The “pisspot” character Al Pacino would love another shot at: “I could do it better”
On March 29th, 1993, Al Pacino finally took to the stage at the Academy Awards to accept a ‘Best Actor’ gong. Incredibly nominated for the biggest accolade in Hollywood seven times previously, he had always emerged empty-handed, until then.
A strange feeling must have overcome the iconic Godfather star as he delivered his acceptance speech, for in a rare union of opinions, cinephiles and critics agreed that his performance was far from his best work.
In a career spanning nominations for playing indelible characters like Michael Corleone, Frank Serpico, and Sonny Wortzik, finally taking home a trophy for Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade seemed like the Academy’s way of throwing him a bone for failing to honour him before, bit like when Leonardo DiCaprio was recognised for The Revenant.
Worse, Pacino himself was iffy on his performance as Slade in Scent of a Woman. He portrayed the blind, retired military man with a mix of unbridled fury, quiet charisma, shouty outbursts, and soul-crushing depression. It was a performance that featured a lot of ‘Acting’ with a capital A, and signposted a future in which Pacino continued down that path, with decidedly mixed results. In fact, Slade’s signature “Hoo-ah!” catchphrase, bellowed to unintentionally hilarious effect numerous times in the film, became the defining characteristic of the rest of Pacino’s career.
Sadly for the experienced star, who was once an actor who favoured quiet, internal performances, these over-the-top elements may have landed him that elusive Oscar, but they also overshadowed the nuanced work he did in Scent of a Woman to accurately portray a blind man.
For example, he met with clients at New York’s Associated Blind Foundation and spoke extensively with those who had lost their sight in traumatic circumstances. He was also taught how blind people operate in everyday life: how they navigate a room, pour themselves a drink, and light a cigar, by New York’s Lighthouse Guild charity.
In the end, Pacino gave as much of himself to this role as he had to any of his others. In his extremely moving memoir Sonny Boy, he wrote, “There was a lot I had to put myself through to play Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade. He was a spouter. He was a real pisspot. An alcoholic and a complete tyrant.”
On set, he found himself needing guidance from director Martin Brest on how to calibrate the performance, because without Brest reigning him in from time to time, he could have lost himself to scenery chewing for the entire runtime.
Still, despite his crediting Brest as “a gem of a guy” who was “so good at keeping me in check”, the director wasn’t quite able to walk the tightrope perfectly in the final edit. This is why, when Pacino watched some of the more explosively emotional scenes, it didn’t sit right with him, and he was forced to admit, “I did go overboard sometimes in that part. I was too big for it at times. I would get too out of control”.
Fascinatingly, the actor even went so far as to claim he “could do it better now” if he were given a chance to make the film all over again. Unfortunately, unless Universal wants to greenlight a Frank Slade prequel with Pacino submitting himself to more dodgy CGI de-ageing à la The Irishman, he’ll have to live with the wonky performance that ironically nabbed him his sole Oscar.
