Al Pacino explains why it was “hard to cope” with ‘The Godfather’ legacy
Few parts in the history of Hollywood have been as good as Michael Corleone. As the initially reluctant replacement for his father in The Godfather trilogy, Corleone’s transformation into a sinister power-hungry mob boss is one of the most intriguing character arcs in film history. Al Pacino himself isn’t ignorant of the effect that the film had on his career, as he explained to The New York Times back in 2022 to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary.
“I’m here because I did The Godfather,” Pacino explained during his interview. “For an actor, that’s like winning the lottery. When it comes right down to it, I had nothing to do with the film but play the part.”
“It’s hard to explain in today’s world — to explain who I was at that time and the bolt of lightning that it was,” Pacino added. “I felt like, all of a sudden, some veil was lifted, and all eyes were on me. Of course, they were on others in the film. But The Godfather gave me a new identity that was hard for me to cope with.”
Pacino wasn’t a movie star in 1972, he was actually a well-respected theatre actor who had only accrued a small number of film roles by the time he hit 30. Francis Ford Coppola took notice of Pacino for his role in the 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park and cast him in The Godfather. The actor knew that the film was destined for something greater after Coppola got emotional during filming.
“You remember the funeral scene for Marlon when they put him down?” Pacino recalled. “It was over for the evening. The sun was going down. So, naturally, I’m happy ’cause I get to go home and have some drinks. I was on the way to my camper, saying, ‘Well, I was pretty good today. I had no lines, no obligations, that was fine.’ Every day without lines is a good day.”
“So I’m going back to my camper. And there, sitting on a tombstone, is Francis Ford Coppola, weeping like a baby,” he continued. “Profusely crying. And I went up to him, and I said, ‘Francis, what’s wrong? What happened?’ He says, ‘They won’t give me another shot.’ Meaning they wouldn’t allow him to film another setup. And I thought: ‘OK. I guess I’m in a good film here.’ Because he had this kind of passion, and there it is.”
Pacino was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the original film, along with co-stars Marlon Brando, James Caan, and Robert Duvall. After not attending the ceremony, a rumour began to spread that Pacino had purposefully boycotted the Oscars after being upset that he was nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ instead of gaining a lead actor nomination. However, the actor shot down that piece of lore when asked if he didn’t attend for that reason.
“No, absolutely not,” Pacino insisted. “I was at that stage in my life where I was somewhat, more or less, rebellious. I did go back for others. But I didn’t go to them early on. It was the tradition. I don’t think Bob [De Niro] went to one of them. George C. Scott didn’t even go. They had to wake him up. [Laughs] Marlon didn’t go. Look, Marlon gave back the Oscar. How about that? They were rebelling from the Hollywood thing. That kind of thing was in the air.”
“I was somewhat uncomfortable with being in that situation, being in that world. I was also working onstage in Boston at that time [in Richard III]. But that was an excuse. I just was afraid to go,” Pacino claimed. “I was young, younger than even my years. I was young in terms of the newness of all this. It was the old shot-out-of-a-cannon syndrome. And it’s connected to drugs and those kinds of things, which I was engaged in back there, and I think that had a lot to do with it. I was just unaware of things back then.”
