Role Recall: Al Pacino

The Yahoo Movie Show brings you this classic sit-down with Al Pacino about his greatest acting moments to date.

Video Transcript

- How'd he do that?

- My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

AL PACINO: I remember that wedding scene because Diane and I afterward went home and got really drunk. Because we thought we were so bad. We thought the movie was so bad. And that we were the worst things in it. And that we were going to lose-- they were going to take the parts from us because I remember that.

But Francis wanted me and that was why I was there. We did the scene-- Diane and I-- and Marlon Brando was watching me doing the scene. And it was one take when a leaf fell from the tree on my shoulder. And I just took the leaf and I did something with it. Then Marlon came over to me at the end of it. And he just leaned in and said that, I like what you did with the leaf.

- Frank, I didn't know you.

- You didn't it know me? You fire without looking?

AL PACINO: I absorbed Frank Serpico. I just sort of channeled him. And I looked at him and I couldn't help myself. I had to say, why didn't you just take the money and then give it to charity or something? Why did you fight it so? And he said, well, if I took the money, who would I be when I listen to Beethoven? It was interesting stuff.

- You're nothing to me now.

AL PACINO: I got a little overwhelmed with that character because he was so internal that I saw it really took me on a bit. And at that time, I wasn't used to movies as much as I am now. And I felt I had to always sort of be in it. And so it wears you because you're up there 14 hours a day.

Now I know about camper life. You get it, camper? You get a camper that has cable. You go in, there you watch CNN, you get your head clear, you go back out again. But then it was always-- carrying it with me. It did though help the performance, I must say. But it took a lot out of me.

- Robbing a bank's a federal offense. They got me on kidnapping, armed robbery. They're going to bury me, man.

AL PACINO: You know, I was a stage actor. I always thought movies were a little harder for me to do. I had a harder time adjusting to it. I had been drinking a lot at the time, imbibing a lot of things, having a strange kind of life, which was nothing to do with work. And I remember my great producer- friend- manager at the time called me after I had turned down a movie.

And he said, Al? I said, hey, hi, Marty, what's going on? He said, are you sober? I said, yeah, I guess I am. He says, can I send the script over to you again? We've been together so long, just read the script. So I started reading it, read it cover to cover. And I thought, well, I got to do this thing. I don't want to, but I got to do it.

- Say hello to my little friend!

AL PACINO: I was doing a gunfight and I had all these squibs on me. And they shot me up. And I was jumping around-- where the squibs are going, you think you're getting shot. And then I leaped, I fell back, and I went to pick up the gun again. And I put my hand on a barrel of a gun that was just 30 rounds, which is shot from. And my hand stuck to the barrel. And that was it.

The skin just came right off my hand. And wow! Rushed to the hospital. And this nurse comes in and she sits me down and says, oh, oh, oh you're the movie actor. Yeah, you're Al Pacino. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I thought you were some scumbag coming in here with a--

When she first saw me, some scumbag with all the blood. And I thought, well, I don't know. I mean, no, I guess not.

- Hoo ah! Hoo ah! Hoo ah.

AL PACINO: "Hoo ah" came from this guy who was teaching me how to load and unload a .45 blind. And there's a lot of little things you got to learn. So I was forever having practiced with this guy teaching me how to do it. And it was a real Lieutenant Colonel, this guy. And every time he came to, I would do something good, say a little good, he would go, hoo ah.

That's it, hoo ah. And then I said, what that is? He says, oh, that's what we do when you do some-- hoo ah, with the troops were going along. I thought I had to use that. That comes from heaven, that stuff. When you get a shot like that, I mean, that's great.

- But I'll tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're going to turn into a widow. Brother, you are going down.

AL PACINO: He's so great. And he was smart because he said he didn't want to rehearse the scene with me. Never wanted to rehearse it. And at first, no, I thought, all right. But then I realized he was right. It really made a difference, I think. And that was very, very clever.

There I was in my 50s and I'm up there really going to chase this guy. So I warmed up. I did everything right. I did the first run after Bob. And I ran really, really speedy. And I did it again. I thought, I can do this.

And that was it. It was over. Hurt my hamstring. And poor Bob had to run around all night by himself, being chased by an understudy. And I just lay up in my camper. It was a worthwhile injury.