The crucial acting advice Al Pacino gave to Colin Farrell
If Al Pacino wants to give you acting advice, you listen, especially if you happen to be an actor hoping to make it big. This icon of cinema has appeared in some of the most memorable movies of the past half-century. In the 1970s alone, he churned out a handful of timeless classics, including Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, and, of course, The Godfather. And he isn’t just a one-trick pony, either.
In addition to gritty crime dramas, Pacino has had memorable turns in sentimental awards contenders like Scent of a Woman, legal thrillers like The Devil’s Advocate, and even an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. Considering he’s made significantly fewer movies than some of his contemporaries, his track record is pretty impressive.
It is, therefore, no wonder that when Pacino had some advice for Colin Farrell, who was his co-star in the 2003 CIA thriller The Recruit, the young actor was all ears. As Farrell described it to an interviewer, “Pacino said to me, ‘If you’re gonna do big movies, then do something that you like. Even in big commercial movies, you can find characters that you can be sympathetic towards. Don’t just do stuff that’s shit and take the money. Make sure there is something you want to work with.’”
At the time the actors were working together, Farrell was just establishing a name for himself as a bright new talent. Ordinary Decent Criminal had shown his comedic chops, while the war drama Tigerland proved that he could carry a serious film. The Recruit was part of a series of crime thrillers and blockbusters that he starred in during the early 2000s before he demonstrated that he had a knack for balancing the quirky and the dark with Martin McDonagh’s brilliantly twisted In Bruges.
Farrell’s career has been all over the place ever since, in a good way. From blockbuster franchises like The Batman and animated movies like Dumbo to intensely moving and unusual performances in Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, he’s tried a little bit of everything, all while maintaining an ongoing collaboration with McDonagh. This variation makes sense when you consider that the actor has named Indiana Jones, Willy Wonka, and Wim Wender’s indie gem Paris, Texas as some of his favourite films when he was a youngster.
Scour Pacino’s filmography, and you’ll find plenty of variation, too. In addition to the critically acclaimed award-winning fare and the predictable crime thrillers, there have been several notable duds. There was that Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez crime caper from the early 2000s, an unfortunate Adam Sandler buddy comedy, and a bizarre Phil Specter biopic in which his wigs alone could’ve picked up a paycheck. Throughout it all, however, he appears to have largely stuck to his credo that taking roles with some kind of incentive beyond the financial is imperative.
Pacino’s advice to find something creatively fulfilling in every character, no matter how big the film, seems to have resonated with Farrell. Decades later, his performance as Oz Cobb (also known as The Penguin) in the latest iteration of the Batman franchise is committed to say the least. Weighed down by pounds of makeup, he is unrecognisable and seems to be demonstrating exactly how a studio-led blockbuster can still provide ample opportunity for creative risks.
