Watch Al Pacino’s audition tapes for ‘The Godfather’
While most actors would kill to have just one definitive performance in their oeuvres, Al Pacino has the liberty to choose from multiple iconic outings. Ranging from his career-defining work in Brian De Palma’s Scarface to other acclaimed collaborations with directors like Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese, Pacino’s filmography has too many gems to keep track of. However, there’s one particular movie that undoubtedly has a central part in his extensive legacy.
Although Pacino had already demonstrated his talents in The Panic in Needle Park, it wasn’t until Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather that the world grasped the heights he could reach. In the film that redefined the gangster genre forever, Pacino stole the show as Michael Corleone, delivering a highly nuanced and complex rendition of the character’s rise from the fringes of organised crime to the blood-drenched top of the underworld.
It’s almost impossible to comprehend anybody else in the role now, but Pacino was almost fired from the production in the early stages. Initially, Coppola decided to hire the actor after being blown away by his work in The Panic in Needle Park. However, amid financial disruptions and executive arguments, Pacino was set to be removed from the project as Paramount higher-ups were not convinced by his initial interpretations of the character.
On the first day of shooting itself, Pacino remembered dreading the decision: “Diane Keaton and I got drunk and thought, ‘This is it, our careers are over. This is a mess’.” According to the legendary actor, Coppola was also disappointed in his early work and pointed it out to him, much to Pacino’s dismay. He recalled: “He said, ‘You know, I had a lot of faith in you. And you’re failing me.’ I’m standing there thinking, ‘What the fuck, what did I do?'”.
“I wanted to come out of nowhere and, by the end of the film, create some kind of enigma,” he added. “His transition is what interested me, and I thought I was unable to save it.”
Pacino revealed that one particular segment changed Paramount’s mind: “The Solozzo scene, where Michael shoots the cop. Coppola pushed that up because he thought Paramount was about to fire me. I do the scene, they liked it, and they kept me in because I shot someone.”
The end product is permanently etched on our collective mind, but after hearing these accounts of the early struggles, fans are often curious to see what Pacino was up to in the beginning. Well, you don’t have to look any further. If you’re interested in checking out Al Pacino’s audition tapes for The Godfather to track his evolution, we have just the thing for you.
Watch the audition below.
