Tropicana Nov-Dec 2017 #116 Celebrating the Classics

GAME CHANGER
GODFATHER
AL THE PACINOLOOKS
BACK
ON
Celebrated Hollywood A-lister, Al Pacino
recalls the days that led to him playing the
iconic cinematic role of Michael Corleone, a
role that made him a credible actor - one to be
reckoned with.
FABIAN WANTAL / THE INTERVIEW PEOPLE
Celebrating 45 years since the release of the
movie The Godfather, the first two movies
were shown in a marathon of seven hours
(thanks to the Tribeca film Festival and
the Robert De Niro organisation). Al Pacino sat down
under the Marlon Brando portrait, at the Radio City
Music Hall in New York, to reminisce over the most
memorable moments in a movie that changed his life
and movie history, forever.
COULD WE START FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE
BEGINNING? DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME
YOU MET THE GODFATHER DIRECTOR FRANCIS
FORD COPPOLA?
That is such a long story, but it starts with Francis
(Ford Coppola) and me in San Francisco getting to
know each other because he wanted me to play another
role. I was sitting around a pool table with Steven
Spielberg and George Lucas; they were all kids. They
had never done a movie. Anyway, Francis didn’t want
me for the actual movie. He had written a beautiful
movie. You know Francis wrote ‘Patton’. He’s a great
director and a great writer and it was a great script. It
was almost abstract, almost a surreal movie about a
professor who falls in love with one of his students. It
was beautifully written.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT MOVIE?
They turned us down. They turned me down. Francis
never did it. I went away and I said bye.
109 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 | TM