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CNN Larry King Live
Al Pacino Interview
Aired June 15, 2007 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, exclusive...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL PACINO, ACTOR: Send him off to my dear friend (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Al Pacino -- one of the best you've ever seen on screen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: You're out of order!
Between living and dying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: He matched Brando early on.
Now he's mixing it up with Clooney and Pitt. He tangoed his way to an Oscar and tonight Al Pacino is here to talk -- and he almost never does interviews.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What am I going to do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Al Pacino unedited, exclusive for the hour, next on LARRY KING LIVE.
When I'm often asked what's the hardest thing to do in interviewing, the hardest thing to do in interviewing is to interview someone you're a friend -- who's a friend, who you know a lot about, who you spend a lot of time with.
Such is the case with Al Pacino, but we're going to do our best.
The Oscar winning actor now costars in "Ocean's 13" with Clooney and Pitt and Damon and Barkin. He recently was honored with the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. That will air shortly.
And "Al Pacino: An Actor's Vision" is now available in a boxed D.V. set with films you have never seen. And they include "Chinese Coffee," "The Local Stigmatic" and "Looking For Richard." "Looking For Richard" a brilliant film.
Al, thanks for coming back.
PACINO: My pleasure.
KING: It's only been 11 years.
PACINO: Eleven, has it?
KING: Eleven since you've been here.
PACINO: But who's counting.
KING: (LAUGHTER).
By the way, you've got -- getting that AFI Lifetime Achievement, how do they do that?
Do they call you up?
PACINO: Yes.
KING: You're going to get the Lifetime Achievement Award?
PACINO: They call you up like almost a year before you're going to get it. Of course, you don't believe it's ever going to happen. And then it sort of goes out of your mind. And then as it gets closer, people remind you and you think it's not -- they're kidding. They're not really going to give me that award. And then there it is. And then they have a big show and they give it to you. Fantastic.
KING: When does it air?
When will the public see it?
PACINO: I believe this month sometime.
KING: What does it say to you when you get -- I mean you're aware in our own skin of all you've attained, right?
I mean, it can't be a surprise to you.
PACINO: Well, it is, actually, because you're always -- you're always looking at what's in front of you, you know, what you're going to be doing next and what you're involved in. So suddenly to have your whole life kind of in front of you, it's -- it's an experience I don't recommend. It's scary.
KING: Humbling? PACINO: It's humbling. By far, it's most humbling, yes. It's the opposite. You would think after something like this you would be all full of yourself. You go the other way. Everybody does.
KING: New Yorkers, especially New Yorkers who have made it, tell me they often think back to when they hadn't made it.
Do you?
Do you think back to the poor days?
PACINO: I always think back to those. I'm in those days all the time, you know? I had to hitch coming here. I had to hitch a ride.
KING: (LAUGHTER).
PACINO: No. It's -- you are, though. You're living in that -- you're living in that thing. It's -- because it's your origins. It's what you come out of. And you -- you have a memory. Any actor will tell you they have an instant memory of it. It's like learning, you know, knowing your Social Security number.
KING: Do you think you were born to act?
PACINO: Yes, I think so. I don't know if one is born to act. I think that I act to be born, really (INAUDIBLE)...
KING: But you took to it well, right?
PACINO: I took to it.
KING: You've said you need some insecurity if you're an actor.
Why?
PACINO: I did?
KING: Yes.
PACINO: When did I say that...
KING: That's a quote they have here.
PACINO: ... back stage?
KING: I don't know.
Do you still have insecurity?
PACINO: Well, yes. Look, I mean, it's right in front of you.
KING: You're insecure?
PACINO: I'm insecure right now, yes. But (INAUDIBLE)...
KING: Why don't you do a lot of interviews, by the way? PACINO: I don't know.
KING: I think you've done three in 25 years.
PACINO: I did about four in 25 years.
KING: So we're half of them. PACINO: You'll see why.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: No, you're good if you -- we've just got to work you.
PACINO: Well, I just don't -- I've always been of the mind -- at least for me, not for other actors -- but for me, that the less you're seen and the less your personality is in front of your work or your characters that you play, the better. It gives you more of a chance to go -- to go in different directions and the audience then accepts you more readily than they do when they have a -- when you come with a lot of baggage and they know a lot about you, because they put that into the role they're watching.
KING: Henry Fonda told me once when he doesn't have a script, he's insecure.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: When there's not a potential job right in front of him, no matter how successful he is, he worries.
PACINO: Right. Yes. Humphrey Bogart had that problem, too. He was terrified. That's why he took so many pictures because he was afraid he wasn't going to work again.
I don't have that problem, as a matter of fact. I'm just afraid of...
KING: Harlem (ph)?
PACINO: ... working and not working.
KING: You're not afraid of failing, are you?
PACINO: Oh, no, no. You can't be. That's the worst thing because then you start, you know, you start repeating yourself and going in a circle because you -- you've got to go out there and -- a friend of mine once said you're as good as the chances you take. You've got to go risk it because that gives you the vitality. It gives you the reason to do it. It's the challenge, of course.
But I can understand feeling like you're -- you're not going to get a role you like or you're -- sometimes you don't for years. And so you -- you keep going and, you know, you do parts generally that you might not really -- you're not -- projects you're not crazy about, but you...
KING: You still give it your best? PACINO: Oh, yes. Oh, got to. Yes.
KING: So it's always 100 percent?
PACINO: Oh, yes.
KING: No matter what the script or...
PACINO: Yes.
KING: ... what the outcome?
PACINO: Yes.
KING: By the way, we can make a little news tonight...
PACINO: Like when you're on a trapeze, you can't jump from one, you know, from one bar to another without giving it all. You'll fall.
KING: Yes, OK.
We might tell the audience tonight some good news. Al Pacino and Robert de Niro...
PACINO: Oh, yes.
KING: ... are returning. They...
PACINO: Yes.
KING: They have only made one film together, from Michael Mann, called "Heat."
PACINO: Yes.
KING: And they will now do a film again. They're both police officers. And you'll start shooting in September.
How did this come about?
Because everyone always used to say de Niro and Pacino got to work together.
PACINO: Yes. Well, I think that Bob was in this -- involved in this project before I was and they were looking for somebody to play the other detective. And I believe Bob said why don't you ask Al?
KING: Did you like it right away?
PACINO: Yes. I loved the idea of working with Bob again. But, also, I liked the script. It was really good.
KING: Are you better when the other actor is real good?
PACINO: Well, I think naturally, yes, you would be. You would be, because especially if you're playing off somebody, you're -- you're being given so much. And if you leave yourself open, it's, you know, invariably it's better because you -- especially actors you know and trust in a deep way and you work with. Yes. Yes.
KING: The selection process -- when you get a script, what's the judgment factor?
Do you have to be the star?
PACINO: No. I usually give it to my friend Charlie Lawton. He's my dear friend. And he's been with me forever, since I was a teenager. And he...
KING: Picks them?
PACINO: I studied acting with Charlie. He reads them. I don't like to read screenplays. I never did. I will read them. If somebody says, you know, Al, so and so is attached to this, you know, Robert de Niro and John Avnet is directing it, and you say oh, well, I'm interested. But usually Charlie will read it first. It takes me a while to get to it. I don't know why. I'm not dyslexic or anything. I just -- I have trouble reading screenplays.
Isn't that odd?
KING: I never knew that.
PACINO: Plays too, actually.
KING: Stage plays?
PACINO: Stage plays, yes.
KING: Charlie read those, too?
PACINO: Yes.
KING: Al Pacino is our guest, the Oscar winning actor.
He's currently seen in "Ocean's 13."
We're going to talk about this extraordinary box set they've put together.
It's always great to see him and have him with us.
We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you're out of order.
PACINO: Out of order?
I'll show you out of order.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you are out of order. PACINO: You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: Give me all you've got.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: Oh, what a big man you are. That's going to make the difference between winning and losing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: You didn't know me. You fired without looking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: Attica! Attica! Attica! (ph)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take a flame thrower to this place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "CHINESE COFFEE," COURTESY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT)
PACINO: Do you know what that does to me, to have sheets on a window?
Other people have shades. They have drapes. I have sheets.
Do you understand what that makes me feel?
I'm not one of them privileged brats from Westchester who thinks living down and out in Greenwich Village is cool. No, I'm a grownup.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't understand.
PACINO: You never do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't think. Tomorrow, I can go out and buy some nice shades for $5.
PACINO: You don't understand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That's a movie you haven't seen. It's from "Al Pacino: An Actor's Vision." It's called "Chinese Coffee." You directed it. Jerry Orbach was in that, right?
PACINO: Yes.
KING: The late Jerry Orbach.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: I want to ask you about scripts again.
And then why haven't we seen this?
Why has "Chinese Coffee" never been released?
PACINO: Well, I -- I went through a period where I made movies on my own, on my own, with my own nickel and I paid for them and I did them and I made them. And I enjoyed that very much, the whole enterprise of making my own film and really having no one to answer to, just to do it. And so I did it for a while and -- and...
KING: But didn't release it?
PACINO: I didn't release it, no.
KING: Oh, now it's in a box set?
PACINO: No, I'm never going to release it.
KING: Except in this?
PACINO: No.
KING: Oh, even -- not (INAUDIBLE) in the box set?
PACINO: No. It's an attempt at humor.
KING: But it's out now in a box set?
PACINO: It's out in a box set and I really wasn't going to release any of these films, except for "Looking For Richard," which fortunately got released.
But I've always taken the idea that these are private pictures. These are pictures I made on my own for my own reasons. And I never thought they would see the light of day. But as time went on, I thought this might be a good time for them. I thought the world has changed and things are -- I just think it's right for them to come out now.
KING: Did you pay the actors?
PACINO: You pay the actors.
KING: Poor Jerry.
PACINO: Poor Jerry, yes.
KING: A great guy. Underrated actor.
PACINO: Oh, yes. He was wonderful.
KING: Back to the script thing.
PACINO: Yes?
KING: All right, your friend looks at them. Your friend reads them.
Do you eventually read them?
PACINO: Well, you know what I do sometimes?
I take a script and I -- and I -- I ask a lot of actors to come and read the roles, the different roles in the script. And we sit down and we have a reading. And that's how I get to read the script. It's a wonderful way to read the script because somebody reads the stage directions. Other actors read the different parts.
KING: These are not necessarily actors who will be in the movie?
PACINO: No. No. They're friends...
KING: They're just friends?
PACINO: Sometimes friends, sometimes people, you know, who would like to get together and read. Actors like to do that. We all like to get together and read things sometimes. It's fun.
KING: It gives you a feel for it?
PACINO: You know, and sometimes we tape it, also.
KING: Oh, yes?
PACINO: And then it's a very interesting thing. Francis Ford Coppola did this early on. You tape a movie, like a radio show, and you have the narrator read all the stage directions. And then you go back like a few days later and then you listen to the movie. And it sort of plays in your mind like a film, like a first rough cut of a movie, because you're sitting there and you're listening to the actors talking to each other and someone says, "He gets up. He moves to the couch. He goes over to the window." And you visualize it. You get a sense of the kind of movie it is.
I did that with a movie called "Pretty Woman," which I read with Julia Roberts before Julia Roberts was a known actress. KING: But that wasn't your movie?
PACINO: No. I was going to play the part.
KING: That Richard Gere played?
PACINO: Yes. And...
KING: You turned that down?
PACINO: Well, yes. I mean, yes. Well...
KING: (LAUGHTER).
PACINO: So, anyway, but the thing is that -- that I could tell Julia Roberts was a great actress. I could -- you could just see it. It was just so obvious. She had never done anything.
I even said to Gary Marshall, this girl, where did you find her?
But when I listened to the movie over the radio, I realized that this is going to be a hit movie. Isn't that something?
KING: Still, you didn't do it?
PACINO: Well, there's a lot of reasons you don't do a movie, you know. And there's always -- there's, you know, sometimes it's geography, sometimes it's family, sometimes it's just not the right role for you and you don't feel you...
KING: Things you don't (INAUDIBLE).
PACINO: ... belong in that part.
KING: OK. Brando, he died three years -- hard to believe -- three years ago July 1st.
You were new to films when you did "Godfather," right?
PACINO: Yes.
KING: What had you done, two films?
PACINO: I did one, "Panic In Needle Park." Yes.
KING: "Panic In Needle" -- what was it like to work with -- and there we see it on screen -- to work with Brando?
You're a kid. He's the master.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: What's the matter?
(END VIDEO CLIP) PACINO: Well, it was -- at first it was sort of stultifying, you know? You couldn't believe that someone that you have had such admiration for, somebody who has inspired you so, you're working with. But like -- like the great actor he was, he allowed you to get over that. And he takes you in and you get concerned with other things, you know?
You start talking about the part and the situation and the play and the movie. And you get involved. And what happens eventually is you -- that veneer goes and he becomes -- and it's not hard to look at Marlon in that role and it's believe that he is the Godfather...
KING: That he's Corleone...
PACINO: ... and he's Corleone and that he's your dad. It was really amazing.
KING: You mean you...
PACINO: It was easy -- talk about being easy to work with someone great. You just look at him. I -- I couldn't believe his transformation, you know?
KING: So, in other words...
PACINO: He was a young man, a relatively young man...
KING: Yes.
PACINO: ... when he made that movie.
KING: So when yours with him in that scene he was not Brando, he was Corleone?
PACINO: Yes. But he was always -- it's always a question of that mesh. He's Brando and he's Corleone. He's a great character actor, probably the greatest character actor -- American character actor -- we have ever had.
KING: We'll be right back with more of Al Pacino.
It's always a treat to just be around him.
Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: You know the five boroughs?
I'm known. Forget about them. I'm known all over the (OBSCENE WORD OMITTED) world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were heavy back then. Xotic (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: Brother, you are going down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: (INAUDIBLE). I'm married.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARLON BRANDO: And I never -- I never wanted this for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLOONEY: Al Pacino helped a little but...
PITT: Who?
CLOONEY: Pacino. He was the guy who played the bad guy.
PITT: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. (INAUDIBLE).
CLOONEY: He was the guy who kept asking for notes.
PITT: And more money.
Yes, he was great.
I feel like Al learned a lot on this one, which was good. I didn't have any scenes with him. But would I watch his scenes and I had a headset and I would give him...
PACINO: Thanks for the notes, yes.
They were helpful. Helpful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That, of course, the actors talking about you in "Ocean's 13," how they helped you.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: Was that fun to do?
When you do a thing like that, is that a throw away thing?
What is it?
PACINO: Well, yes. You know, it's never really that much fun for me to do movies anyway, because you -- you know, you have to get up very early in the morning and you have to go in and you spend a lot of time waiting around and so it's -- but with these guys, it was fun, you know?
It was -- it was the same kind of fun I had with -- when I worked with Johnny Depp or when you work with Sean Penn and the -- you know, there are certain people that you have fun with because it's -- you're around them all day. And...
KING: Johnny Depp, that was some serious movie, though, "Brasco."
PACINO: Yes, well, Johnny -- Johnny is crazy. Johnny is great.
KING: Is he?
PACINO: Yes, he's great. He's -- he...
KING: That was "Donnie Brasco," right?
PACINO: Yes. I don't think I've ever laughed as -- everyone on that film, Mike Mattson and...
KING: But that was a serious movie.
PACINO: Jimmy Russo.
KING: But you had you fun off camera.
PACINO: It was -- yes, off camera. Sometimes with serious movies, you're more or less -- you're -- you try to be funny off camera. When I was a younger actor, I would try to keep it serious all day. But I have found, later on, that the lighter I am about things when I'm going to do a big scene that's dramatic and takes a lot out of you, the better off I am when I come to it.
KING: We have a Web cam question for you, submitted to cnn.com/larryking.
PACINO: Oh. OK.
KING: Let's watch this phenomenon here.
BILLY: Hey, Al, Billy and Holly from Arlington, Virginia.
And we were wondering, out of all of the characters that you've played -- from football coaches to gangsters -- do you have a character preference you like to play one more than the other?
KING: Do you have a character preference?
PACINO: A character preference? No, I don't, really.
Isn't that funny?
I don't. I -- I always -- I don't think about characters I like to play as much as I think about will I be able to find this character?
Will it be something that I could do?
I'll tell you the truth, I never think I can play anything, basically.
KING: Why?
PACINO: I just don't feel that way. I love to do characters. Yes. If I were to answer their question -- it's a good question, so I'm going to try to answer it.
I like, for instance, "Serpico." I enjoyed playing Serpico because Frank Serpico was there. He existed. He was a real life person and I could -- I could embody him. I could, you know, I could work and get to know him and have him help me with the text, the script and become him. It's almost like a painter having a model to become.
And when you just have to pull it out of a hat, you know -- I remember doing "Scarface," really -- the reason I loved that character is because I saw Paul Muni play "Scarface."
KING: What, a gangster -- an American gangster?
PACINO: The American gangster, a '30s movie called "Scarface." That was Paul Muni.
KING: A famous movie.
PACINO: And I saw that...
KING: A famous movie.
PACINO: A famous movie. It was a great movie, a Howard Hawks' movie. And after seeing Paul Muni, I was so inspired because I felt as though I -- I would like to play that.
KING: OK...
PACINO: Yes?
KING: Speaking of that, we just saw it.
How did you get that -- that wonderful Cuban accent?
PACINO: Oh, that's -- let me see. You get accents in different ways. In this box set, I play a coffee guy in one of the movies called...
KING: Oh, I saw that.
PACINO: "The Local Stigmatic." KING: I loved that.
PACINO: ... which is a...
KING: Dog racing.
PACINO: Dog racing, yes.
These two guys are dog racing. And I remember when I was a young man looking for the accent and I was in a restaurant. And this waiter came up to me and was going to give me a beer. And I asked him -- and he had an English accent, a cockney accent. And he said -- I said to him, oh, that's a great accent you have. I said, it's so coincidental because I'm doing a part that is cockney. And he says, oh, (INAUDIBLE)...
I said how do you -- how you do it?
Do you have any -- can you give me any tips?
And he says, remember this. He says it's never (INAUDIBLE) it's (INAUDIBLE).
KING: And how did you find...
PACINO: That's an F.
KING: How did you find Tony...
PACINO: And that somehow kicked it off for me.
Tony Montana was a little more difficult. We had -- Stephen Bauer was playing my cohort in that.
KING: I know. Great.
PACINO: And he is really Cuban. And so he helped me with it. And a fellow named Robert Easton -- do you know Robert Easton?
The great -- he's a great speech guy. I believe in that very much. If you're doing something with accents, you go to someone who is an expert. And...
KING: That's what Angelina Jolie said last night...
PACINO: Yes...
KING: ... about capturing about Mrs. Pearl.
PACINO: That's right.
KING: You said you saw that.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: She said the same thing. PACINO: Yes. You do it because there it is. It's for you. It's easy. It's just -- it's technical. It's like...
KING: So, but did you get it right away?
I mean...
PACINO: Well, you practice. You know, you write it out phonetically. And then, like all things with acting, like -- we talked about Paul Newman retiring from acting because he has -- he has trouble remembering the words -- you want to -- and the reason he says that is because somebody said well, in movies it should be easy. Just do a take again.
But when you know the words, you're able to be free of the words and just express. And when you know an accent or understand it, your accent is so natural to you. When you get it, when it immerses, when it becomes a part of you, then it's easier to forget it.
KING: Do you take it home with you?
PACINO: Well, yes. Sure.
KING: So you spoke with that accent...
PACINO: All the time. I did it. And then finally, you know, you learn to -- to break it, you know?
KING: And so you can be you and then go in and do it?
PACINO: Yes. Yes. Yes. But you keep that level going. And it's...
KING: He is brilliant in "The Local" -- in the "Stigmatic" movie. It's "The Local Stigmatic." I saw that film at a private showing some time ago. You haven't. But you will when you get "Al Pacino: An Actor's Vision."
And here is Al as a cockney Englishman in the world of dog racing.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE LOCAL STIGMATIC," COURTESY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT)
PACINO: I said they're not for perusing, those.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there police in back of me?
PACINO: How is your wife and my three babies? Getting fat? Fame is the first disgrace.
Why?
The man wants to know why fame is the first disgrace? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why everyone knows that.
PACINO: Because god knows who you are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again.
AL PACINO, ACTOR: I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST: "Pacino: This Actor's Vision" will be available starting June 19. It contains three films from the Oscar winner, "Chinese Coffee," "The Local Stigmatic" and "Looking for Richard," and an exclusive disc, "Babylonia," a documentary. There's also a prologue and an epilogue. What does that mean?
PACINO: Well, I have a prologue and an epilogue to each of the films except for "Babylonia" where I just babble on.
KING: That's you speaking.
PACINO: That's me speaking at the Actor's Studio and it's a semi-documentary about my experiences as an actor, and about acting, and about people, and actors and stuff that I've known and worked with. And it's...
(CROSSTALK)
PACINO: ... the prologue and the epilogue is important because I felt that these films, because they are plays that I've turned into movies -- that's always intrigued me to try to make a movie out of a play, and I thought that the movie need a kind of a frame.
KING: An explanation?
PACINO: Well, yes, sort of, but doing it in a way that -- I liked the idea of the prologue, and I really liked the idea of the epilogue. I do it with Richard Brown who you -- formerly from the new school and he's now a New York University film professor. And he and I talk. He's also with me in "Babylonia."
KING: I know Richard.
PACINO: You know Richard?
KING: Yes. PACINO: Very interesting.
KING: Very interesting. He knows films.
PACINO: He knows his stuff. And we talk about things. And in the prologues, it's an introduction, and people have seen this, any of these things, kind of enjoy the prologue and the epilogue because after the film is over they sort of need it in a way. It helps them to understand it because I know "The Local Stigmatic" -- before I realized that there was something really going on in this piece, it took me three readings.
KING: Oh, really.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: Well, it's brilliant stuff. I've seen "The Local Stigmatic." I've seen "Chinese Coffee." And I've seen "Looking for Richard." I haven't seen "Babylonia" yet. I will look forward to that. It's a great box set.
PACINO: Thanks.
KING: You ought to be proud.
PACINO: Well...
KING: Part of a career.
PACINO: Yes, it is.
KING: All right, tell me the key question of all time. Where did you get hooyah from, Hooah? You won an Academy Award for hooyah.
PACINO: Yes, I did. I did.
KING: I grew up with a guy named Hoohah (ph). Where did you get that?
PACINO: I was once again working on a character. I was working with this lieutenant colonel who was teaching me how to disassemble and assemble a 45 so you can do it blind.
KING: Because you were blind?
PACINO: Yes. And so he was teaching me this, and it was a struggle to do it. And then finally once I got it right and when I got it right he just said hooyah. And every time I'd do something right he'd go hooyah. And I thought where is he getting that. And I said what's that about? And he said well, when they're in -- you know when they're running -- you know when they're online. It's been a while since I've done that so I've forgotten what the procedure is. But whatever they do it's part of their ritual. And I found a way to work it into the character.
KING: How do you play blind? Now you had your eyes open? PACINO: Yes.
KING: Right. You could have had them shut, too, right?
PACINO: Yes. Or you could have had pieces. Some actors put pieces over their eyes. But I'm very sensitive about putting anything on my eyes so I was reluctant to do that.
KING: So what do you look at? What's your frame because you're seeing?
PACINO: You know I remember my oldest daughter, Julie, who is going to college is -- was a little girl at the time, and I asked her to show me how she would play a blind girl, and she just went ah. And I said that's good, thanks. So it was partially that. And then of course I studied film. I went to the Blind Association and they were really good to me here on 57th street. And then I studied -- I just looked at film, and you just don't focus. You just don't focus. And by doing that, and after a while you get into it, and you feel that. You don't see anything really. Your eyes are open but you don't see anything.
KING: Did you like that character?
PACINO: Yes, I did like him. I liked him, yes
KING: Do you have to like the characters you play?
PACINO: Oh, yes.
KING: You do? You have to like Michael Corleone even when he kills people?
PACINO: Oh, yes, you have to. You have to find...
KING: Do you like Tony...
PACINO: ... well, it's like a -- oh yes. You try -- it's like a painting. It's like you're painting a character or you have to find a way to -- it's hard to say like the character. You have to like doing the character. I think that's what it is. You have to like playing the character as a way -- you're not literally doing the things.
I love the story John Barrymore said about his brother, Lionel Barrymore, when they were in a play together. They asked John Barrymore how come you get so angry at your brother in that scene that you're just really furious. And he said, well, you know, he wears this hair tonic, and every time I get near it it just -- and that's sort of what it is.
It's got nothing to do with, you know what I mean? It's off. And when you're playing out here -- you know maybe I get mad at something that bothered me, you know, five years ago, and it comes out in the character.
KING: Do you like playing a football coach?
PACINO: Yes, I did a lot.
KING: I loved that movie, "Any Given Sunday."
PACINO: I liked playing it. Yes, it was great. That too was a really a good cast, a great bunch of guys there and Oliver Stone. You know Oliver Stone wrote "Scarface."
KING: Really. Brian Depalma directed it?
PACINO: No. Brian Depalma directed "Scarface."
KING: Yes.
PACINO: Yes, he's great.
KING: Not bad.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: They're redoing the music, right?
PACINO: They're working on the music and they're going to try to find a rap theme in it. And they're going to work it into -- I think they're going to try to work it back into yet another DVD of "Scarface."
KING: We'll be right back with Al Pacino. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: We're not going to make it back. I knew it. I knew it. We're not going to make it back.
Hooah.
I'm a Catholic and I don't want to hurt anybody, understand.
What is this Ethel Halloween? Are you trying to scare me?
I'm asking you out with me tonight on a date.
He just asked her out.
Hooah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: I'm a marked man in this department for what?
Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we going to air it? Of course not. Our life is looking forward or it's looking back. That's it.
Am I a nice man? Nice.
You shouldn't something like that spoil your fun now. You've got to get fun out of life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: What a career! What a body of work, Al Pacino. We have an e-mail question from Greg in Louisiana. "Has there ever been talk of a 'Godfather 4' the next generation?
PACINO: Didn't we do that?
KING: You did three.
PACINO: Oh! No, there hasn't been, no.
KING: Do you think there should be?
PACINO: I don't know. I haven't thought about it, but I don't -- unless Francis knows all about that. Francis really taps into what he wants to say in that picture. And I think what he wanted to say in the 2 is very obvious what he wanted to say in "Godfather 2." And in "Godfather 3" what he wanted to say about retribution and Michael coming back to relive his sins and to go -- go through it was what he wanted to say. And if he finds something he wants to say through those characters, then he'll make a "Godfather 4."
KING: Anyone you really want to work with that you haven't, Woody Allen?
PACINO: Woody Allen, of course, yes.
KING: I mean you are funny. You're really funny. PACINO: Yes, I've been trying to tell everybody I'm funny for years. Nobody believes me.
KING: If Woody called up and said...
PACINO: Yes, of course. He'd be crazy to do that but...
KING: Why?
PACINO: Well, why would he call me to be funny when nobody thinks I'm funny.
KING: Because that's Woody.
PACINO: That's Woody.
KING: That's what would make you funny.
PACINO: Ok, Woody, I'm here.
KING: Speaking of memory, we were talking about Paul Newman saying he was going to stop acting because he...
PACINO: I understand what Paul is saying really. He's a great actor, one of our greatest actors.
KING: He can't remember the lines though.
PACINO: He's a hero and he's a great guy if you know him.
KING: Oh yes.
PACINO: I love him. But I think with Paul, what he's trying to say is if he has to -- I once saw a film, I keep skipping pace, of James Cagney, when he was going out and he was losing grip on the words. And it's a documentary, and you see him struggling with it and stopping and going, and stopping and going. And you know, when you're younger, a younger actor, you don't think about that at all. You're just going with things. But as you get older you realize it's a challenge sometimes to do these long pieces. That's why I like the theater because you really have time to do it, and then you get to play it night after night and it really is.
But what Paul is really saying is once you're struggling with the words, you're not as free. And your instrument can't be as imaginative and as lucid and as spontaneous and free really.
KING: So when you know the words, you can open up more?
PACINO: Yes, you can open up more when you know the words. You can play with the words. You can do different things with them. Once you're stuck on them, when you're trying to reach for the words that's what you're trying to do...
KING: Are there...
PACINO: And you loose your...
KING: ... are there things you can't do that you used to be able to do?
PACINO: Play second base.
KING: Yes, it's hard. The throw when you go to your right.
PACINO: Right, running to first base.
KING: Running to first is hard.
PACINO: Picking up the bat.
KING: And picking up the bat or getting to the stadium.
PACINO: My oldest daughter is a great -- Julie, a great softball player.
KING: And you have you two little ones?
PACINO: I have two little ones.
KING: We're ageing fathers.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: We might talk about that. We'll be right back with Al Pacino. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: One is a director, one is dealing with the camera and the other is an actor. I'm not ready in the first take to do it.
You didn't get my soul. That's what we're doing here and that's what's going to light up. Let me tell you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Boy, what a career! "My Brother" reminds me of "Merchant of Venice."
PACINO: "Merchant of Venice" oh, yes.
KING: Was that hard to play?
PACINO: Well, it's Shakespeare and...
KING: You're not anti-Semitic? Was he?
PACINO: Was Shakespeare anti-Semitic?
KING: No, merchant?
PACINO: Well, you know, it's from where you're looking at. You know that's always something that's coming from, you know, where you're looking at it.
KING: Did you view...
PACINO: To me, I didn't see him that way. No, I wouldn't have played him if I did.
KING: We have an e-mail question from Katherine in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "When you think of your mother, what's the first thing that comes to mind?"
PACINO: Hard to say.
KING: She was young, right?
PACINO: She was everything to me, yes.
KING: I mean she died young. PACINO: She died young. She died when I was young and she died young. And I think of -- I guess I think of her as someone who is why I'm here really. That's all I can say.
KING: What's it like having little children again? I mean, you have a daughter that's grown and now you have twins.
PACINO: Yes. Well, you know, Larry. It's everything. It's my whole life.
KING: We live about 11 blocks apart.
PACINO: Yes. It's my whole life, and it's changed everything, of course. It always does. And so you're just -- it's a new day every day.
KING: They challenge you.
PACINO: Yes, they do.
KING: We have a caller on the line from Corpus Christi, Texas, for Al Pacino. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, good evening to both of you.
KING: Hi.
PACINO: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my question was there ever a role that you turned down after it was released that had maybe you wish or think you could have taken or should have?
PACINO: That's a good question. Yes, you know, you turn down parts sometimes because you don't feel -- I've turned down a lot of roles that I've seen actors perform and they were great in them.
KING: And you don't regret when you see it?
PACINO: I don't regret it ever because I wouldn't have done it that way. I would not have done it nearly as well. It wasn't for me. And I'm so glad I didn't because then the performances are there that they did. So I felt that about all the roles. There is only one part that I turned down that I wish I would have done. And other than that...
KING: And that is?
PACINO: I can't say it. It's hard for me to say it because if I say what the role is then the actor who played it -- but I'll tell you, there are certain parts that you're meant to do. And a lot of times the only way you know that is if you do it. How else will you know it unless you try it?
KING: So when you saw the film, did you get a pain in the pit of your stomach? PACINO: Never except that one film.
KING: That one...
PACINO: No, not when I saw the film because the actor was so brilliant in it. What I realized is I wanted to explore later on that world, that life of the character that this actor played. I really would have liked to have gotten into that. And I would have enjoyed it more. I didn't understand it when I turned it down.
KING: The actor gets to lead a million lives, doesn't he?
PACINO: Yes, he does.
KING: Boy, you've been everything.
PACINO: I've been it all, yes.
KING: We'll be back with our remaining moments with Al Pacino.
PACINO: Don't go away.
KING: Don't go away.
PACINO: How did that happen?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PACINO: Go ahead, Romeo, do your thing.
I'm in love with you. I love you. I am totally completely mad.
Great ass!
I've got a crush on you.
Women, what can you say?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Recently Al told "Time" magazine he's a dancer and would consider doing "Dancing with the Stars." So our text question is should Al Pacino do "Dancing with the Stars?" That was our question. Eighty-eight percent said yes.
PACINO: Oh, thank you, thank you.
KING: Would you go on "Dancing?" Were you kidding?
PACINO: I was sort of -- it was just a thought that went in my head for a minute and it...
KING: Gone.
PACINO: ...and it very rightly left but it was too late. KING: He's going to tell us a funny theater story if you do it in two minutes.
PACINO: Well, I love the theater.
KING: But don't forget "Pacino: An Actor's Vision." I just want to get that in. It's available everywhere starting the 19th.
PACINO: Yes.
KING: Your story?
PACINO: I hope I didn't forget it. Oh, I was in a -- why I like doing theater, live theater. Anything can happen. I was in a play once in Boston, and I was doing the show, and I was on the stage for three hours straight never coming off. And you know how it is when you're doing a show, you're always -- you connect to the audience and I felt this presence in the audience, these eyes staring at me. And I had never done this before. I played the whole performance to these eyes because they were so -- they were inspiring me. They were so riveting. They were just staring at me and I thought I'm finally being locked at. And it was just -- it was throwing me a little bit, but it was inspiring me. At curtain call, when the play was over, I came out. I had to look in the direction of those eyes. And I came out, taking my curtain call, and I looked right where those eyes were. They were two seeing eye dogs. So that's the theater, you know.
(LAUGHTER)
PACINO: And...
KING: They loved it.
PACINO: .... And they loved it. And they wondered what is this guy doing, you know. I had nowhere else to look I guess.
KING: So the next film will be with DeNiro. You'll start shooting in September. We'll see a lot of you this summer in California?
PACINO: Sure, sure.
KING: Share time with the kids?
PACINO: My little darlings are there, yes.
KING: You'll have good times?
PACINO: Yes.
KING: You're going to rest until September, right?
PACINO: Rest?
KING: No work.
PACINO: I'll try.
KING: Do you miss it when you're not working?
PACINO: No. You know, no. Sometimes -- I'm never not working. I'm always involved in something, like I'm Salmababy now and my other little project.
KING: As always, my man.
PACINO: Thanks, thanks.
KING: He's the best.
PACINO: You made it.
KING: Al Pacino.
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