Al Pacino Just Watched ‘The Godfather’ for the First Time in Decades: “Humbling”

It’s the film that modified the course of his life — and American cinema — however Al Pacino had not seen The Godfather in its entirety in a long time. So when he invited me to observe Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 gangster epic with him and a few of his pals at a small screening room in Hollywood final 12 months, I jumped at the likelihood. I used to be at work internet hosting a podcast, The Godfather: A Movie We Can’t Refuse, which Paramount produced and which Audible will launch Aug. 22. The ten-episode sequence, together with conversations with castmembers, filmmakers and critics, grapples with The Godfather‘s legacy on matters like masculinity, energy, the American dream — even meatballs, in an episode that options chef Tom Colicchio.

I used to be attempting to grasp how Pacino had created considered one of the most charming characters in movie historical past, Michael Corleone, a fresh-faced school boy turned ruthless Mafia don, with a quiet, ominous efficiency that took him from little-known New York theater actor to international film star. However Pacino himself had all the time appeared to carry The Godfather at a little bit of a distance, and I needed to know why. After we met the subsequent day in a recording studio, I requested Pacino a few of my burning questions on the film — Did Michael have a alternative about getting into “the life”? How did it really feel to know the studio didn’t need him? What was going via Pacino’s thoughts when he filmed Michael’s first homicide scene?

We additionally received into Pacino’s relationship to the movie. Watching The Godfather from begin to end in spite of everything these years was “humbling,” he mentioned. It was emotional to see pals onscreen who had died, like James Caan and John Cazale. But it surely was additionally poignant to see his youthful self about to take a dramatic life flip, one which, like Michael Corleone’s, virtually appeared predestined. Pacino advised me his ambition as a younger actor had been to carry out in regional theater, “make a living, marry a seamstress and have 10 kids.” Shortly after The Godfather got here out and have become an instantaneous cultural sensation, he was standing on a road nook in New York when he realized every part was about to vary. “A beautiful woman was standing next to me,” Pacino mentioned. “She turned and mentioned, ‘Hi, Michael.’ My coronary heart dropped. I believed, ‘Oh, no. The life I knew is now over.’ “

This story first appeared in the August 7 challenge of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.