If the planets had not aligned, we would not know Al Pacino as we know him today, and surely Coppola's classic film would not be among the most renowned in the film industry.
Today he is one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood and the entire world. His name represents a certain film, an era, and guaranteed success. Thanks to The Godfather, Al Pacino became one of the undisputed figures in Hollywood that practically every producer and studio was dying to hire. Before establishing himself as an artist, the Dog Day Afternoon actor was adrift for a long time, looking for ways to succeed as a performer while he had some roles in theater and worked as a maintenance person in a building.
It was Francis Ford Coppola who saw Michael Corleone in him when several of the actors who were beginning to swarm in New York at that time were applying for the role. Even Robert De Niro himself acknowledged that he auditioned for the job but that he didn't get it probably because he “was too young.” It was during a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival in which a restored copy for the 50th anniversary of The Godfather was screened.
During this press conference, Al Pacino was also present, they acknowledged that they were very close to firing him in the middle of filming the film. “They were going to fire me. Francis told me, 'I want you to know that I believe in you,'" Pacino recalled. The actor explained that rearranging the filming schedule made the producers spare his life and be willing to give him the opportunity.
According to his memoirs, the scene that changed everything was the one that showed Michael Corleone become a central figure in the family, after killing another mobster and a corrupt police officer in a restaurant. “Francis advanced the scene. The studio liked it,” Al Pacino recalled about one of the most iconic sequences from the first Godfather film, released in September 1972. During his talk, the actor acknowledged that it has been almost ten years since he sat down to watch the film. movie.
