The role Bruce Dern only played because Al Pacino was too expensive: “He wanted a million dollars”
We must cherish celebrated actor Bruce Dern while we still can, who, born in 1936, is barrelling towards his 90th birthday, and despite arguably giving some of his best performances in recent years, he remains a link to a bygone era of Hollywood and the world in general.
Dern is so old that he appeared in not one, but two movies by Alfred Hitchcock, his first being a very brief one in the 1964 film Marnie, in which he played a sailor, and his second turn was significantly more substantial, seeing him play George Lumley in the black comedy Family Plot, where he and his psychic girlfriend Blanche, played by Barbara Harris, become embroiled in a kidnapping conspiracy.
In an interview with the unfortunately-titled Cowboys & Indians magazine, Dern revealed that he was a little sceptical as to why the man he called ‘Hitch’ wanted him for the part, and recalled a conversation he had with the director in which he addressed these concerns.
“First of all, Bruce, Mr Packino wanted too much money,” Hitchcock said cryptically, “He wanted a million dollars”.
“Hitch doesn’t pay a million dollars,” Dern continued, “Even Miss [Julie] Andrews and Mr [Paul] Newman didn’t get a million dollars from Hitch [for Torn Curtain]. I said, ‘I see, but that still doesn’t explain it. I don’t quite get what you’re telling me’. He said, ‘Well, first of all, all [Italians] should have their names spelled phonetically’. Suddenly, I realised, Mr Packino was Al Pacino.” The fact that “Italians” is in square brackets in that quote makes me very concerned that he used a different word.
Pacino was in fine form at the time, having made Serpico, The Godfather Part II, and Dog Day Afternoon in the preceding years, and so was one of the contenders to play George. Given Hitchcock’s gargantuan status in the film industry, you’d have thought the actor would have jumped at the chance to work with him, but the former hadn’t had a hit in a while, and his failing health had reduced him to a sorry state, which, combined with Pacino’s high price point, ultimately doomed this collaboration.
‘The Master of Suspense’ also told his star that he was more “entertaining” than Pacino would have been. “I have 1,242 [photos of actors] on the bulletin board, but none of them are interesting,” he claimed, and ended up describing Dern as the most unpredictable performer he ever worked with, something he meant as the highest compliment; whether that would have been much consolation to Dern at the time is unknown.
Family Plot ended up being the final film Hitchcock would ever make as his health issues caught up with him in the end, dying just four years after its release. The fact that Dern can say he starred in the last movie in the filmography of one of the all-time greats must feel like a dream, and while he might have only gotten the role because he was cheap, it still counts.
