SCREEN LEGEND AL
TELL Al Pacino he looks good for his age and he might, just might, cut you down in the style of the Godfather himself.
You can almost hear his screen persona Michael Corleone saying: “It insults my intelligence and it makes me very angry.”
So we don’t mention his age. But he does.
Pacino turns 80 on Saturday and he admits: “That expression ‘You’re looking good for your age’. I haven’t heard that in a long time. Maybe ‘You look good to still be alive’!
“When celebrities have birthdays it’s all over the news. You can’t lie about your own age.”
Okay. So no more talk about ageing. And no talk, either, about retirement.
Pacino quitting? Don’t be daft he’s riding yet another wave of success that swept him back on to the list of Oscar nominees as best supporting actor in The Irishman.
He played corrupt union boss Jimmy Hoffa, opposite long-time screen buddy Robert De Niro, 76.
That was Pacino’s ninth Oscar nomination.
And as he approaches his ninth decade, he is busier than ever.
After The Irishman he made a rare foray into TV with the current Netflix hit Hunters, in al pacino SUPERSTAR IN REFLECTIVE MOOD AS HE APPROACHES AGE OF 80
which he leads a group of superheroes who uncover a Nazi plot to overthrow the US Government.
He loved the role, revealing: “My memory may not be very good, but my memory of this is very good.
“It was a wonderful experience. I can’t say that about all the things I’ve done.”
The key to working on is drive, he says, adding: “What I’m happy about is to have desire.
“To feel appetite. Appetite for whatever – work, life. Desire, I think sometimes it trumps talent.
“I’m recalling feelings I had a long time ago. That was the ’70s. And I don’t remember the ’70s that well! So it’s vague to me. But it’s very pleasant and I’m happy about it.”
Pacino avoided the small screen for years, when it was viewed as the last resort for washed-up movie stars. But no longer.
“It’s not got the same kind of stigma as it used to be,” he says. “It’s changed. There’s nothing really against it at this point. It can’t really hurt you.”
Always looking for a challenge, he admits being bizarrely attracted to projects that might seem doomed to failure. He is not referring to Hunters, of course.
But he says: “I’m starting to get a little perverse. I’m starting to want to do films that aren’t really very good and try to make them better.
And that’s become my challenge. I don’t think I go in thinking it’s not going to be very good, but... sometimes they offer you money to do something that’s not adequate. And you talk yourself into it.
“And somewhere within you, you know that this thing is going to be a lemon. But then, when it comes full circle and you see it, you say, ‘Oh, no, I’m gonna make this better! If I can just get this to be a mediocre film!’ And you get excited by that.
“When I was a young actor I did two or three different plays, and the plays that I thought I would excel in, I didn’t. And the play that I didn’t want to do was the one I excelled in. So you never know what’s there.”
There haven’t been many lemons in Pacino’s career. He rocketed to fame as mafia boss Michael Corleone in the Godfather trilogy – as Marlon Brando’s son and heir.
Other hits included Serpico, Scarface, Dog Day Afternoon, Donnie Brasco, Heat and Scent of a Woman – his only Oscar win.
He took a four-year career break in the early 1980s but bounced back