The director Al Pacino regretted turning down: “I didn’t know my ass from my elbow”
Between 1971 and 1973, Al Pacino starred in The Panic in Needle Park, The Godfather, and Scarecrow. He went from being an unknown New York theatre actor to one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, predominantly thanks to his dead-eyed brilliance as Michael Corleone. When it came time to prepare for his next project, though, Pacino was laser-focused on accurately playing the real-life NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico. So much so, in fact, that he inadvertently dropped the ball on one of the greatest directors of all time helming the picture.
The tale of Serpico being brought to the silver screen is a whirlwind. The honest cop, known for his unkempt hippy appearance and aptitude for undercover work, served in the NYPD for 11 years from 1960 to 1971. He refused to accept the systemic culture of corruption in the force and repeatedly refused to accept the bribes most of his colleagues were taking. He tried for years to expose this corruption and wound up being shot in the face on February 3rd, 1971. There was suspicion that he had been set up by his fellow officers to be killed, but he survived and co-wrote a book about his experiences with Peter Maas.
That book was published in January 1973, by which time it had already been optioned for a film. Producer Dino De Laurentiis owned the rights to the book, and agent Martin Bregman stepped in to co-produce. He brought his star client Pacino with him, and the young actor dove into the research required to fully inhabit the character of Serpico.
Director John G Avildsen, known for his work on Save the Tiger, which earned Jack Lemmon a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar, was initially brought on to helm the movie. However, tensions arose between Avildsen and producer Martin Bregman when the director insisted on filming a scene in the real Serpico’s parents’ home. Bregman, concerned about the house’s capacity to accommodate the production team and equipment, disagreed. The conflict ultimately led to Avildsen’s dismissal from the project.
Pacino first learned that his director had been sacked when he was reading with other auditioning actors, and Avildsen didn’t turn up to watch them. In his memoir Sonny Boy, he revealed he was shocked that Bregman had acted so decisively. He wrote, “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘What the fuck?’ I had no idea why he’d fired this guy because we hadn’t even started rehearsing yet.”
In truth, Pacino was so engrossed in preparing to play Serpico that he had little idea of everything else happening with the production. He confessed: “I didn’t even know how much money I was making. Marty would give me $200 a week for taxicabs and such, and that was good enough for me.”
When De Laurentiis found out what Bregman had done, though, he wasn’t happy. “He went berserk,” Pacino wrote. “He would not let Marty go out and find us another director after that.”
To everyone’s shock, De Laurentiis turned to Pacino and said the only way the film was going to happen was if he found a new director. Pacino was dumbfounded, as he’d never hired a director in his life and had no idea how to go about doing it. He pleaded to Bregman, “I’ve only starred in three films, Marty. I don’t know how to interview anybody. This is a completely crazy thing.”
Bregman backed up De Laurentiis, though, and they packed Pacino off to Los Angeles and San Francisco to speak to prospective directors. Pacino interviewed Bullitt’s Peter Yates and Cinderella Liberty’s Mark Rydell before he wound up in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills talking to another young hopeful. Pacino and the director were in what he called “The Pompous Room” because of its opulence, and he was feeling distracted.
Pacino wrote: “I’m talking to some guy who is quiet, like me; who is young, just starting out, I think. But he’s hot off an art film, of sorts, called Mean Streets, which I hadn’t seen yet.” Yes, Pacino had found himself in a meeting with Martin Scorsese.
There were two problems, though – he had no idea who Scorsese was, and he was finding it hard to concentrate because of the decor of the Pompous Room. Pacino continued: “I’m too busy looking at the tables with the red and green felt, and I’m looking at the wallpaper with the ducks and peacocks on them. I don’t even understand I’m speaking to one of our finest filmmakers ever, Martin Scorsese.”
Ultimately, the meeting didn’t go well. In fact, Pacino admitted, “I was just dizzy. I don’t think we hardly said a word to each other. I guess he must’ve known I didn’t know my ass from my elbow.”
Pacino ended up coming home from the trip without a director because he couldn’t decide who to choose. In truth, though, he confessed, “I didn’t know enough to make up my mind.” Soon after, though, the stars would align when Pacino was sent to meet with Sidney Lumet, and the rest is history.
