The boxing match between Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman that almost was: “He really meant it”
Movies and boxing have gone hand-in-hand for decades, but pitting two of the best actors of their generation against each other in a Madison Square Garden brawl would have taken the biscuit. It sounds nuts, but Al Pacino really was approached to gauge his interest in fighting Dustin Hoffman for real.
There are actors who’ve played boxers and delivered some of their best work, like Will Smith in Ali, Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw, Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, and Pacino’s buddy, Robert De Niro, in Raging Bull, and there are actors and filmmakers who’ve occasionally stepped through the ropes themselves.
Mickey Rourke famously abandoned Hollywood because he decided that getting punched in the face for a living was a better option, while the derided director Uwe Boll fought several of his most prominent critics in charity brawls, but neither Pacino nor Hoffman fit into either camp.
With the greatest respect, they were a couple of relatively scrawny guys who didn’t have any experience beyond any fisticuffs they may or may not have become embroiled in during their younger days. Still, because they were heralded as two of the industry’s hottest talents in the 1970s and were regularly competing for roles, one unscrupulous producer had what he must have thought was a great idea.
Because they were two performers indebted to the method who were frequent fixtures of the awards season race, comparisons were inevitable. However, Pacino never wanted to be compared to Hoffman, even if he did call his leading role in the Lenny Bruce biopic, Lenny, the one that got away.
Pauline Kael was the most notable pot-stirrer in trying to create a rivalry, which was music to a Broadway mogul’s ears. “There must have been something in the air, because the comparisons were flying left and right,” Pacino wrote in his memoir, Sonny Boy. “It got to the point where the great theatre producer and impresario, Alexander H Cohen, a guy I liked very much, suggested that Dustin and I get together at Madison Square Garden and fight each other in a boxing match, and he really meant it.”
It would have guaranteed a full house out of curiosity more than anything else, considering the evidence wasn’t pointing to one of the greatest fights in the sport’s history. Unfortunately for anyone who wanted to see the once-in-a-lifetime scrap between two Hollywood heavyweights, Pacino was too scared.
“I said to Cohen, ‘Let me just tell you straight out: Dustin will beat me,'” he recalled. “He works out. He’ll knock me out.” He did have a backup plan, though, even if his tongue was in cheek. “I thought Alexander would be better off asking Meryl Streep to fight me instead. But then I got a little worried. Shit, what if she wins? Luckily, the fight never got off the ground.”
It would have been a hell of a sight to see Pacino and Hoffman going blow-for-blow in the middle of the ring at Madison Square Garden, but it was always too ridiculous an idea to gain any serious traction.
