PACINO ON HIS APPROACHING 80TH People are not saying I look good for my age any more.. they just think I’m doing well to still be alive
and never lost his place among Hollywood’s elite. And he has few regrets.
He continues: “Out of mistakes – and I’ve made plenty – I’ve learned. Through those mistakes I’ve met people and my life has changed.
“Mistakes aren’t quite mistakes – unless you slip off a roof. Then you can’t come back. I went four years without making films. A bit of the bloom was off the rose for me, artistically and expressively. But somewhere in the back of my head... I always felt I’d be able to get work.
“Then I went broke. Then the truth is I needed to go work. I had to earn.”
But he didn’t take every role thrown at him – turning down Star Wars,
Pretty Woman and Die Hard. At times he has faced mental struggles.
He says: “People go into depression and it’s very sad and it can last and it’s terrifying. I’ve had bouts with stuff that comes close to that, but not with that intensity. I feel spared. I feel lucky.” That luck was evident after a tough start in New York.
He says: “I come from a broken home, like a lot of actors. I was born in Manhattan and I grew up in The Bronx.
“We used to play tag on the roofs, so you would run from one roof to the other. If you missed... it’s six floors down. Holy smokes, I almost died.
“I was very lucky because in school I got into the drama world and I had the most wonderful teacher.”
Cinema fans certainly owe that teacher a debt of gratitude.
As Saturday approaches, Pacino says he thinks “about the people that are no longer in my life... and of course, my kids”.
He never married but has three children – Julie, 30, by acting coach Jan Tarrant, and twins Anton and Olivia, 19, by actress Beverly D’Angelo.
He enjoyed lengthy relationships with stars including Diane Keaton, Jill Clayburgh and Tuesday Weld and a 10-year romance with Argentine actress Lucila Sola. It ended in 2018.
“Al was simply the most entertaining man,” said Diane. “Killer face.”
Pacino recently split from girlfriend of two years, Israeli actress Meital
Dohan, 40, allegedly because she wanted children and he didn’t.
She branded him “old and cheap,” but later backpedalled, saying: “What happened between us was bigger than materialistic things like flowers or chocolates or diamonds or cars.”
After more than half a century in Hollywood, publishers repeatedly pursue Pacino to write his memoirs, but he turns them down.
“I didn’t want to write a book,” he says. “I still don’t. If I was writing a book I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming.”
So he’ll keep on working. Echoing another famous Godfather line, he says: “I guess I’m looking forward to a porch and a rocking chair, but so far, things keep pulling me back in.”