The only role Al Pacino wished he could have played: “I gave it away”
Having enjoyed one of the most storied careers in cinema, Al Pacino can’t be left harbouring too many regrets from a big screen stint that kicked off in 1969 and continues going strong to this day.
Along the way, he’s won an Academy Award from nine nominations, scooped two Golden Globes for his work on television, and given some of the best performances of the last half-century and change across The Godfather and its sequel, Dog Day Afternoon, and Serpico.
One of the downsides of emerging as a leading man in the 1970s was the competition for the biggest and most prestigious parts in Hollywood was incredibly fierce, with Pacino finding himself alongside the likes of Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, and more, all of whom were considered for many of the same roles.
It would be an understatement to say Pacino did more than alright for himself in a decade stacked to the brim with performers who’d go on to become legends of the business, but he rues missing out on a character he was desperate to play that ended up being tackled by one of his contemporaries.
As one of the most influential and inspirational comedians in American history, Lenny Bruce gained fame and infamy in equal abundance. Known for pushing boundaries like no other stand-up before him by incorporating politics, religion, sexuality, and profanity into his act, the touchstone for the counterculture comics that followed in his footsteps was even convicted as part of an obscenity trial in the 1960s.
When it was first announced that Oscar-winning Cabaret director Bob Fosse was mounting a biographical drama based on Bruce’s life, Pacino was offered the opportunity to lead the ensemble. However, he ended up turning it down, a decision he later ended up regretting after admitting, “the only movie I wished I could have done was Lenny.”
Dustin Hoffman was drafted in and ended up landing an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’, with 1974’s Lenny accruing an additional five nods, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’. It could have been him, though, and Pacino remained confident years later that he would have done a better job than the person who stepped in to take top billing.
In a 2010 interview with Larry King, Pacino tried to skirt around the issue when trying not to name the role he regretted turning down, although it was clear what he was talking about. “I don’t want to embarrass anybody, that’s the problem,” he said. “When I first read it, I said, no, I’m not right for it. But later when I saw it, and when I saw a comic, I gave it away now. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I saw somebody doing something in a club, and I suddenly saw what I would want to do with this part.”
Without specifically naming the film, Pacino did admit “that was a great performance by Dustin Hoffman” in Lenny, even if he realised he was wrong to say no after watching the finished film.
