How Meryl Streep inspired Al Pacino’s Tony Montana
The names Meryl Streep and Al Pacino ought to ring long and true in the ears of any half-knowing cinema fan as the pair have, over their respective years, delivered some of the finest acting performances ever captured on screen in a wide variety of characters and film genres.
Streep has three Academy Awards to her name and has shown her wildly impressive talents in the likes of The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Bridges of Madison County and The Devil Wears Prada. Meanwhile, Pacino has an equally impressive filmography comprised of classic movies such as The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Scent of a Woman and Glengarry Glen Ross.
There’s an interesting link between Streep and Pacino, and it comes through a surprising inspiration for one of the latter’s greatest on-screen efforts. When Scarface, directed by Brian De Palma, arrived in 1983, the film once again confirmed Pacino’s brilliance as an actor, and his portrayal of Tony Montana has since gone down in history.
Loosely based on the 1929 Armitage Trail novel of the same name and also serving as a slight remake of the 1932 film, Scarface tells of a Cuban refugee by the name of Montana, who arrives in America without a penny to his name but with huge aspirations, rising through the criminal ranks to become a wealthy drug baron.
Amazingly, Pacino once explained how he was inspired by one of Streep’s most famous roles, her effort in Alan J. Pakula’s drama Sophie’s Choice, which arrived the year prior to Scarface, based on William Styron’s 1979 novel of the same name, also starring Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol.
In the Blu-ray accompanying booklet for Scarface, Pacino said: “I was very inspired by Meryl Streep’s work in Sophie’s Choice. I thought that her way of involving herself in playing someone who is from another country and another world was particularly fine and committed and courageous.”
Sophie’s Choice sees Streep play Zofia ‘Sophie’ Zawistowski, a Polish immigrant who moves to America whilst harbouring a dark secret from her past. She shares a house with her fierce lover Nathan and a young writer named Stingo, and Streep won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ for her phenomenal effort.
Meryl Streep is arguably the last person we think might have inspired Pacino when it came to his gloriously violent portrayal of Tony Montana, but the fact that Sophie finds herself in a foreign country with a vicious past clearly paid dividends in bringing a new artistic air to his performance.
Check out the trailers for the respective films below.
