SAYS MILOS FORMAN & SIDNEY LUMET BOTH ASKED HIM WHY HE WENT AND DID 'SCARFACE'
"It may be worth mentioning here," writes David Marchese in the intro to his conversation with Al Pacino, which posted yesterday at the New York Times, "that I have come, over a lifetime of watching Pacino, to identify with him. I had a poster of Pacino from Scarface on the wall of my apartment as a young man. That’s a cliché, I’ll admit; I’m far from the only wild-eyed adolescent who saw Tony Montana’s over-the-top defiance as an appropriate response to the stifling world of jobs and responsibilities that was waiting for me. (The fact that Tony is a coke-addled murderer took a bit longer to register.) Decades later, I still have that poster, only it has now migrated to the basement of my family’s house, and the default picture of Pacino in my mind as Tony Montana has been replaced by him as the dashingly bearded, wearily dignified ex-con Carlito Brigante, who’s just trying to do the right thing and go straight, in Carlito’s Way. Which, I now realize, is also my idealized mental image of a middle-aged man. I’m certain there are countless others who feel equally attached to Pacino’s work. That’s what happens when you illuminate as much human behavior as he has."
Scarface comes up in the conversation, when Marchese asks Pacino to illuminate something he read in Pacino's new memoir, Sonny Boy:
In the book you say directors have insulted you throughout your life. What’s an example? What was his name? The guy that directed the great Mozart film, “Amadeus”?Miloš Forman. Miloš Forman! He’s so great. I’m having dinner with him, and he came out and said, “How do you do this [expletive] ‘Scarface’? You do ‘Dog Day Afternoon,’ then you do this ‘Scarface’?” You know who else said it? My favorite, Lumet. Sidney Lumet said “Al, how do you go in there and do that crap?” He was so mad. I kept thinking, I don’t feel that way. I love their passion.
Somebody says, “How do you do that [expletive],” and you say, “I love your passion”? You’re enlightened! Yeah, and thank God merciful that it’s one of the biggest films I’ve ever made.
“Scarface.” It keeps going.
I wonder if, in terms of your acting, that’s a pivotal movie for you. Because “Scarface” was the first time you really went operatic, over the top. If you look at the roles you do after, you’re much more likely to go big. Yeah, I got that reputation. Some of the stuff I did in school, 14, 15 years old, was the best work I ever did. Not the best work. It was the most inspired work. Because I was so in it. That’s why the teacher came and talked to my mom, came to my house to tell her that I should pursue this thing. But what I’m getting at is, “Scarface” was done that way. “Scarface” came from a place that was different. That’s true.
Updated: Sunday, October 6, 2024 9:46 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post