The legendary moment when Al Pacino met Robert De Niro for the first time
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are widely recognised as two of the greatest acting talents of their generation, known for their work on masterpieces such as Taxi Driver and Scarface among many others. In addition to their partnership on iconic projects, the two have maintained a friendship for multiple decades now.
For many fans, the pinnacle of their magic was their on-screen partnership in Michael Mann’s 1995 neo-noir magnum opus Heat. Al Pacino was fantastic as a detective who sacrificed his personal life in order to track and arrest a notorious criminal mastermind (played by none other than the legendary Robert De Niro).
“We got together early on,” Al Pacino said in a recent interview while commenting on their friendship of 50 years, “And we shared something, which was a big thing at the time.” They also had another notable collaboration in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 gem The Irishman which many consider to be among their greatest work.
However, Robert De Niro wasn’t a big name at all when Al Pacino met him for the first time. He had only starred in some low-budget productions at the time of their meeting (in the late ’60s) but was well-known in the New York circuit which is how Al Pacino recognised him while walking down 14th Street west of Avenue B with his girlfriend.
Recalling the details of their first encounter and his first impression of De Niro, Pacino said: “I remember the meeting very clearly. Unbelievably, I saw this guy, I thought, Wow, he’s got such charisma. He wasn’t doing anything. He was just walking. Remember? You know, he was Bob. But you felt something from him.”
During the same interview, the actors were asked whether they ever felt a rivalry developing during those early years. While they were often competing for major roles and both Martin Scorsese and De Niro were trying to take over Scarface at one point, they claimed that it was more of a partnership than anything.
De Niro explained: “It’s not that you’re competitive. You’re up for the same parts. Like Godfather—Francis wanted Al. But every actor knew about it, and I think the studio was forcing him to look [elsewhere], from what I understood of it. And I never confirmed this with Francis, but they were putting pressure on him to use somebody other than Al.”
