In an exclusive extract from his memoir shared with the British site The Guardian, Al Pacino reveals that he had hoped to be fired from the film “The Godfather” after a serious ankle sprain during filming, due to general animosity towards him.
It was his destiny. The British site The Guardian has just revealed an exclusive extract from Al Pacino’s memoir, “Sonny Boy” (ed. Seuil), to be published this Friday, October 18, in which the actor reveals that he secretly hoped to be fired from the film “The Godfather” after a serious ankle sprain during filming. For what reason? Al Pacino remembers that at the time, the studio Paramount Pictures did not want to see him play the character of Michael Corleone. It was Francis Ford Coppola, the director, who insisted on giving him the role. The actor confides that a rumor concerning his imminent dismissal circulated from the start of filming.
“There was unease among people, even among the film crews, when I came to work. I was fully aware of this. Rumor had it that I was going to get fired, as was the director. Not that Francis didn’t fit the bill. But he was the one responsible for my presence in the credits,” he explains. It was then that Francis Ford Coppola decided to invite him to dinner one evening to show him the first images of the film and point out his shortcomings. “I found that there was nothing spectacular in fact,” Al Pacino remembers thinking of his performance.
A relief
Fortunately for the actor, the filming of a crucial scene in the film, in which Michael takes revenge on Sollozo and McCluskey, had been brought forward on schedule, giving him the opportunity to prove his detractors wrong. But while jumping from a moving car, Al Pacino, who did not have a stunt double, had seriously sprained his ankle. “I couldn’t move anymore. The whole film crew surrounded me. They were trying to get me to my feet, asking me if my ankle was broken, if I could stand. I knew nothing about it,” he wrote, admitting at that moment to having felt relieved at the idea of being fired.
“I was lying there thinking it was a miracle. Oh Lord! You save me! I don’t have to make this film anymore. I myself was shocked at the relief I felt in that moment. Coming to work every day feeling rejected, being treated like a subordinate, was an oppressive experience, and this injury marked my release from that prison. Finally, they could fire me, find another actor to play Michael, and not waste another cent on this film,” he adds.
Obviously, history will decide otherwise, and Al Pacino will keep his job precisely because of his performance in the scene he had just shot. Despite his injury. “I had a plan, a direction that I wanted to give this character. And I was convinced that Francis felt the same way as me,” he concluded. The actor will inherit a nomination for the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance in 1973, and will reprise the role of Michael Corleone – who will definitively launch his immense career – in the two sequels.
