying to find out here. What makes Al tick? So why do you do it? It's necessary to do it. Why I am here, and why I started to do this, is because of the kinds of things that were around when I was at an age where they impressed me. I was impressed by the experimental theatre of the Living Theatre in the early '60s, and by the Open Theatre, and I was impressed by the early Circle in the Square days. These kinds of things were motivators--as was the café-theatre era, when you'd go to a coffeehouse anywhere in the Village, and for the price of a cappuccino and a piece of pastry you could see some wonderful pieces being played by actors who passed hats around for whatever they could get for their meal that day. I became part of those troupes that traveled. I did children's theater and that kind of thing for whatever we could get. I made a couple of drawings on the beach in Sheepshead Bay one time when I didn't have any money and I wanted to get a knish. There were three little girls sitting on the beach. I said, "Listen, I'll do your portraits. For twenty-five cents apiece I'll put all three of you in a drawing. Two of the little girls liked the drawing and gave me their quarters, but the third didn't like the way she looked, so she didn't want to pay up. I sold the thing for fifty cents. The difference between the actor and the painter is the actor would buy somebody a knish in order to have them watch him act. "See, listen. I'll buy you a bagel if you let me do this monologue." [Chuckles] How about a coffee malted and a bagel? My dad was pissed at me for selling a drawing for fifty cents for a knish. You gotta eat. When I was younger, I would go to auditions to have the opporitunity to audition, which would mean another chance to get up there and try out my stuff, or try out what I learned and see how it worked with an audience, because where are you gonna get an audience? Sometimes the only way you can get an audience is at an audition. I'd never expect to get the role, of course. I don't think actors should ever expect to get a role, because the disappointment is too great. You've got to think of things as an opportunity. An audition's an opportunity to have an audience. Now that you've had a few parts, I'm sure auditioning is less satisfying. Auditioning is just a bite of the knish. As you get older, auditioning can become harrowing and difficult, but at that time it got me through many a week. We need the part--we need the play, we need the movie. It's hard to call what part is gonna do it. So the only way you can know is if you do many parts. You're gonna find something that you feel you can play. And some of the parts are not going to work, and in the movie parlance, that's a disaster. But sometimes the only way for actors to find that out is to experience playing it. You can't know it sometimes just by reading it. Yes--you have to make your own mistakes. But let's talk about the magic when it works. Like you playing Tony Montana in Scarface. When you're willing to get out there and go so far, get so involved in a role, doesn't it just wipe an actor out? Well, yes. When you play a role like that, you need to find balance in your life. I was fortunate, because I had fallen in love. I had something to go to. It literally saved my life. I don't know what would've happened to me if I hadn't fallen in love at that time. Was it coincidence? I don't know. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Maybe I thought, It's a good time to fall in love, you know? Isn't it odd? [Not wanting to snoop, I change the subject.] Talking about coincidence and love, let's just got to the chase. What about hate and violence, and the fact that it's no coincidence that so many gangster movies came out this season: GoodFellas, State of Grace, King of New York, Miller's Crossing, and, obviusly, the latest part of the godfather of them all, The Godfather Part III? I think there have always been gangster pictures. Bertolt Brecht took a lot of his inspiration from the early gangster movies. The original Scarface was a '30s gangstger picture. That's why I did it, because I saw that picture. But wait a minute. There's a level of violence in films these days that scares the shit out of me. There's a line in Godfather II that I'd like to quote: "If history has taught us anything, it says you can kill anybody." And that approach to life is what marks our atmosphere. By the end of King of New York, everybody dies a violent death. I mean, why is everyone so fascinated with gangsters? Why ask me? [Chuckles] You're The Godfathers' Michael Corleone, no? You're Scarface's Tony Montana. There's something fablelike about Tony Montana. He's just like Icarus flying close to the sun, just going a little closer and closer, knowing as soon as he gets close enough those wings are going to get burned--he's gonna soar right down. That's what attracted me to that character. The whole idea of how he flirts with the sun. When were people ever not fascinated by the gangster world, that underworld, that world that's illicit? It's always fascinating to see how and why people go to the wrong side. The idea of somebody who's flirting with the big D, you know. It just fascinates people. If fascinated me to do it. What's becoming more and more fascinating is people who abide by the law. That's becoming more infrequent, and therefore maybe that'll become trendy. Maybe they'll start making movies about people who really obey the law. And why did you start wanting to be in movies? It started for me when I was very young. I mean, really young. I wasn't let out much. I was kept in. And while I was home I found myself repeating the roles from the movies I saw with my mother. Sometimes she'd take me to the movies when she came home from work. That was our date. So I was sort of weaned on '40s films. The next day, left home alone in the house with my grandmother, seemed endless, playing alone. Pretty soon I started playing the parts of the movie I'd seen the night before. That's how it started. Also, I had two deaf aunts, whom I spent almost a year with at a very young age. That probably is where some of the stuff started--in order to communicate, you know? These are the seeds, but it wans't until I got older that I understood acting was something I really would do.
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