In his newly released memoir Sonny Boy, Al Pacino opens up about the turbulent early days of filming ‘The Godfather’, and how he genuinely believed the movie would end his career. The book, published in the U.S. in October 2024, offers a candid look at Pacino’s insecurities, his bond with co-stars, and the moment everything changed.
Paramount didn’t want Pacino… and he didn’t want the role either
Pacino reveals that Paramount Pictures initially rejected him for the role of Michael Corleone, preferring bigger names like Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, and Ryan O’Neal. Director Francis Ford Coppola, also under pressure from the studio, fought to cast Pacino despite his lack of star power.
“Paramount didn’t want me to play Michael Corleone,” Pacino writes. “They wanted Jack Nicholson. They wanted Robert Redford. They wanted Warren Beatty or Ryan O’Neal”.
Full screen
“We thought our careers were over”
After filming the wedding scene with Diane Keaton, Pacino was convinced the movie was a disaster. He recalls returning to Manhattan and getting drunk with Keaton, both believing they had just tanked their careers.
“Based on that one sequence, we were sure it was the worst movie ever made,” Pacino writes. “We thought our careers had ended”.
The restaurant scene that saved everything
Pacino’s performance in the now-iconic restaurant assassination scene, where Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey, changed everything. Coppola showed the footage to Paramount executives, and it convinced them to keep Pacino in the film.
“Because of that scene I just performed, they kept me in the film. So I didn’t get fired from ‘The Godfather”.
A messy lunch with Marlon Brando
Pacino also recounts a surreal lunch with Marlon Brando, who ate chicken cacciatore with his bare hands and smeared red sauce across a hospital bed. Despite the chaos, Brando offered Pacino a moment of reassurance:
“Marlon looked at me with those gentle eyes of his and said, ‘Yeah, kid, you’re gonna be all right’”.
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