Sonny Boy by Al Pacino: ‘I was broke ? I only had 90 grand’

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SONNY BOY by Al Pacino (Century £25, 384pp)

Sony Boy is 利用できる now from the Mail Bookshop

Things are different when you’re a movie 星／主役にする. In 1985, after a 一連の 不成功の films, Al Pacino decided to retire, concentrating on theatre work instead.

Then, four years later, he realised he was broke and would need to start making films again. His 鮮明度／定義 of broke? ‘I had about ninety grand in the bank and that was it.’

Of course, film-星／主役にする 財政／金融s have to be 見解（をとる）d in the 状況 of film-星／主役にする lifestyles. どこかよそで in his autobiography, Pacino 明らかにする／漏らすs that, at one point, his 月毎の 去っていく／社交的なs were three or four hundred thousand dollars (‘which is a lot of moolah’).?

Mind you, this was partly 予定 to an untrustworthy accountant: ‘Even though I had only two cars, I was somehow 支払う／賃金ing for 16, along with 23 独房 phones I didn’t?know about.’

His income from Scarface ? ‘still the biggest film I ever did’ ? could support him on its own. Or rather it could ‘if I lived like a normal person’.

I once discussed Pacino with a friend, and said that I would happily 支払う／賃金 to watch him read the New York phone 調書をとる／予約する.

My friend agreed, 追加するing: ‘He wouldn’t even have to read it out loud.’

The man has animal 教祖的指導力, the 質 which keeps you watching, no 事柄 how mundane the scene he’s in, no 事柄 how 普通の／平均（する） the movie as a whole, because you know that, at any second, he could suddenly do something 完全に barking mad.

It was his mother who called him ‘Sonny Boy’ ? the woman who brought him up alone after his father left before Al was two.

Al Pacino in Scarface

She was always a troubled soul and 試みる／企てるd 自殺 when Al was six. Fifteen years later, she choked to death on pills. He’s 自信のない whether it was a repeat 試みる／企てる: ‘I’d like to give my mother that 利益 of the 疑問, that dignity.’

In the end, his father married five times (‘me, not even once ? I guess we balanced each other out that way’), and opened a restaurant called Pacino’s.

‘When somebody would say to me, “He’s trying to 貿易（する） on your 指名する,” I would say: “Hey, schmuck ? that’s the 指名する I got from him.”’

His 20s were spent in theatre, but Pacino knew that movie stardom beckoned: ‘I always felt as though I had a natural 関係 with a camera.’

In just his third film he was 証明するd 権利, his 業績／成果 as Michael Corleone in The Godfather propelling him to fame. When he told his grandmother that he’d got the part, she replied that his grandfather had come from the Sicilian town of Corleone.

Just before 狙撃 his first scene with Marlon Brando, on 場所 in a New York hospital, he ate lunch with his fellow actor: ‘He was sitting on one hospital bed, I was sitting on the other . . .

‘He was eating chicken cacciatore with his 手渡すs. His 手渡すs were 十分な of red sauce. So was his 直面する.’

Pacino wondered if he should fetch Brando a napkin.

‘Before I could, he spread both his 手渡すs across the white hospital bed and smeared the sheets with red sauce. . . I thought: “Is that how movie 星／主役にするs 行為／法令／行動する? You can do anything”.’

Mafioso: Marlon Brando (権利) with Al Pacino, filming the Godfather

Until recently, Pacino had never seen the film in its entirety: ‘I don’t know why. Maybe I felt that because I was in it, I wouldn’t be a good audience for it.’

But at a 50th 周年記念日 event he did settle 負かす／撃墜する for the duration, and was as impressed as the 残り／休憩（する） of us.

Not that he hadn’t known what the film meant to people. Soon after it （機の）カム out, he was ‘standing at a kerb, waiting for the light to change, and this pretty redhead was standing there with me. I looked at her. She looked at me. I said “Hi”. She said, “Hi, Michael”. And I just went, whoa. Oh my God. Anonymity, 甘い pea, the light of my life, my 生き残り 道具 ? that’s gone now. You don’t 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる it till you lose it’.

The strangeness of fame hasn’t 影響する／感情d only him. Years later, when his daughter was about eight, she asked: ‘Dad, are you Al Pacino?’

The 調書をとる／予約する has some lovely insights into the 星／主役にする’s most famous 役割s. While 準備するing to portray a blind man in Scent Of A Woman, Pacino was taught how to disassemble a gun and put it 支援する together.

Al with Michelle Pfeiffer filming Scarface

Whenever he got it 権利, the 軍の officer who was training him would shout, ‘hoooooo-ah!’ ? and ‘I said to myself, “That’s going into the picture”.’

And 存在 driven to the 始める，決める for Serpico, in which he played a policeman, Pacino became annoyed by the exhaust ガス／煙s of a nearby トラックで運ぶ. 教えるing his driver to get level with it, he flashed his 警官，（賞などを）獲得する’s badge and shouted: ‘Pull over to the 味方する of the road, you son of a bitch. You’re 汚染するing the 空気／公表する.’

He wisely decided against carrying the 脅し any その上の.

Pacino is 84 now and the whole 調書をとる／予約する has the feeling of a man at peace with himself and the world (it wasn’t always that way). He’s still got that glint in the 注目する，もくろむ, that 空気／公表する of 予測できなく ? and, crucially, the ability to laugh at life.

At one point, 生産／産物 of Scarface had to be 停止（させる）d when the machine gun he 解雇する／砲火／射撃s during the final 戦う／戦い sce ne (the ‘leetle friend’ to which enemies are 招待するd to ‘say hello’) became so hot that it fused itself to his 手渡す.

He went to hospital, where a nurse asked the same question as his daughter: ‘Are you Al Pacino?’ He 確認するd that he was.

‘Oh,’ （機の）カム the reply. ‘I thought you were some scumbag.’