Category: Books
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Author: Lawrence Grobel
Al Pacino In Conversation With Lawrence Grobel (2006)
1979.
To this point, Alfredo James Pacino had never done an interview—that was until he came across Playboy’s 25th Anniversary issue wherein the great Marlon Brando, Jr. (Pacino’s co-star in The Godfather movies) granted an interview to journalist Lawrence Grobel.
Pacino must have concluded, “What is good for Brando, is good for me too.”
And so it was. Nearly a month (forty hours in total) of tapped conversations and two thousand transcribed pages later, Grobel—in Pacino’s words—gives us a peek into the life of the man simply known as Al.
But to the public in general—(some circles consider) Al’s portrayal of the characters that he plays transcends celluloid and ingrains itself in the very consciousness of society.
Don Michael Corleone. Antonio “Tony” Montana. Big Boy Caprice. Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade. Carlito “Charlie” Brigante. And most recently, Walter Abrams.
Just some of the finer roles for a man considered by many to be “one of the greatest actors in film history.”
Antonio "Tony" Montana and his best friend Manolo "Manny" Rivera scope out the scene
However, my interests in this book were not on Pacinio’s life, rather his personal insight into a past role—that of Antonio “Tony” Montana.
Antonio “Tony” Montana – More than 25 years after its initial release, fans still can’t get enough of the “two-dimensional” (“what you see is what you get”) Cuban political refugee simply known as Tony. Novels, video games, and comic books have come out in recent years that chronicle Montana’s beginnings as well as multiple “what ifs” scenarios has he not perished at the end of Scarface.
But what is Pacino’s take on the character?
Here are a few excerpts from Grobel’s book.
Grobel: Scarface seems like a throwback to the gangster pictures of old. Do you think it should be taken seriously, or should people suspend disbelief and treat it as a roller-coaster ride?
Pacino: More like a ride. I think that’s evident when you see it. But people react differently to it. Some people don’t like rides. It’s somewhere between naturalism and opera.
G: Did anyone in real life inspire you? (For the role of Tony Montana)
P: Well, I used the boxer Roberto Duran a little bit. There was a certain aspect of Duran, a certain lion in him, that I responded to in this character. And 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. It was very inspiring.
G: You also felt isolated after the initial reviews of Scarface came in and they weren’t the raves you and I both thought the picture would receive.
P: Scarface wasn’t understood. It was about excess and avarice and everything being out of proportion. The character didn’t try to explain himself. It was originally conceived so brilliantly by Paul Muni in the thirties, and that who I emulated. Oliver Stone did a tremendous job brining this character to life. It was a real piece of writing—when you hear lines quoted at you in the streets everywhere you go, and not the same lines either. I’m walking, and somebody says, “Hey, Tony? Can I go now?” These are the kinds of lines they quote. The picture had a fire to it. That was part of Brian’s concept, to do everything in an extraordinary way—to have the violence blown up, the language blown up. The spirit of it was Brechtian, operatic. It didn’t opt for sentiment but had an almost fablelike quality to it. It was probably the most popular picture I ever made, but the reaction t it was stranger than any of my other films. The picture was perceived by some as a failure, but it wasn’t. It was a lot of movie. You go to a move, you get a lot of movie with Scarface. That picture did something to me.
G: What did you learn about yourself by playing Tony Montana?
P: A dog once attacked me while I was playing Tony Montana, and I tapped it on the snout. I couldn’t believe I did that. I love dogs too—but it jumped at me. Normally I would have run for the hills, but I was fearless, and I like that whole idea of being fearless in that character. That is one of the great things about acting—to suddenly be able to tell someone who has a chainsaw at your face to go shove it up his @$$. Not many people around would tell someone to F&%# themselves when they’re about to cut your head off. So, in a strange way, I admire these traits. I like the fact that, to me, Tony Montana was two-dimensional. I didn’t want to make him a three-dimensional character. What you see is what you get. I like that about him. The fact that he didn’t contemplate too much. That’s why he was so totally thrown when he killed his friend. He couldn’t handle it, so it froze him; why he dug into the cocaine.
G: If you could select five of your works to put in a time capsule, which would they be?
P: To show who I was? I would have to go back and painfully look at every one of the films I’ve made and discuss it with some people and come up with some conclusions. Just off the top I’d say Godfather I and II, Scarface, Serpico, Looking for Richard…and maybe stop there.
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