Hollywood star Al Pacino has revealed in his new memoir that one of his most famous roles — Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” — almost didn’t happen.
In the 84-year-old’s new book “Sonny Boy,” Pacino said if it wasn’t for director Francis Ford Coppola’s belief in him to nail the role of the mob boss’ son he would’ve been let go from the project when others were less impressed with his work, Page Six reported.
Pacino wrote in the book about a meeting he had with Coppola when the studio was upset about his performance once filming started.
“You know how much you mean to me,” the director said, according to Pacino’s book. “How much faith I had in you. Well, you’re not cutting it.”
The director showed the actor footage and the two agreed there wasn’t “anything spectacular here.”
Pacino admitted he had been underplaying the part because he wanted the power of Michael to appear to shock the audience.
Al Pacino was almost fired from iconic ‘Godfather’ role in favor of these A-listers: memoir https://t.co/V8oHjvzoOw pic.twitter.com/zByWnHmVTQ
— Page Six (@PageSix) October 15, 2024
“My idea was that this guy comes out of nowhere,” the “Serpico” star wrote. “That was the power of this characterization. That was the only way this could work: the emergence of this person, the discovery of his capacity and his potential.”
Because Coppola believed Pacino was the right actor for the role, the director decided to shoot one of the most iconic scenes in the movie, the restaurant shooting the next day, where Corleone’s character shows he can become the head of the family and do what was needed.
Pacino wrote that Coppola moved up the filming of the scene “to give the doubters back in Hollywood some incentive to believe in me and keep me in the picture.”
After 15 hours of shooting, Pacino’s portrayal of his character’s double murder did the trick with the studio, and silenced any further doubt that he wasn’t the right guy for the job.
“They knew I was going through a difficult time, feeling like I had the world on my shoulders, knowing that any day the axe could fall on me … Sterling [Hayden] and Al Lettieri helped keep up my morale; they set a one and were role models for me,” Pacino wrote in the book about the two stars he shared the scene with.
“Because of that scene I just performed, they kept me in the film,” he added.
The “Scarface” star admitted he went to the premiere in 1974 but ditched out of the theater because he “didn’t want to see the finished product. “As soon as the lights went out, I went out.”
The Hollywood star admitted that he never watched the film until recently, when he went to the screening for its 50th anniversary in 2022.
Related: Al Pacino Talks About That Role He Regrets Turning Down, Takes Dig At Harrison Ford
