Al Pacino packed his new memoir Sonny Boy with personal, behind-the-scenes stories from the films he’s made over the past six decades.
One of his most notable roles, of course, is Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece The Godfather, based on the Mario Puzo novel of the same name.
It’s hard to remember a time when Pacino wasn’t a household name, but when Coppola was mulling over actors to appear in the film, the future Serpico and and Scent of a Woman star was primarily known for his work in theater.
He wasn’t the studio’s first choice to play Michael, the son of mob boss Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), but he was Coppola’s. The director was right to bet on Pacino — the movie became an Oscar-winning classic, launched two sequels and is largely considered one of the best films ever made.
In an exclusive excerpt below, Pacino recalls the excitement around that time he was cast.
My relationship with the director who would change my life began oddly. Francis Ford Coppola had seen me on Broadway, and wanted to meet with me about a role. So I flew to San Francisco and for the next five days and nights, he took me to dinner and we talked about his film project over bottles of wine. I thought Francis had been touched by genius. He was a leader, a doer, and a risk-taker.
But I was an unknown, and the movie that Francis wanted to do with me got turned down everywhere. And I didn’t think I’d ever hear from him again. Months went by, and then one day, I got a phone call. On the other end of the line was Francis Coppola.
First he told me he was going to be directing The Godfather. I thought he might be fantasizing. I had read Mario Puzo’s novel, which had become a big hit; it was a huge deal for anyone to be involved with it. Then Francis said he wanted me to play Michael Corleone. I started doubting whether he was on the phone at all. Maybe I was the one going through a nervous breakdown. For a director to offer you a role, over the phone, not through an agent, and this role of all roles — that was a hundred-million-to-one shot. I didn’t even think of it as a shot, because I didn’t believe it. Who was I, to have this fall into my lap?
When I finally hung up the phone with Francis, I was kind of in a daze. Paramount didn’t want me to play Michael Corleone. They wanted Jack Nicholson. They wanted Robert Redford. They wanted Warren Beatty or Ryan O’Neal. In the book, Puzo had Michael calling himself “the sissy of the Corleone family.” He was supposed to be small, dark-haired, handsome in a delicate way, no visible threat to anybody. That didn’t sound like the guys that the studio wanted. But that didn’t mean it had to be me.
Paramount had already rejected Jimmy Caan and Bob Duvall. They rejected Brando, for Christ’s sake. It was quite clear that they didn’t want me either. But here’s the secret: Francis wanted me and I knew that. And there’s nothing like when a director wants you.
When I knew I had the role, I called my grandmother to tell her. “You know I’m going to be in The Godfather? I’m going to play the part of Michael Corleone.” She said, “Oh, Sonny, listen! Granddad was born in Corleone. That’s where he’s from.”
I didn’t know where my grandfather was born, only that he came from Sicily — once my grandfather got to America and no one was chasing after him, he left it at that. Now to learn he came from Corleone, I thought, I must be getting help from somewhere, because how else could such an impossible thing — me getting the role — happen in the first place?
From Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino. Published by arrangement with Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © Al Pacino, 2024.
Sonny Boy comes out Oct. 15 from Penguin Press and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
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