Web interview about "The Insider"
Barbara Walters Special
Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America, November 1999
David Letterman
Larry King Live

This is from the web, I can't remember where.

 

"The wonderful thing about playing these roles, the opportunity to play them, is you get to see what it is like, that; to go up against this kind of stuff, what it's like to suddenly be thrown into this kind of a world, where the stakes are this high, and you're dealing with this kind of thing. It's exciting, because in a way you say, finally say "well, what, you know... what would I do, in that situation?"  (about "The Insider")

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Barbara Walters Special, TELEVISED INTERVIEW

A BIG thanks to Patti Worley for typing this for all you fans out there!

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(BARBARA WALTERS NARRATION) In the case of Al Pacino, I think I just wore him down. We met on two different occassions, over cappucino, to discuss the possibilty of sitting down together. Sound glamorous? Well at first it was work. He felt uncomfortable with the idea of someone asking him almost any question. And I couldn't change, because how else do you do an interview? What did change was that over those coffees we got to know each other. And that made all the difference. He was born Alfredo James Pacino in 1940. His parents divorced when he was 2yrs old. Al was raised by his mother and grandparents in the South Bronx. He had 2 passions, baseball and acting. In 1966 he was accepted by Lee Strasberg's famed Actors Studio in New York. He studied and worked his way up doing off-broadway shows and small TV and movie roles. He often played seedy street types. And eventually, landed the part of Michael Corleone in the Godfather. Two sequals and 2 Oscar nominations later, it is one of the defining roles of his career. Pacino has also been nominated for other fine roles, including his 1973 performance as an undercover cop in 'Serpico'. And his intense "strung out" characterization of a bank robber in 'Dog Day Afternoon'. But, not unfortuniately for the role, he told us, he is most prode of...a Cuban drug-lord in 'Scareface'.

After 'Scareface' however, and indeed for most of the 80's Pacino appeared to be "missing in action". Surfacing only briefly in a box-office bomb, 'Revolution'. Then in 1989 he made a splashy return in the sexy thriller 'Sea of Love'. Pacino was back! And significantly he had returned with a sense of humor readily apparent in his Oscar-nominated turn in 'Dick Tracey'. But when it came to nominations, 7 was his lucky number. Pacino finally won that Oscar for his portrayal of a blind war veteran determined to go out with a bang in 'Scent of a Woman'.

Pacino has never married, but has romanced over the years some very high profile women. Actress Jill Clayburg, Tuesday Weld and Diane Keaton. He's been very secretive about his private life. And, few people know, for example that in 1989 he had a daughter from a brief relationship. Fame is something that Pacino is still struggling with, odd since acting is his life.

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INTERVIEW

BW When you were 8 or 9 in the South Bronx, where kids in your neighborhood were not coming out and doing repertoire...as kids don't. You knew then that you wanted to be an actor?

AL It was something that I just did. It was as though I ...I had the kind of ah...When I was very young my mother took me to the movies, cause she worked, and the only time she get to see the movies and me was when she came home from work. So we would go to the movies. So I was watching films. And...I would act out the parts. I remember, I would come home...this is interesting to think of it now. I'd come home. I'd always make an entrance at night from playing. And I come, usually it was a 'dying' entrance. I'd come in and 'die' all the way to the kitchen and I'd 'die'. And one day we were on a fire escape and I was twirrling around...and I landed on my head. And I got up. And of course my friend was laughing. And he looked blurry to me, and I wondered over to him...he was still laughing, and ah, I guess it was a funny site seeing me fall from the 1st floor on my head, on concrete. I staggered, I am staggering home and guess what? I go in my apartment, and I fall down. Only, I really fell this time, my mother. I had a concussion. They thought I was kidding. I had a concussion...the doctor came.

BW But when you look back...do you look back with a smile?

AL I do.

BW for you a relatively very happy

AL I am very happy it happened, it happened, it's helped me through out my life.

BW What sense?

AL Well I mean relationships, then. I had very close friends growing up.

BW So you weren't what they'd call a loner?

AL No...no I wasn't a loner, No.

BW But when your mother died, when you were in your early 20s was that...I mean it's hard for anyone, was it terribly hard for you?

AL Oh yeh, because my mother was so encouraging to me, and I think that's why I am here. My mother encouraged me. And I realized that later on in life. And, yeh that's what my mother gave me. And I miss...I missed it, that she didn't see me accomplish...even a minor of success would have meant alot to her and my grandfather too, who raised me. He didn't see it.

BW He died when you were 11?

AL Yeh, so the 2 closest people died within a year of each other. I wished...I wished they'd seen it. It would have meant something to me

BW When you did The Godfather, you're 31 years old, you were a stage actor and suddenly this enormous thing. Yeh, But Al when you had that fame and success instead of it being wonderful, it wasn't,those years after. What happened?

AL It's a relative thing, fame. And it works on different people differently. And what happened was interesting. And how it worked on me was...I...I started to, I didn't talk the way I usually talk. And I realized people were receptive to me. And I hadn't earned it. I had done nothing to earn their laughs, or their interest or anything. And it felt kinda cool to just sit there and not have to earn it. And I think that's a trap you can fall into with fame. Because life is people, being with people, interchanging with people, that's what life is. When you're famous, sometimes, that part of you can get cut off. And I'll tell you how. Because, you don't employ the stuff that makes you what you are, because you don't have to. And so, I fell victim to that a little bit. But I am aware of it.

BW You had a whole series of successful films and then for something like 5 years, in the 80s, you didn't make any films. Were you turning down roles, in that time?

AL Yeh, I was.

BW What did you turn down? Wallstreet?

AL I turned down a few films.

BW Wallstreet?

AL Yeh, Wallstreet was one of them. And the thing was, I found that as I just dropped out I was able to find myself missing a little bit more in life. I can't explain it, I just became more involved in things, and you know...if you're gone, if you're not around you start to recede...and people do sort of...

BW people began to forget

AL Yeh, some how I felt freeier. I started rubbing shoulders with people again and getting involved, in a way I remembered years ago. I had a guy say to me, the other day, "you know who you are?"

BW What did you say?

AL I said, ah that's why I act, I don't know. (laughs)

BW Are you sorry you didn't do 'Pretty Woman'?

AL No

BW Are you sorry you didn't do 'Absence of Malice'?

AL No

BW Are you sorry for any film you made?

AL Yeh, sometimes you make a film, and you know, you know when you're making it that you're just making a mistake.

BW Did you want to do Godfather Two?

AL Well no, I don't think I did.

BW Did you want to do 'Godfather 3'?

AL Yeh, I thought it would be interesting to go back and do 3. 2 I didn't want to do. It was right on the heels of 1. And I thought, you know, it's a tough repeat. I tell you the thing is, you..you, ah, sometimes make movies for a lot of different reasons. Places in your life, you never know where you are. You're like in a certain state, you change. Things happen to us all the time. Things are different, now, I do movies mainly for the role.

BW Let's talk alittle bit about what you're doing now, 'Scent of a Woman'. It's a sensational performance.

AL Thank you.

BW It really is. In the role you are a man of tremendous pride and anger. You don't sit like this...(pointing to Al). There's a different way you sit, there's a different way you look. Is it possible for you to look at me as if you're blind and then look at me seeing? Can you show me?

AL You know, I could have shown you easier, I could show you now. I am doing it now.

BW That's right, you're doing it now.

AL I am not focused. I am not seeing you.. But, there it is. It's interesting.

BW It's very strange.

AL Yeh, it does a whole thing to your body. You see, it changes your...your everything, the way everything moves.

BW Your head, everything

AL Yeh

BW How did you become a blind man?

AL Well, it's all mimicry finally, in the end, for an actor. There's a lot of things you do, plus I've played blind before. It's like when you get a part, as a police officer. And the first time you get a part as a police officer you do a lot of different things then you would the 2nd and 3rd & 4th times you played it. Things change. I mean if I was painting this room, if I started painting this room today. And I had to paint this room everyday for a year, the way I would be painting this room today and the way I would be painting in a year is a different painter. It's just practice.

BW Can I ask you questions about your private life without you jumping out of the chair?

AL You know what, my hair might start falling off if you do. Yeh, it's OK.

BW You have a little girl?

AL Yeh

BW 3 years old. To me 3 years old is the most heavenly age.

AL It's the Batman age.

BW It's the Batman age?

AL Yeh

BW What's it like for you to have a child?

AL Ah, well it's, it's...different. It changes, it changes everything. It changes the way you think about things. It changes everything. It's a... I mean, right now, I am thinking about it. What I did this morning. I got a call from my kid this morning. She called me to tell me she was going to go to school today. It changes, ah yeh, the way you think about everything.

BW Are you a good father? Do you think about that?

AL well

BW What it takes to bring up a child

AL Well, I am working on it. Well, I hope that I will be one day. I, I don't know...now. You do what you can.

BW Is she adorable?

AL Yeh...she is

BW It is the 1st time in this whole interview you've broken out in a totally big smile.

AL Well

BW You're not married. Never have been married

AL No...never been married

BW And anyone who interviews you, the few times you have been interviewed, asks the same question. Do you want to get married?

AL Ah

BW You know, as an outside thing, do you think about what it would be like to be married?

AL I don't think about it, ah. Once in awhile, of course, you can't...you come in contact with people talking about themselves getting married and I quess I would like to get married one day. I think I would. But, it would have to be a certain kind of marriage.

BW What kind?

AL Well, it would be, whatever they say, sort of mutual kind of ah agreement of sort. In terms of how we would live, because my lifestyle is one that's erratic and different.. Ah, and I would hope that if I married someone that they'd be aware of that and our lifestyles would be able to mesh.

BW You believe in fidelity?

Al Yeh, I mean if that's what your bond is, then yes, of course.

BW You have been romantically involved with women you've worked with, Diane Keaton of course, in Godfather Two films and so forth. What about, is it easier or harder to love and work and mix the both?

AL I find it harder. When you are with someone you're very close to, you're sensitivity to what's going on with them. And they are with you. So, when you're in a condition where you have to be objective and be a part, and you really need tunnel vision to work, it's difficult. And it did happen to me several times where it was uncomfortable because of that. Some of the freedom goes, for me. But then I know people who just...love it.

BW They want to work together

AL It feeds them...Not me.

BW Two of your leading ladies, who are very good-looking women Ellen Barkin and Michelle Pfieffer, who are both very fond of you say that you have a terrible time doing love scenes. Because it's hard for you to do love scenes if you're not...in love. You can't 'fake it'. You can't fake a love scene.

AL Well, the idea of the love scene it's all about how the love scene, for me anyway, the love scene in Sea of Love is constructed a certain way. It's choreographed. And it's built a certain way, because it's about furthering the story. It's about how it fits in the story. How it ties in emotionally. And in 'Frankie and Johnny', it was about his 'letting go'. The scene was significant. It had a certain significance. So then you walk, ah, straight ahead. Then you do it, you know, you're undectable when you do it, it's...it's not, not what it appears to be. And ah, you know it's not really unpleasant kissing Michelle Phieffer.

BW It isn't exactly torture. Kissing Michelle Pfieffer is not exactly one of the hardest things you've ever done?

AL No, no it's not

BW You'll go on the record as saying that?

AL Yes

BW Are you in love now? You don't have to answer, but it would be

nice. AL If, if I was in love and if I am in love, I really...

BW would not discuss it

AL No, I wouldn't

BW Do you think people confuse you with your roles?

AL Ah, yeh I think that happens

BW What do they think you are?

AL Ah, boy! I couldn't even guess...I just couldn't even guess...cause I

BW Dark

AL Yeh, that I am

BW I don't just mean dark, dark hair. Dark, mysterious

AL Well, you know, I guess when you're an actor you try, at least I do anyway, I try to have the personality stay out of the way of the character I am playing, so the performance can live on it's own, hopefully, and not be interferred with by my personality.

BW Let's go back to this whole business of fame. You live in New York, you don't live in Hollywood

AL Yeh

BW You live a private life

AL Yeh

BW Relatively, I mean. You're not at openings and things and stuff...we don't see you around. If you are a successful actor, you become famous, right? Otherwise, you're not a successful actor? In today's terms.

AL Yeh, well you know, fame is relative too. You know, some people are famous, are not actors. Some people are famous enough because they did something, are successful at something.

BW What I am getting at..

AL Fame is different than success

BW Fame is different than success. But fame is a by-product of the success. And, it's hard to be successful and then reject the fame.

AL Oh no...you can't reject the fame. I accept the fame, I really do. I have....I have been accepting it now for years. I had a little trouble, earlier on accepting it, but not now.

BW What are the cliches about you? What are the things you read or hear. The words that I hear that describe you, that you read...dark, broody, introspective

AL Oh...that's right, cliches they are. Of course I am not that. I mean, the best way, I think,...the best way would be to have someone who's known me for 30-40 years talk about me. I think that would be, I mean, I would be interested in that, because I would say, "I wonder what they see"? I think that's how you would find out. Someone who really knows me...seen all these facets in me. I am sort of, not, I am doing things, so I don't know.

BW Do you have a philosphy by which you live or direct your...

AL My philosphy is "Man's a little bit better than his reputation and a little bit worse".

BW Do you have a fantasy?

AL Yes, having my own talk show. (laughs)

BW Have your own talk show? Ok, I'll tell you my fantasy. In 'Scent of a Woman', you get up and you do the most wonderful Tango. It just...

AL Dancing's great. I used to love to dance.

BW Do you still? Do you like to dance? Now, wait a second, if I can figure out how this thing goes (has a tape recorder..playing tango music)

**Barbara and Al dance the Tango!**

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(BW) I think we imagine actors, like Al Pacino, as having a unique gift that's something akin to a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. We assume that he gets the part of a cop or a blind man and somehow his instinct takes over, the magic kicks in. And, he becomes that person. So, how nice it was to hear Al Pacino say that his secret was PRACTICE. Just doing it over and over again. While audiences around the world sit in dark movie theaters and supply their own magic.

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Good Morning America, November 1999, DIANE SAWYER INTERVIEWS AL

Thanks Pat  for typing this.

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First, Diane is describing The Insider, and how Al really likes Mike Wallace

The interview starts with Al

Al: I remember the scene that was the most difficult, that maybe is the first encounter with Wigand, the first time we were in that hotel room, and I have to think like an investigative reporter would think, and lead this person, and at the same time, pull back and give at the same time, to allow him to come up with the answers and come up with decisions and the kind of... I don't want to use manipulation, because it is a bit perjaritive, but it IS a kind of manipulation, and is wonderful to experience that.

Diane: So if Mike Wallace walked up to you,....as he may have, (laughing) and I just have a little surprise for you (laughing) (Al looks back,as if to expect Mike to come walking in, then laughs)
Al: This is your Wallace??

Diane: He says to you, this didn't happen, I didn't come to your hotel room at night, to illuminate about my career, none of that happened. What would you say to him?
Al: I'd say to him, I guess that that's part of the deal, in a sense, with drama. It isn't about what really happened, it's about expressing the metaphor through drama. I don't see anything of course, wrong with what the interpretation of Mike Wallace is, as a matter of fact, it's Chris Plummer whose doing it and it's a character, and I don't think of Mike Wallace when I see it. I think of that as a character, as a fictional character, in a sense, in this situation to enhance it.

Diane: (narration, while showing clips and pictures of Al's past works, and movies) If acting is a form of exploration, Pacino has been on the high seas for thirty years. On the stage, in the movies, in the Godfather films, his performances as a reluctant mobster Michael Corleone won him two Oscar nominations. And the awe of his peers for something intense, something indelible. After 8 nominations, he won best actor for his performance as Lt. Col. Frank Slade, in Scent of a Woman (showing Scent of a Woman clip). Pacino, an only child raised in the Bronx, says he never planned to be an actor, he was one.

Diane: Where you a dreamer as a little boy?
Al: Yeah, when I was a young boy, and my mother would take me to the movies, we didn't have a television, so that's how I saw the movies and I would come home and then my mother worked, and we lived in the back, and I was alone and so, I would then act out all the parts I saw in the films that she took me to see.. So my mother really was responsible for my turning on to those characters that I saw in the pictures because I played all the parts. And that's how, I think something started back then.

Diane: Do you ever still feel lost inside your own body in a movie set, I mean I imagine on a stage, that, that is a dance you know, because you done it so often, but on a movie set do you ever feel your hands are to be physically, just such a different exercise?
Al: It's a different thing. I was doing a play, and they came, the television people came to record it for television. I remember feeling like I was between two worlds, because here I was in the theater, projecting, because you naturally project for the audience out there, and the camera was way back there, so I asked them if they wouldn't mind bringing the camera close to me so that I could then play the scene for the frame there and that would change it, just a physical camera being there, would change the way we played the scene and it did.

Diane: It seems to be great to be you right now.
Al: (grimaces) Not if you have this tie on, this tie is killing me, Diane, can I loosen it or something? (Al loosens his tie, and unbuttons top two buttons on his shirt)

Diane: I think you should, what was your idea with this tie, anyway? I mean were you trying to impress us here?
Al: You're going on TV, maybe you can impress everyone or something.

Diane: (laughing) So it's great to be you? It's a good time, I think
Al: (he points his finger at Diane) You know, the grass is always greener!!

Diane: Where?
Al: You say it's great to be me, It's really not that hot, but no, it's OK It's fine. But the fact is, You can do the kind of work you wanna do, and the people you wanna work with, it's always an enormous perk in life. But I can remember being real glad about stuff way back in the old days,... I had nothing.

Diane: OK, Give me a lesson now!!
Al: Oh Gees, just what I came here to do!! (Al smiles) You know...

Diane: I want the camera to come in, (she motions for the camera to zoom to her face)
Al: (looking back) The ole pan!!

Diane: (Motioning for the camera to come in) Come in further, come in further, still. So how much closer could the camera come??
Al: (Looking back) That's cool!

Diane: So if I just say,...
Al: Keep saying it as it's coming in..

Diane: (the camera zooms in close to her) We are going to be back with more of Good Morning America,...Did that feel personal?
Al: (looking back) Can you do another take of that?

Diane: Same thing?
Al: Yeah, just keep it down

Diane: Keep it down? ..
Al: Yeah

Diane: (in close up camera shot) We'll be back...I'll start over.
Al: You really believe we'll be back, Diane?

Diane: No, (starts laughing) but this I believe,... they'll be more of Good Morning America, just ahead. (camera close up shot)
Al:There will be...

Diane: How was that?
Al: (looks back again) I can second that, yeah

Diane:Yeah?
Al: Well, I hope so

Diane: Too much?
Al: No, you were perfect!! I thought,.. for me, anyway! You know!

Diane: Who are you?
Al: I'm not hard to please.

Diane: What do you know? (she laughs, grabbing Al's hand, Al gives his famous flashy smile).
Al: (laughing) Yeah....

Diane: Oh, Thank You. (continues laughing)

The interview ends.

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Larry King Live,TELEVISION INTERVIEW

A BIG thanks to Patti Worley for typing this for all you fans out there!

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Larry King, host (voice-over): Tonight, a first: A live, hour interview with the man, Al Pacino. It's just ahead on LARRY KING: LIVE.

LARRY KING LIVE (Nov 8, 1996) (click on the link to read the interview) (thanks Uli for this capture)

KING:Good evening. It should be of no shock to any of you that this is a big thrill for me tonight, because whenever I have been asked questions 'Who do you want to interview?' there is only two people I list right at the top: It's the Pope, who is currently unavailable this evening, and Al Pacino, who is and we thank him very much for coming. He stars and is the director of the whole magnum behind Looking for Richard from Fox Searchlight Pictures. We will talk about that and lots of other things.

Why have you finally come?

AL: Come here?

KING:Yes, finally. After years of asking.

AL: Senility, I guess, is the...

KING:Why do you...why do you dislike interviews?

AL: Well, I don't...I think it's because it starts with the whole idea of being an actor...the more anonymous you are the easier it is for an audience to accept you in a role. I think it starts, it starts there and it's also basically because I think I'm somewhat shy.

KING:A lot of actors are, though, aren't they?

AL: Yes, they are.

KING:But not in the role, right?

AL: You know it's interesting, you have the two kinds of actor: you have the actor that is shy or the actor that is more extroverted. And it's...it's, you run across both. But I know primarily for me it was always because I thought the more the audience at large knows about you and sees you in animation, talking about yourself, the more familiar they become with your personality and then when they see you as a character it's not as..they're...they're seeing things about your personality, and they're not looking at the characters.

KING:When one becomes a star...

AL: Although I don't believe that anymore, by the way. I don't believe it as much.

KING:Because they accept you now?

AL: Yes

KING:You know that if you are Michael Corleone, they are going to say 'That's Michael Corleone.'

AL: Yes

KING:And they know it's not you

AL: Yes, they know I'm playing a part and they know I am an actor, and I've been around long enough to...

KING:But you still move them.

AL: Yes?

KING:You still move them, you still get me to believe that what Michael....

AL: Yes

KING:...is doing, Michael is doing.

AL: Yes, yes. Yes. Well, I hope so, yes.

KING:That's part of it. Your...this fasination...there's lots of things to talk about...this fascination with Richard III

AL: Yes

KING:Why? I mean, you've been doing this forever.

AL: Well, it is...it's fascinating to me as any Shakespeare play would be, or any play that you think is great, or you would like to be in. The reason for Richard III...is how all these things start. When I was younger, I was doing Richard III.

KING:As a kid, you mean?

AL: Well, when I was in...yes.

KING:Acting lessons?

AL: In my early 20s and stuff I did it in school and then later on I was asked to do it in a play in Boston. So, I was always...that play was always coming to me. And I did other Shakeapeare plays, too, so it was more or less a fascination with seeing if I could get this play to translate to an audience and I think that was the...the part of doing this Richard because it was more of an experiment. It starts off like...I was thinking somebody asked me if I would ever make a movie of Richard III, because I had long put it away, because I did it in 1978, I think, in New York and it was over and I was doing other things and I thought 'Well, it's possible, but how would I do it. What would be the concept? The context?' Because I think it needed a concept. When we did it in Boston, originally, it was...it took place in a church and we all dressed in modern dress and it...the Church of the Covenant in Boston, Massachusetts and it worked in that environment. And when we took it to New York, it didn't work as well, because we didn't have the environment of the church to do it in. So, I thought, 'It needs a concept if I am going to do it.' And I thought about it.

KING:Is that how it became actors talking about doing it?

AL: Exactly.

KING:And doing it.

AL: Exactly. And the reason that came about is because early on in the late 70s, I was touring some colleges, just as a way of making a connection with audiences because I had been away from the stage for a while. And what I would do is I'd go and speak to them, to the student body in these various colleges along the East coast, I'd say...I'd read excerpts from plays, poetry, prose that I enjoyed particularly and every time I came to Shakespeare the audience would back away, didn't want to know it, they were reluctant. So, I found that when I would come to these Shakespeare things, even before I said the first words, they just didn't want to hear it. And there was always an 'Ah'...they would...they would...and then I started introducing the piece in Shakespeare that I was going to read...I would start talking in a kind of colloquial way in a language that they could relate to and in doing that I would bring them into the story with a language that they were familiar with and that I was familiar with and slowly I would seque into the Shakespeare and what would happen is they would make this transition with me. And ultimately, they would enjoy the Shakespeare because they understood the subtext of it and what it was coming from and they had time to lose their prejudice over the language.

KING:For an actor, what makes Shakespeare different to do?

AL: Well, for one thing there are actors who don't want to do Shakespeare and weren't interested in doing it.

KING:Or afraid of it.

AL: Well, maybe, yes. But some just didn't prefer it.

KING:To the one who does though, what does it do for you?

AL: What it does to you...so much of Shakeapeare is..is..first of all the acting in it, if you like it, is easier in a way, because Shakespeare supplies you with everything. I mean, in one speech, it..it..it..it, you...you..you, it's almost like what they call actor-proof. And if you ...especially if you have a passionate desire to do it, it's...it's..it's interesting because in order to do Shakespeare I think, for me, anyway, you...you have to learn it. You can't sort of wing it.

KING:You can't improvise it.

AL: As a matter of fact, what they...what they did, in the early days, they would give actors eight or ten lines at random, just sort of Jacobean lines, Elizabethan poetry, because they would use this poetry if they ever got in trouble during a production, they would go to this poetry and this poetry they would do it and it would give them time to get back and think about what...what...what line they missed. Anyway, it's...I'm, going off, I think.

KING:No, but therefore for an actor who loves it, it's a hoot.

AL: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. If you like doing it. Oh, I've seen...

KING:Isn't Arthur Miller a hoot?

AL: Of course

KING:And David Mamet a hoot?

AL: Oh, Mamet...

KING:The better the writer the better the....?

AL: Yes, but more than that, I think it's the more you relate to the particular piece the more you relate to the writer and there are some writers you relate to more and it's like music and some composers, musicians would play..prefer..

KING:Now, when you were a kid...you're from Harlem, right?

AL: Born in Harlem, right.

KING:Raised in the South Bronx?

AL: Yes

KING:Alfonse Pacino, right? That's your name?

AL: Yes. That's what Sidney Lumet likes to call me.

KING:But your real name is Alfredo?

AL: Alfredo, yes.

KING:You would not have bet if I meet you at 16 in the South Bronx, that this kid is going to be making Looking for Richard.

AL: No, oh no. No,no.

KING:How did you..what took you into acting. Why do you act?

AL: Well, there's the long story.

KING:Give me the short version.

AL: Well, it starts...it starts...it starts when I was just a child, I guess, my mother took me to movies because we didn't have television and so she worked all day and so the only time she saw me was when she came home at night and the was her entertainment was to take me to the movies. So, I was alone all day, the next day, with my grandmother.

KING:No father?

AL: No father, no. And my grandfather, who was working. And I would enact all the parts that I saw in the movie the night before. So I...it was a way of coping with my own loneliness, I guess.

KING:So you did a movie for your grandmother?

AL: Sometimes, but most of the time I did it for myself. I played the different parts, That was the way I played.

KING:Bogart or Cagney?

AL: Well, I actually saw...one that comes to mind is Lost Weekend which my mother took me to see when I was five.

KING:Ray Milland?

AL: And the one he won the Oscar for. And when my...when I would visit my dad occasionally, he would have me do the scene from the Lost Weekend where it...Ray Milland's character is looking for the bottle of alcohol...he forgot where he put it when he was drunk, and he needs it now so he goes wild trying to find it, and it's...finally. it's up in the chandelier. Well, I would do that at age five to a group of people and they would all laugh. And I thought "Why are they laughing, this is so serious."

KING:But you liked it?

AL: Well, I related to it.

KING:You like being that drunk. You like being...whatever it was you liked being that obviously.

AL: Yes. Oh, I enjoyed...I found that I had a facility to do it, that's all. So, you know, that was something I did. I never thought. consciously, that I like it or not. I think that came later on in life for me.

KING:Our guest is Al Pacino, as we leave you and break, a scene, from a terrific movie. I've seen it...that...in fact, I'd say that if you've...if you've got someone who doesn't know Shakespeare take him to see Looking for Richard and he will come out with a whole new appreciation of it, and laugh alot, too, because there is a lot funny in this. We will be right back. Here's a scene from Looking for Richard.

KING:We're back with Al Pacino. What a life! What a career! He stars in, he produced, he directed, he put it together, he put up his own money...

AL: Did I write a book?

KING:No

AL: Oh, I'm not here for a book. Okay.

KING:No, that you didn't do. Looking for Richard. He's appearing live tonight. Well, how's it going so far? So far?

AL: It's Friday night?

KING:It's still Friday.

AL: Is it still Friday?

KING:It's still Friday. You are doing well. The Godfather One, Two and III, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Justice For All, Scarface, Sea of Love, Frankie and Johnny, Scent of a Woman, Heat, City Hall. What a career.

AL: I did all that?

KING:Was Corleone difficult?

AL: When I first got it, it seemed to me that it would be difficult because I thought this was all about how a character goes from being one thing to finally taking over. And that...that difference and that transition was..was..was..but it was fun, because I knew that there was a place to go, you know, there was, you start small and then you..it turns into something like that.

KING:Did you know, making it, that it would be as huge as it became?

AL: Oh, of course not.

KING:No idea?

AL: No. I thought there was a lot going on. I thought this was going to be...but I had no idea that Francis Coppola was into what he was into...that he was seeing this kind of thing, you know, and Gordie Willis and Dean Tavalaris and..with doing the decor and the lighting and the script and all. I didn't know that it would all come together like that.

KING:And the music.

AL: And the music.

KING:Did you understand though, that...being Italian, being from where you are from...

AL: Yes

KING:...that flavor?

AL: Well, I tell you, I...where I came from in the South Bronx, I came from such a mixed neighborhood of so many different kinds of groups, so we were like a melting pot. As a matter of fact, I remember doing a school play and I remember there was this big pot on the stage and myself, I must have been 10 or something and another little dark girl came out, and we were supposed to represent Italy. I didn't know what that meant. I mean, Italy! And I never saw that little dark girl, I wonder what she had to do with me, you know? But we would churn the pot. Because we were all...that was the atmosphere.

KING:Sort of Irish, blacks..

AL: Yes, everybody.

KING:Puerto Ricans.

AL: Yes, yes.

KING:That was a good way to grow up then, wasn't it?

AL: Well, for me it was. I didn't know any other. And growing up then, too, was kind of an interesting...the interesting thing about growing up then, is that we didn't have anything, I guess, but we didn't know it, we weren't aware of things we were supposed to have.

KING:As Gleason said, 'I was poor, but I didn't know I was poor.'

AL: We didn't know it. But we had each other and we had a street life which was always there for us.

KING:Were there mobsters and tough kids, too?

AL: There weren't mobsters. No, it wasn't the neighborhood, there was tough kids around, though, sure. Yes.

KING:All right. Did you have to audition for Coreolone?

AL: Yes, oh, many times.

KING:You had to read a lot for that?

AL: Yes. See Francis, it's...with directors, if they have a vision and they see somebody in that...that's...they are almost...they are unshakeable. And Francis is one of those directors. And that's why, usually, sometimes I've gotten into movies because a director wanted me. And the movies that always are tricky is when you and the director have been put together and it doesn't come out, the director doesn't really seek you. You know? So there...because part of directing is casting. So when he cast this movie, he had all those people in mind, Duval and James Caan and...

KING:Brando.

AL: ...John Cassell, and Brando. So, he then wanted me and I couldn't even understand it. I was an unknown, I'd never done a movie, but he wanted me to play that part, to the point where the studio didn't...no one wanted me. As a matter of fact, nobody wanted...they didn't want any of the characters in it. There is documentary, I don't know if you've ever seen it, that talks about that very thing.

KING:Who did they want for your role?

AL: I don't remember. It might have been Robert Redford, or...at the time, I don't know who was ever very big at that time.

KING:What was it like to work...

AL: I'm sure Bob Redford didn't want to play it.

KING:...in a first movie, to work with Brando?

AL: Oh, well, it was just, I mean...it was a dream. I must be dreaming. As a matter of fact, it was...you know, it was the kind of thing you think ...you don't think about really and then all of a sudden it was there and he was there but of course, in the end when it comes down to it, you are...you are brought together by the situation. And the fact that you are two characters. I felt that way with Lee Strasberg, who was my dear, dear friend. And we were in a movie together, two movies together. But, when you're...

KING:So when you are in the scene it's the scene?

AL: Oh, yes, it's like...you know, you are up there walking a tightrope, so you know, you sort of need each other and you experience each other as fellow workers, you know? So it's a good way to get to know somebody, I will tell you that.

KING:Speaking of Corleone. We will be right back with Al Pacino.

KING:We hope this will be the first of many appearances for Al Pacino because you are a great guest and you are very expressive and how you resisted all these years is incredible to me.

AL: Well...

KING:Because I mean, you are right at home, right. Maybe it will be Al Pacino Live, get to take your own show one night.

AL: I just hope this never ends. Now, I don't know how they feel about it. But I mean...

KING:Now, you love it. Now, we can go on forever.

AL: Oh, sure,

KING:All right. We're all over the board here, but this is the first time. Selection? What determines 'I will take this part'? Let's take them...Scent of a Woman. Blind man.

AL: Yes

KING:I will take this.

AL: See that changes over the years, but like I said before, when a director wants you that's already...especially a director you appreciate, and so you know, you sort of, it wakes you up and so you read the script and you relate to it. I know what I do is I have a reading and if I ...if I feel really alien from the script then I just won't do it. And if I feel there is some kind of connection there...my dear friend and mentor Charlie Laughton, usually sits in on the readings and afterwards we discuss...I've done many films like that. And sometimes it's very effective, because you will be reading something anf you say 'I don't want to do this,' and then you read aloud and it comes to life for you; and then sometimes, of course, the opposite works. You think this will be terrific, you read it and you can't get anywhere near it and you tell even in a reading sometimes.

KING:Ever turned down something you regretted?

AL: Oh, I've done things I've regretted.

KING:Done things you've regretted.

AL: Yes

KING:Ever turned down anything and then saw it and...

AL: I've turned a lot of things down that became wonderful. My sense of choice has been, you know, it's all over the place. A lot of the way I've chosen over...during my lifetime, has had to do with where I was in my life at the time. Sometimes I made a movie because I felt I wanted to explore a certain area of what the movie was saying, and not because of the value of the movie or what...how I could play the character, which I think is a mistake, and I made a a few of those. I think that's all right to explore certain areas, but not using the medium of a movie which is, you know, is out there and it is meant to be commercial, a lot of people see it, you know. So...

KING:Now, you didn't have a relationship with your father? Right? Not much of a relationship.

AL: No, not much of one. But I did with my grandfather.

KING:Or with siblings? No great relationship, brothers, sisters?

AL: No, no. I am only child. Yes

KING:Do you bring that to....You're an only child...do you bring that to what you do then?

AL: I would imagine I bring it...bring it all to what I do, I think. Yes, I would...I would say.

KING:Do you bring life experience to a role?

AL: Yes

KING:So when you are in the role, are you the blind guy? In Scent of a Woman, are you Al Pacino or are you that guy?

AL: That's an unanswerable question. That's the big question. That's the paradox of acting, you know? It's like anything you do, I mean, you are calling on things in yourself that are there, that make their way through this character that you are playing, but you are always you. And you are always the character. So that's the paradox, I know that that's...

KING:Did you play it blind, by the way?

AL: Yes

KING:Meaning?

AL: Well, meaning...I just found a way..

KING:Did you close your eyes?

AL: Well no, my eyes are open in Scent of a Woman, they...

KING:That's right. Yes

AL: Yes. Well, because, you know, when you...when you work with blind people and you get to know them and talk to them and you watch their behavior and how they look and there are all different kinds of...it manifests itself in different ways, however, you know, you are dealing with the movie and you...you accommodate that so you sort of make slight changes. Sometimes you do a part that has a certain accent, like a Scottish accent or something, or a Cockney accent and you can't quite do it the way they really speak it because an audience wouldn't understand it, so you make a little change. Same thing with physical things, you know?

KING:So a lot of times in Scent of a Woman, you were not seeing?

AL: Oh, I never...no I was never seeing. I didn't focus, no, never saw.

KING:So you just...?

AL: I would just look at you like I am looking at you now. I can't see you at all, I mean I'm seeing nothing. I mean, as far as my eyes aren't focusing on anything so I don't see.

KING:We will be back with Al Pacino. Here's a scene...

AL: That was a demonstration.

KING:That was great, I liked that. Brando did a drunk for me once; I thought he was drunk. We will be back with more of Al Pacino.

God, I hope this doesn't end. Now, here's a scene from Scent of a Woman.

KING:He may be the ultimate actor of our times. Seven Academy Award nominations, one Oscar, two Tony's he's the brilliant Al Pacino. We will be right back. Don't go away.

KING:I apologize if we are all over the board tonight, but we expect to have Al Pacino on. He's getting used to this, we're going to make him a regular, we're going yo go on the road with this. Jew asks Italian questions and listens quietly. When you take a role and it doesn't work and you finish it, is that disheartening?

AL: Of course, yes.

KING:You give it your best, though, right?

AL: Yes, oh, yes. That's all you can do. Sure.

KING:Have you had a hit with something you didn't like?

AL: Oh, yes. Oh,yes. You see, you just don't know about that. There were things that I thought...that I liked and nobody went.

KING:What...what was something you really liked?

AL: Let's see

KING:Is it true that Scarface is one of your favorites?

AL: Yes

KING:Critics lambasted it.

AL: Yes, I know.

KING:I love that movie.

AL: Yes, they did. They did...I did , too. I thought it had...it was I think...like all those things, a certain time something comes out, I think
it had this...Brian DePalma was trying to express something that had a lot of size to it and

KING:And violence.

AL: Yes, and it didn't have the kind of violence people thought though, you know. I mean it was...there was this undertow of it. And the
language...Oliver Stone wrote that script you know, so it's...

KING:I know.

AL: ...it's one of my favorites, yes.

KING:Dog Day Afternoon.

AL: Oh yes. Sidney Lumet directed that.

KING:That character?

AL: John Cassell...the late John Cassell was in that.

KING:You liked him?

AL: I loved the man.

KING:To get into the character in Dog Day.

AL: Yes, that...that was...

KING:And you are nothing like that, are you?

AL: Well, no. It's like, I remember not...having a three week rehearsal period and Sidney Lumet rehearses actors really and he's
great...he one of the great stagers of scenes. He tells you where to go and by doing that, he just creates this kind of environment and he
creats a bank heist. He did it in Dog Day, I mean just by putting people in positions.

KING:Choreographed almost?

AL: Yes. So we rehearsed the three weeks and all the time we were rehearsing we were working on that main scene, a scene between the
lover and my character over the phone that scene and we spent a lot of time developing that. Plus we did the...whole play. But I had
forgotten that the character was not there for me yet. So I remember at the time going into the bank on one shooting day, our first
shooting day and I had eye glasses on as a disguise and then I realized that this guy doesn't want to disguise himself, I think he wants to
get caught and that's when I thought I didn't know anything about this character. So I was watching the rushes that day and I said to
Marty Bregman, who was the producer, I said 'Marty we are going to have to shoot this scene over again.' He said 'What are you talking
about?' And I was out the door, I went home, I got a half gallon of white wine, I used to drink in those days and I sat all night long and I
drank the wine and thought about this character, went though the whole script of it and came back the next day and had that guy and it
all started, the scene came, when I realized that he wouldn't wear glasses as a disguise, he wanted to be caught.

KING:What do you say to the Gleasons who would say 'Hey, go home, get a night's sleep, play the role.'

AL: I'd say, 'I wish I could.'

KING:In other words, that...you...that's the way you have to do it?

AL: Well, no you play...some roles you play. I think it's all about...it's all about, how...you know, I think it's where you want to go. Some
roles are more...you intuit a little easier than others.

KING:You can intellectualize?

AL: No, you have an intuitive reaction to it.

KING:You mean you know it.

AL: You know it. You can relate to it.

KING:I got that impression watching you do Hughie.

AL: Hughie yes, yes.

KING:Hughie was you. I mean you...not you...but you had him down.

AL: Yes, well there is something that's a great one act play a great one act play written by one of the greatest writers that's ever written
Eugene O'Neill, so there it was. I had no idea I was going to get into that part, until I had done it. I had a reading of it once and I didn't
relate to it. And then I found something, an idea, a thought came to me and all of a sudden the part opened up. You never know where
you are going to get it, you never know who is going to say it to you, you never know if you are going to say it to yourself, if the director
is going to say it or a strange person that, you know, is going to drop something, a hint of some kind or...and...and you go with it.

KING:Is that why you keep coming back to the stage by the way?

AL: I keep coming back to the stage because I liken it to a tightrope like a wirewalker, the guys that...you know...

KING:Do you need it?

AL: ...who walk...who walk on the high wire. Yes, I like to be up on that wire because what happens when you are up on a high wire,
like the Wallendas, you know the Great Wallendas, and then they had that terrible tradegy, and by the end of it he said the life is on the
wire the rest is just waiting. So for me, life is on the wire and when you do a play you are on the wire because as soon as that thing
starts, you are into it, you're going and nothing can stop you it's like you know when a plane takes off, you know, you are at a point of
no return.

KING:You're there.

AL: So that stimulates you in a certain way and if you had a lifetime of experience with that it becomes a part of your genes.

KING:Henry Fonda told me once that there were days when he was doing Mr Roberts when it would be three in the afternoon and he
would look at his watch and he would want it to be 8:00pm.

AL: Oh, I know. Oh, I know, yes. That stage...

KING:He wanted to be Mr Roberts.

AL: ...it's always in the back of your psyche. So you are carrying it with you all day long and there is a certain thing that happens when
you go on that stage, a kind of confrontation in a way with yourself.

KING:Do you like directing?

AL: Not particuarly.

KING:Ron Howard is going to be on tomorrow night. Said he took to it like...by the way, he's anxious to meet you, he's never met you,
he'd like to work with you.

AL: Oh, that's great.

KING:Now, he loves directing. You don't.

AL: Well, I know it sounds. It's just...I don't mind it, I mean it's a way of having more control over what you do, that for one, is good,
but that's not a really good, valid reason to be a director. I think it's a way of looking at things, so it's like a director has an appitite to
direct something.

KING:Are you therefore...

AL: I don't have the appetite to do that. Occasionally...the reason I did Looking for Richard is because it was...it was an evolution, it
came out of, it was a natural extension of what I was doing. It was part of an experiment.

KING:Are you closer to it that other projects because of that?

AL: Yes

KING:It's your money, too, right?

AL: That's how I sort of... I put my own money in it and that was a way of of experimenting so I am doing it at least with my...my own
money, so...and you are not being watched, you don't have an overseer, you don't have to make...reach a certain whatever that is...you
have to get a certain...finish at a certain time.

KING:But the process is not...your process is acting, not directing.

AL: That's it. My whole life is acting. That's how I view it, I view people myself in relation to that. And suddenly to be directing, it's a
different sort of way of experiencing life.

KING:You must be happy with the product, though?

AL: Oh,yes.

KING:Well, you ought to be. We have another clip of Looking for Richard and we will break and show it to you and come back and we
will talk about fame and Al Pacino. Don't go away.

KING:By the way Looking for Richard has an incredible cast. Let me just lay it out for you. Penelope Allen, Alec Baldwin, Kevin
Conway...he's not bad...Estelle Parsons, Aiden Quinn, Wynona Ryder, Kevin Spacey, Haris Yulen and interviews with Shakespeare
veterns like Kenneth Brannaugh and Sir John Gielgud. That's a lot of interviews in the thing. Lot of fun, lot of laughs.

AL: and Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones, too.

KING:James Earl Jones, yes, we left him out.

KING:Kevin Conway is terrific.

AL: Oh, yes. He's a terrific gut.

KING:Did you hand pick everbody?

AL: Well, yes in a way I did, but we all sort of got together, like I say in the picture, you know? We just...

KING:You mean the way it looks is the way it happened?

AL: Yes, exactly. We said,'We will just get people together, see who stays and who...you know, who leaves and just play it by ear like
that.

KING:All right, a first, a call for Al Pacino. You look there.

AL: Yes.

KING:Pittsburg, hello?

AL: Hello, Pittsburgh.

1st CALLER, PITTSBURG,PA Hello. Hello Al, Hello Larry.

KING:Hi

1st CALLER Al, I'd like to know who are some of your favorite directors and actors that you have worked with in the past and also are
there any favorites that you--you know, that it would be a big thrill for you to work with then in the future?

KING:Okay, can we run down some? Favorite directors: Lumet?

AL: Oh, yes, Sidney Lumet would have to be on top, yes. And of course Francis Coppola and Harold Becker is also a dear friend of
mine. And a director. And Marty Brest...I love Marty Brest, too.

KING:Anyone you want to...anyone you would like to work with?

AL: I'd like to work with a lot of them, I mean, it's really..it's a long list. It...I can't think offhand of anyone, sorry, I can't think.

KING:What was that wonderful movie you made with the short order cook? Frankie and Johnny.

AL: Oh, Frankie and Johnny yes, that was...that was a wonderful story.

KING:I loved that.

AL: Oh, you did?

KING:And you were great with her.

AL: Oh,yes, Michelle.

KING:Did you ever fall in love with a leading lady?

AL: I have yes. That's...that's a problem.

KING:What happens when that happens?

AL: Well, that's...it's uncomfortable when you...you have to try to keep yourself away from that because if you do it..it affects everything
because you become sensitive to the person in a way that you..that you wouldn't, if you...there's a...I mean, you have to maintain that
objectivity in order to do a scene. And that's why people with love scenes and stuff like that you have to keep that distance in order to do
a thing like that. Otherwise it's..

KING:Because if you are really in love it's harder to do.

AL: Well, of course, because if you are really in love you are very, you should be playing the character but what you are doing is you are
concerned with how she feels or she is concerned how you feel and it becomes...it's a classic thing.

KING:All right. Randers, Denmark, hello?

2nd Caller, Randers, Denmark Hello,

AL: Hi

2nd CALLER I'd like to know if you have any plans to appear on stage in Europe, I'm thinking about Dustin Hoffman in '89 appearing
in Merchant of Venice.

KING:Dustin Hoffman did Merchant of Venice in Europe

AL: Yes

KING:Do you want to do a play in Europe?

AL: Oh, yes. I have appeared in London.

KING:London?

AL: In American Buffalo. At the...in the West End there and, of course, I am thinking of putting a couple of plays together and
touring...and touring Europe. I really...that' a dream of mine.

KING:Interesting. All right: fame. I said I would ask you about it.

Al Fame, yes.

KING:What's life like when you have no privacy and you can't go out to have privacy?

AL: Yes. See that's also part of the reason I have been reculant to do interviews too because of the kind of privacy, that you know, some
people have a kind of a private thing.

KING:Some people are phobic about it

AL: Yes they are phobic about it and the idea is that you are...unless you have had anonymity and lost it, it's hard to know what
anonymity is for you, you know, what it is. That it is..it's a powerful thing to have.

KING:Anonymity

AL: Anonymity. It's the ability to be able to be and blend and to relate to people on a level where you are really earning anything you do
with someone, you are earning the relationship.

KING:Not because you are famous.

AL: But in the end you have to earn all relationships, even if you are famous. So..

KING:When you have been famous for a long time, like you have, do you..

AL: yes

KING:..is it now just a way of life?

AL: Oh, yes

KING:You know when you go to a restaurant they all look up?

AL: absolutely, oh absolutely. Yes, sure. Sure.

KING:And how does it affect living?

AL: Well, it's...it's first it's a matter of adjusting to it naturally because you'd be crazy if you didn't realize you had to adjust it so one day
you are one way and the next everybody knows you, you know, so you are dealing with that. It's funny, Lee Strasberg once said,
somebody said to him, saw him and said to Lee Strasberg, 'Oh, I know you.' And he said, 'No, you don't know me.' And so that already is just an example. You know who...you know my name, you've seen me in the movies, but you don't know me, so that's the...I think if you just...as a matter of fact he was the one who said to me, you adjust to it. And I've made the adjustment.

KING:Why are we so fascinated with movie stars? As you were when you were a kid and went to the theater.

AL: Well, I think we identify with actors, you know, like Shakespeare says, actors are the chroniclers of our time, you know? So we
identify with...it's a big thing, we see ourselves in...when we go to a movie, that's what we ...that's part of

KING:We want to be that.

AL: Yes, we want to be that. Or in that situation or we relate to it, and we identify with certain people, I think.

KING:And the large screen adds to it?

AL: Oh, I would imagine.

KING:Bigger than life.

AL: sure

KING:Are you comfortable now, watching yourself?

AL: Oh, yes. Yes

KING:Some don't

AL: I always was. I don't watch myself that often in a finished movie I've done, but when I first saw myself on screen, I thought...that
was 25,26 years ago, and I couldn't believe that that was showing that that whatever that was in me that I was feeling was showing. It
was really disconcerting, it threw me. But after awhile, I immediately knew, it...for self preservation or whatever it is. I'd have to just
maintain that objectivity and not look at that as me, but as a character I was playing and what was going on. If I became critical of it and
took it personally and subjective, it would hurt me so I had to look at it and say, well gee, that's not coming there. That's working there,
but it's not working there. It's like it comes like a painting, you know? So you are just sort of orchestrating it as you look at it. You say,
gee, I didn't get that right. Otherwise you would beat yourself up otherwise...

KING:You would go nuts.

AL: Yes, yes, you would get very...you would start to brood about it and...I've done that. You know, I've...but if you don't sort of define
yourself by that and if you look at it as work as a character, then you...there is no need to be that hard on yourself.

KING:We will ask in a minute what keeps someone going when they know their craft so well, and have attained all the success you can attain. Al Pacino is the guest and don't miss..please, don't miss Looking for Richard. It's not playing wide yet, is it? When does it open all over the country?

AL: I think it is now.

KING: : Now?

AL: Yes, I think it's now

KING: Now? Right now?

AL: Yes, I think it is.

KING: You will thank me for telling you to see this, Looking for Richard. We will be right back with Richard, don't go away.

KING: Time is running out. Al's next will be Donnie Brasco in which you play a hit man.

AL: Yes

KING: Leftie Reggerio. This is a true story, the Brasco story. right?

AL: Well, it's based on...it's based on true events. It's not necessarily true.

KING: And Daily Variety says you are thinking about playing Aldrich Ames in Killer Spy?

AL: Yes, there is...there is talk about doing that. I..we haven't decided about it yet.

KING: Is it hard to play a living real person?

Al No, actually I prefer it. I do prefer it because then you can..you can get to meet them for one thing. And it's...it's just a..it's just
fodder to meet somebody...

KING: That you are going to play

KING: Now, people who see Looking for Richard are going to see maybe an Al Pacino they are not used to.

AL: Yes

KING: First they are going to see you as Al Pacino

AL: Yes, that's a good point.

KING: Because half the movie you are Al Pacino.

AL: Yes, yes.

KING: Talking to friends, talking to fellow actors and the other half you are just...you are playing the role you have been talking about
playing.

AL: That's right. So it's...yes, it's...and the whole style of the movie is not the knid of movie that audiences are used to seeing me in so I
think it's good for them to know, if they are going to see a piece like this, they are not going to see the usual movie I've been in.

KING: Call from Pilletsberg, St Martins. I guess that's the Virgin Islands. Hello?

3rd caller, ST MARTINS Yes, hello. My question is was there ever a time in your career that you thought of quitting?

AL: Oh, yes. Yes.

KING: You did?

AL: Yes

KING: Thought of quitting?

AL: Yes

KING: When?

AL: Oh, it was almost 15, 20 years ago. I did quit for awhile. I was out of it from '85 to '89, I didn't make a movie but then I ...I got
broke and I had to go make one.

KING: Were you having troubles?

AL: Well, the time before I was having troubles adjusting with different things and I thought, you know, I actually didn't want to...I
wanted to sort of get out of the movie business at that time, I think. I wanted to just go somewhere and do theater, and whatever and get
out of the kind of fray of it all, the light of it all at that time. But of course things have changed so much, not only with me, but the world
things have...it's just a different relationship to the whole success and fame thing. The other time is I took a kind of a sort of sabbatical
for about two to three years, where I just didn't do anything. And that's why Sea of Love, I came out with that in '89.

KING: You hadn't done a movie for two years?

Al I hadn't done a movie for four years.

KING: And had done what?

AL: Well, I just sort of...

KING: Drifting?

AL: Drifting. Having some fun. It was a wonderful period.

KING: No depression?

AL: No, no. It was a wonderful time, I really enjoyed it because I was...I did...I had made that little picture I made called the Local Stigmatic this 52 minute picture, which I didn't direct, but I was in and I did a couple of workshop plays...and I sort of enjoyed the
whole idea of not having to do anything.

KING: We will be right back with our remaining moments with the brilliant Al Pacino, the first of many visits. Don't go away.

KING: And I said I would ask you this...we're in...we've got about a minute and half left. What do you do when you attain your goals?

AL: My goals?

KING: I mean, you...I imagine you were a kid, you wanted to be famous, you are famous, you wanted to be a major actor, you are a
major actor, you think about awards, you've won all the awards...what's left?

AL: Well, this

KING: This is a crowning night in your life.

AL: Johnnie Carson. Oh, he's not on anymore is he?

KING: No. Oh, now you are going on ...a career, we're going to see you everywhere, huh, Pacino? Regis Philbin is next for you right?
That's a crowning moment.

AL: Yes

KING: What...what...what...when you've made it all?

AL: Well, the idea is that there is always things around. Because you never know where that...when that play comes alive to you or that
you read that book or somebody brings you something and you get excitied about it. You are really looking to go where your passions
take you really. It's what turns you on really. And I think that's the idea. You don't think of things in terms of accomplishments or
whatever, even goals. I don't. I just think I'm alive and here I am still.

KING: Are you in good health by the way?

AL: Oh, thank God I am yes.

KING: You mentioned drinking before, were you ever a drinker?

AL: I was a drinker. Yes.

KING: Alcoholic.

AL: Yes, drinking and drugs. Sure.

KING: How'd you lick it?

AL: I had some help. I had dear, dear wonderful friends who helped me through it and you know, it's always a struggle, but it's...

KING: Were you able to work while you were in it too?

AL: Well,I...yes, I was working and in it but I always took the time when I worked not to do it. And then as soon, of course,
after...Olivier once said, you know, the great line, 'The best thing about acting is the drink after the show,' you know?

KING: Right. The best thing about this is spending an hour with you. I hope there will be many more.

AL: Same here. Same here.

KING: I hope you had a good time.

AL: I sure did. Thank you.

KING: You are going to see a wonderful movie, Looking for Richard. We thank Al Pacino for being our guest, we thank you for joining us. Have a great weekend from New York.

AL: Good night

KING: Good night.

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David Letterman, TV INTERVIEW

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A big thank you to Danielle for typing this up.

Al Pacino On David Letterman - August 21st, 2002

David Letterman: Our first guest is an Academy Award-winning actor staring in the new motion picture entitled Simone. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Al Pacino. Al Pacino kids, there you go. ( !!Wild Applause from the crowd!! )
AL: Well, gee... ah (As the audience continues their nearly minute long ovation)

DAVE: How ya doing?
AL: Well hello Dude. (Dave laughs) Everyone told me to say that. I got that from someone.

DAVE: Hey, you know I was not expecting normally I don't think I remember you having blonde hair. And it looks it looks
AL: How'd that happen? (Laugh from audience)

DAVE: Yeah, how did that happen? Is that...
Off Stage Mystery Voice: (could be Dave's band leader) It wasn't me.
AL: Well, it's the thing with actors, you know, we always change our thing and sometimes we change our hair. And I was, um, in this part and it called for gray hair. And my hair, believe it or not, isn't normally gray except for the sideburns. So now it's blonde, and gray, but the roots are black. So, you know it's totally out of control. (Big laugh from audience).

DAVE: You know, it doesn't doesn't I'm not saying it looks bad, it's just different. Unusual.
AL: It's different, yeah. But, a lot of people with it I think though I've been seeing at least, that I'm starting to notice

DAVE: Yeah, so are you just going to let it go now? Because there's probably not much you can do with it.
AL: We'll let it go, yeah.

DAVE: Just let it go
AL: Let it live it's own take it's follow it's own course. (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: Do you do you remember Now I know that I have not seen you on many television shows, I don't think I've ever seen you I know that I've never seen you on this show. (Big audience laughter) But...
AL: But I saw you I think I saw you on an airplane once.

DAVE: That's exactly right. That's, that's a long, long time ago. We were flying east I believe.
AL: Yeah.

DAVE: Yeah, but you must have done them before. What was your first television talk show experience? How old were you? What were the circumstances? What was the show?
AL: That was a long time ago which was why it's about thirty years

DAVE: Thirty years?
AL: Or more.

DAVE: Yeah, you do one every thirty years or so?
AL: Every thirty well let's we'll see after this one. (Big audience laughter) So far so good right?

DAVE: Doing all right, so far? Good, good.
AL: Yeah, well I was on this show I could mention it was the Merv Griffith Show but but I don't know if my story about it is as accurate as what happened, as what really happened. But (Al laughs) You know how it is when you tell the story and you think about it years later, it's sort of So I went out (Audience laughs as Al awkwardly gears the subject back to his story) Um, I went out, and I was just announced and in those days I hadn't made a movie, and not many people knew who I was. I did a Broadway show, and so um, there was an applause sign. The audience applauded to be polite, and I came on. But I wasn't used to it because I though the were applauding and they don't know me but I was still into the theater bow, so I bowed as though I was doing you know I had just finished Hamlet and I came out, you know, and  (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: Well, that's nice.
AL: Only I was down there too long, you know. I...

DAVE: Well, wait. How long were you down there?
AL: Well, they stopped applauding, and I was still down there. (More Audience Laughter) And, uh, I got up slowly because I knew when I did it, I thought, 'What are you doing? They're here, they're not applauding. How are you going to get up now?' You know? (Big audience laughter) So I got up finally, and Merv Griffith he he's a great was a great talk show He still does it, does he? (Al asks Dave in the cutest way)

DAVE: No, I think he's retired. (Big audience laughter)
AL: There it is folks, I've out lived him, right? (More audience laughter)

DAVE: Do you know who Vin Diesel is? (Audience laughs)
AL: I do actually, I do.

DAVE: Well, see, I didn't know that.
AL: He's not blonde. So, anyway I got on the show and and he asked me a few questions and, it's all a blur but Do you remember the late, great Anthony Newly?

DAVE: Mmmhmm.
AL: He did so He, he protected me in a way, took me in. He covered for me cause I was cause Merv Griffith asked me how did I get from the Bronx to Broadway, cause I was from And I said I walked. (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: That's all right.
AL: I thought that was funny.

DAVE: It is funny.
AL: It's funny.

DAVE: Now I'm looking over your filmography, that's a list of your work. (Audience laughs) and uh, this is unbelievable to me that the second motion picture, and tell me if this is not correct, the second motion picture that you made was the Godfather. Is that true, is that how that actually worked? (Audience applauds)
AL: That's true.

DAVE: Did you did you have trouble getting that part? And once you had it, what was that experience like for certainly a beginner working with the big stars?
AL: Oh yeah, there was so much controversy over the casting of the picture, of the different parts, and uh I never thought I would be cast in it. Because I knew Francis Coppola, he wanted me for another movie, and he, uh And then he asked me to be in this picture. And I thought, 'This is the wrong part for me Michael. I would have preferred Sonny.' But there I was, I was choosing the parts. But, um, it was wonderful to be offered that. I was shocked by it, and, then the trouble started. (Dave laughs) Because after that nobody wanted me.

DAVE: Really?
AL: And, you know you mentioned Scarecrow, and one of my favorite directors, Jerry Schatzberg, directed that. And he also directed a movie called Panic in Needle Park. That was my first picture.

DAVE: Right, right. (Audience applauds)
AL: Thank you. Um, but Panic in Needle Park was was um they they finally took eight minutes, an eight minute reel from that picture and showed it to Paramount. And, and I think that's what got me the role finally.

DAVE: Yeah. Now, was there a moment when you're confronted with the cast, and and you realize, 'Oh my God, not only does everyone else think that I'm in over my head, maybe I am in over my head?' Were you intimidated by people that you worked with there?
AL: Totally, all the time.

DAVE: Yeah?
AL: For the whole picture, practically. And still am. (Big audience laughter) But, uh the, the idea of doing it was an interesting thing happened when we all got together for the first time. Marlon Brando, who's such an icon and an idol of all of us, and and the greatest actor in the world. Well, when he and all of us got together Francis Coppola liked everyone to eat, and go out and have dinner, and he though that if we were together in that environment we would get to know each other. And what was interesting about it, we went in Harlem and we had an Italian dinner, and we were all there, Brando, Jimmy Caan, Robert Duvall, and my dear friend the late John Cazale, who played Fredo. A great actor you know. (Long audience applaud) And, so we would have our dinner, and, uh, then it actors are funny that way, we would start going into our characters, and everyone was behaving like the characters in the movie. But we were just getting together, you know? I became introverted, and kind of sullen It was a comfortable thing to be, I mean. I didn't have to talk or anything. (Big, big laughter from everyone)

DAVE: Take a bow! We'll be right back with Al Pacino everybody.

*COMMERCIAL*

DAVE: Yes sir, Al Pacino ladies and gentlemen. Thank you Paul. Now this movie Simone is fantastic, by the way. Very entertaining, very funny, and very strange film.
AL: Yes.

DAVE: And part of it is a dynamic of the relationship between a director and a star who is difficult or who may be perceived to be difficult.
AL: Yes.

DAVE: Now when you were working early on with Francis Ford Coppola, did you have any of those moments when he was asking things that maybe you couldn't deliver on, or a misunderstanding on performance or what was being requested? Any moments like that come to mind early in your career?
AL: Well aw yeah gee. There's a few. And I think the one that's most outstanding with Francis, if I can remember it, was it's I hope it's not too long, but it's...

DAVE: Take your time Al. (Big audience laughter)
AL: Ah gee I know. You don't kill time, it kills you, right? (Big audience laughter) There was this scene in Godfather One, if anybody remembers it, when Michael, young Michael, gets married in Sicily, and he has to pass around uh candies it's a tradition, an Italian tradition. And then Francis says, 'Okay Al, here's the thing. You pass around the candy, you go to the different people, and then you um, you take the girl, who's your wife, and you waltz, you do a waltz then you go off in the car.' So I thought okay I said, 'Francis, you say you want me to talk in Italian to these people as I'm passing the candy I, I don't speak Italian.' (Big audience laughter) And he says, 'Well, it doesn't matter. Just say anything, whatever. Double talk, you know, whatever, cause I'm way up with the camera. We'll get it later. You know, don't worry about it. Just waltz around with the girl.' So I said, 'Francis, I don't waltz. I don't know how to waltz.' (Big audience laughter) He's looking at me, he said, 'Do something! Move with the girl, it doesn't matter. Just move around. Hold her you walk around, you've got just do a thing, spin her around a couple of times. I've got the camera up there, doesn't matter. Get in the car, and take off.' I said, 'Francis I don't drive!' (Big audience laughter) 'Why did I pick him? Why him?'

DAVE: Speaking of driving, I was looking at this list of stuff, 1977, Bobby Deerfield, 'Great racing movie.' Don't you think?
AL: Well, yeah, I mean I like it but ah (Big audience laughter) I liked part, there's some parts in it that were quite good. Sidney Pollack directed that.

DAVE: Yeah
AL: And he did Tootsie, and ah, that wonderful movie with Meryl Streep Out Of Africa. He's a great director.

DAVE: Tell us stories about working in live theater.
AL: Well, there's so many I have stories (Big audience laughter) I just happen to know about this one thing. I have a story. Theater is what I do most of the time, believe it or not.

DAVE: Really, is that your preference, honestly?
AL: Well, it's what I started with. And I think that I have more of a feeling about it someway, I feel more at home when I'm doing it.

DAVE: Money's a little different though, isn't it?
AL: Yeah. (Big audience laughter) That's why I can afford to do it now. (Big audience laughter) I I was in a play once in, it was in Boston; it was called The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Eventually I came to New York and did it. (Applause) Thank you. Many years ago, and...But during a performance in Boston, it just gives you an idea of what happens on stage sometimes. The kind of relationship you have with the audience. Because you get really intense about it, and you start to connect in ways you just don't understand, I mean. So one night I was doing the play, and I had this feeling, it...it was a feeling that I'd never had before. I was connecting to someone in that audience, and it was like ah, the eyes were like, were riveted to me. And I felt...I was drawn to it the whole time.

DAVE: So you're making contact to someone's eyes in the audience?
AL: It's not...yes, it's a feeling you get.

DAVE: It's like being in...athletes talk about being in the zone.
AL: You're in the zone with that person. That you're just...And finally I started playing the whole play...it was, it was at just such a degree that I had to look out at the end of the play and look into the area that was giving me so much...so much vibe. So I went...I couldn't wait for the curtain call to come. And finally it comes and it's the end of the play, and we come out and take our bows. And the first thing I do is I look over directly to where these eyes were. And they were two seeing-eye dogs. (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: Well that's silly.
AL: It's an illusion, you know?

DAVE: That's not right. Now, um I think we have some videotape of you at a baseball game.
AL: Oh geez.

DAVE: I think it's 1997, that's what I'm guessing. Does that ring a bell?
AL: Oh yes it does. A loud bell in my inner ear.

DAVE: Should we talk about it first? Should we look at the videotape first and then talk about it, or talk about it then look at it?
AL: Maybe I should talk about it first.

DAVE: Okay, let's tell people what this was. This was a Yankee game, right?
AL: I'm doing an inordinate amount of talking though, aren't I here?

DAVE: Well it's a talk show.
AL: There it is. Well, there it is. (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: That's the idea. You fit right in.
AL: Who am I kidding? This is where I belong. (Big audience laughter) Anyway, one day I'm going to the baseball game...

DAVE: You a big sports fan?
AL: Well I like sports a lot. I...I enjoy the games, I love baseball and all of them. It's great to watch the athletes...amazing. So occasionally I go, and I like to go to practice before the game starts so you can just...you see them, just milling around the field, and then the game starts. But I had an appointment that day, and I got this impulse to go to the game, and I thought I'd go to the game. And I was with my girlfriend Beverly D'Angelo and um, we went to the...(Some people in the audience applaud for Beverly, and Al laughs and claps himself. Dave also claps.) So we went to the game, and I thought, as an after thought...this is my, sometimes my reality...it's...I'm thinking, 'You know I've got to leave early, about the second or third inning, they're going to get upset because...You know, you remember that Jack Benny movie To Be Or Not To Be where, every time he's playing Hamlet he gets to be, he gets to say 'To be or not to be', somebody gets up in the third row and leaves, and he just watches them as they go? He's right in the middle of this soliloquy, and...Well I thought if I get up in the middle of the game...

DAVE: It's inconsiderate.
AL: It's inconsiderate.

DAVE: A big star, leaving the ball game. It doesn't look good.
AL: That's right, he walked out on us. What's up?

DAVE: Exactly. (Big audience laughter)
AL: So, ah...I was thinking it was a Broadway show or something. So anyway I go in and I said, 'You know I happen to have a spare beard in the car.' Go figure that. (Big audience laughter) In case I get hungry, you know? So, ah, I put the beard on, and it's like the Smith Brothers kind of beard. I got a baseball cap and some eyeglasses. Well, I might of known something's wrong because as I was going to my seat with this, I pass someone who said, 'Hi Al.'

DAVE: Yeah, you know.
AL: So I was off and running with that. I thought this is someone else he was talking to. Not to mention I'm with Beverly D'Angelo. (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: None of it makes any sense.
AL: Well I'm sitting down and watching them practice, and at one time my chin started to itch a little bit so I lifted up the bear and went under (Big audience laughter) But I'm so sure of myself, you know what I mean, no one is going to know. And, ah, Beverly's there, and I'm not putting two and two together, yet. Until I look out into the field and for some reason the cameras that were on the players, are now switched and turned around on me. (Big audience laughter) So, ah, I wound up being on the eleven o'clock news, I was on highlights...at the end of the year they showed it as special crazy things that happened, and it was me with a beard.

DAVE: Crazy things that happened?
AL: Crazy things.

DAVE: Well, you must have felt like a dope, for heaven's sakes! (Big audience laughter) Did you?
AL: I...I still do. Still do. That beard has been retired into the museum of mistakes.

DAVE: If you don't mind, let's take a look...
AL: No, I don't mind.

DAVE: So this is the day of the ball game of 1997 at Yankee stadium. Al Pacino, or at least we think it's Al Pacino. Man of mystery.

*CLIP of Al sitting hunched over with his disguise on looking out at the field, with Beverly at his side. *
(HUGE laughter at the picture)

DAVE: What's the matter with you? Excellent idea. Oh my God.
AL: (Al's face is buried in his hands as he is laughing so hard) I love the touch of gray, don't you?

DAVE: Very nice.
AL: I was cold, that's what I thought.

DAVE: We want to, we want to talk about Simone, ah, it opens Friday, August 23. It's just wonderful, very entertaining.
AL: Ah, thank you.

DAVE: And can you tell people what this is in a...is there any way to explain the premise really?
AL: (Shakes his head) No.

DAVE: It's you working with a synthesized star.
AL: That's it. It's, it's a guy who's run out of tricks and he can't get a job anymore in Hollywood, and his wife, his ex-wife, run's the studio, and she gave him a chance and he blew it. And Winona Ryder plays the starlet who is very uppity and she leaves the picture, and now he's left without anything. So he invents...he gets a formula from some wild, crazy guy...and he puts it on and he invents this virtual actress. An actress who's made out of pixels and um...

DAVE: Then the fun begins, as we say.
AL: Let's hope.

DAVE: All right we have a clip here. Do you know what this is?
AL: Oh no, I can tell you the clip. I know the clip. (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: Okay, good.
AL: This girl, Rebecca Stamos, she plays Simone's body double, and she's standing in for Simone because everybody things that Simone is real, and she's not, and I'm making this girl into Simone, like she's hiding. But she's supposed to be Simone. And I rush her out and put her in a car and we go to my house. And, she sort of likes Simone. So, you'll see that.

DAVE: Okay, but this is not Simone, this is someone pretending to be Simone? She's Simone's double?
AL: She is what...I want her to be the double. I want people to think that's Simone, that she really exists, cause she runs into a car, but she covers her face, like that.

DAVE: It's the old bait and switch.
AL: Bait and switch, yeah.

DAVE: It's called Simone, it opens Friday. Take a look. Here we go.

*CLIP of Simone * (Rebecca Romijn Stamos and Al are kissing on a bed)

Rebecca: This is so exciting.
AL: Yes.
Rebecca: Do what you do to Simone.
AL: What? What'd you say?
Rebecca: I said do whatever you do to Simone.
AL: What I do to Simone?
Rebecca: Ohh, call me Simone.
AL: Simone.
Rebecca: Yes, say it again please! I want to know what it's like to be her just for one night. Please call me Simone.
AL: You're with me, so you can be close to her?
Rebecca: Is that a problem?

*END CLIP * (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: That is some clip! My God. That's unbelievable.
AL: It was a little long, I thought.

DAVE: That acting is hard work, isn't it Al? Having a beautiful woman on top of you for 20 minutes?
AL: That really hurt. It really did. (Big audience laughter)

DAVE: Anyway, it's great fun, and it opens August 23rd. What are you going to do now? Do you have some time off, going to hang around? What's going on?
AL: Wow. That's an incredible question. (Big audience laughter) Now, I'll probably...I've continuing in the theater, ah you know, I've got some plans to do some theater down town.

DAVE: But I meant like tonight. Are you going to go home and have dinner?
AL: Oh tonight, you know, I'll probably...No I've got some, actually I have to go do some dubbing. I have to go to work.

DAVE: All right, good to see you. Good luck with your hair.
AL: Thanks.

DAVE: Al Pacino everybody!

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