Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Al Pacino

Episode Date: February 23, 2020

The name Al Pacino calls to mind some of the most memorable performances in the history of film, from The Godfather and Scarface to Scent of a Woman and Heat. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the Hollywood icon to talk about his legendary career, including his Oscar-nominated performance in The Irishman and his new Amazon series Hunters. Plus Willie takes Al for a cruise around Beverly Hills in a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I'm just going to come out and say it. I think I got an all-timer for you this week. The man, the legend, the icon, a word that's overused, but in this case it applies. Al Pacino is my guest. As you may know, Pacino doesn't do a lot of interviews, hasn't done a lot of interviews over the course of his career.

So with a little bit of arm twisting, we convinced him to come and sit down with us. And man, he is, let's just say he should do more interviews. He's, it was open and warm and happy to talk about whatever we wanted to talk about. We got together out in Beverly Hills near his home at a little restaurant called La Dolce Vita. It's got the red leather booths. If you can picture it while we're talking with the brick wall, the table across from us has the gold plate that says Frank Sinatra. All the tables are named for some old Hollywood legend. And he came to play, as I think you'll hear.

We're talking about his latest project, the Amazon Prime Series Hunters, which is about a group of Holocaust survivors in 1970s America seeking revenge. Should we put it that way against Nazis who've hidden themselves inside America? But that was just the beginning. We talked about Godfather, Scarface, Serpico all the way through his career. And as he says, you'll hear he approaching his 80th birthday in April, he's reflective, he's nostalgic. And he's finally ready to sit down and think about. one of the great careers in the history of show business. So I'll stop talking now so you can start listening to the great Al Pacino on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.

All right, Al, thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for strapping me in the chair here. That's really, I can't get away. This is one of those places, from these L.A. spots. You got Sinatra's booth, Rickles' booth. I feel like we're in Pacino's booth.

Oh, right. Yeah, they got the name plates up there. We've got to get you one, too. I can understand coming here. I mean, in the midst of everything, there's this place. I never saw it. Yeah. You know, because it's alongside other places that are somewhat anonymous.

And I never heard of it. What's the name of this place? This place is called La Dolce Vida. Do I have that right? Yeah. That's easy enough. There you go. We can remember that.

Yeah. So this is a, we've got a lot to talk about. The exciting time for you. First of all, I can't drive around L.A. since I got in town without seeing a billboard for the Irish. Oh, gee. Yeah, well, they bought them up. But how exciting is it for you after, I guess, 27 years to be nominated for another Oscar?

Wow. Well, you don't know it's been that long. You flash on the last time you were nominated and what that was like. You don't think about it, really, and then it happens, and it's great. When it happens, wonderful. Does it feel like it's been 20? 27 years since then to a woman? Nothing feels like it's been 27 years.

It's just from yesterday it feels like 27 years to today. But the time is, as you get older, you see, time just doesn't exist. We were talking a minute ago about your long relationship with Bob De Niro. Yeah. And the fact that you guys kind of got back together all these years later with Harvey Keitel and Marty Scorsese and that group. Yeah. What was that experience like all being one point? place, it's kind of Mount Rushmore.

Well, they've made such great films together. And so there I was, in 50 years, I thought, well, it's simple. The actor always feels that way. He thinks, well, maybe Marty Scorsese is just this, you never know with people. You know, you could say something in print or to someone, and it gets interpreted a certain way, and he thought I didn't care for him or something. because but then when you look at it such an artist as he is and he just goes by what he feels he's got there

and I've spoken to him over the years and he knows I'm a real admirer of his but at the same time unless it it works so for instance with the Irishman it was Bob De Niro who said to him I think Al how she play this point of Jimmy Hoffa, great part

And Marty said, oh, you think so. You know, so that's how I got it, I think. But we had a reading about six or seven years ago in this Tribeca room there. They had cameras and stuff. I mean, somebody I think said they're going to show the reading. They can billboards for that. But, you know, it's like a little. But we had a reading of it.

for Marty, and it was Bob who organized everything. Bob is a really good producer, too. And probably being a great actor, he's a really good producer. So he organized this reading to win over. Marty was not quite sure. And then we read it, and it was clear. The Steve Zalian script is so effective. So I think that's what did it.

And that was about six or seven years ago. So Marty wasn't sure about the whole thing, Or he wasn't sure that you were right for Hoffa? No, I think he wasn't, he wasn't sure about the whole thing. Yeah, really. And then we had a reading together, but Bobby Conner Valley, Joe Pesci, these people all together in this room, reading. And there was about 50 other people watching us.

And I think they photographed him. And I remember that day, I was doing a play, and I came from the play downtown and read it. And it was effective. It's a good script. So that'll be on Netflix soon. You can be short of that. Oh, wow.

They're going to get their money's worth out of that. Is it, I've heard it both ways from actors. Is it more difficult to play a real-life character like Jimmy Hoffa? Or is it less difficult because you have so much to work with? It is. You know, you're always dependent on the text, of course, but with the real characters you get, really. It's a plus. Because you've got, and especially in our world today, because you've got all the,

internet stuff and everybody is you know they just want to look I mean I watched film on Kovorki and you know one and the best of course is when you have the real person you can you can deal with and ask questions that you would normally ask and see the reaction right now they're thinking doing Frank Lloyd Wright that's in the sort of ethos, you know, so you're wondering, I'm watching, I watch an interview with Michael, Mike Wallace and oh, wow, 53, you hear him talk some of the things he said. Yeah. So you've got it there. And with Hoff, I had it. It's all over the place. So you just start looking and channel,

you know, you try to channel. You don't even try to channel, you naturally do. So you, you watch somebody a lot and I remember Frank Serpico I really got to know I don't know if you've ever seen the film Serpico of course yeah oh yeah well it was uh and I remember thinking uh you've asked them all kinds of questions and and with Frank I finally said to me in Montauk I had rented a house there summer and we were out there on the deck looking at the ocean I asked him, Frank, what would you do? I mean, he got all this pressure, everybody coming after you for money and taking graft, whatever. What if you just took the graft and just put it to a charity or something? Why didn't you do anything like that? Just get it over with it. And he

looked at me. He was stunned. He was stunned. But I was just feeling. them out. And he said, well, if Al, if I did that, then who would I be when I listened to Beethoven? Wow. I thought, who, where is he going with that? That's what's in him. Yeah. I thought, oh, gee, I'm going to like to do this. It's a good part. Wow. So, Hoff, obviously, you didn't have a chance to speak to. No. Without saying. But you find out things. You find out when Hoffa was in prison, guess what? He galvanized the prisons.

The union guy, he got, didn't like the way they were being treated and went out afterward and was, you know, called CLEM for prisoners who were mistreated, devalued. And so it's, it's, he said, that tells you something about him and his commitment to what he's doing, what he does, you know. There's a scene with Bob De Niro in the car. I don't know if it's still in there. It's a long time ago. Sometimes those things, they leave the premises.

But the scene was about this relationship. He has, you know, the guy who he keeps Provozano, I think, his name is, Tony Pro, who he's having trouble with. Right. And he actually says that this is revisionist history. I don't know if this was actually said. But he says to Bob's character, and they're driving, they just had a fight. Remember when they go down to Florida and he's 10 minutes late, he's very upset.

And I'm talking to Bob in the scene and I'm saying, well, you know, this guy, what is this guy? I mean, who is this guy? Why does he have to? He says, well, you know, he's made, he's a made man, you know. He says, yeah, but I mean, I have a vision. I mean, he's upsetting that. It's not this and it's not that. It's a vision.

And he's so caught up in that. So it's the union for him. This identity he identifies with 17 years old he was out there. Locked in the head, had 13 stitches. So what we know of Hoffa is complex. So I'm taking the route because I'm playing him. So I'm going to take all the things I think are positive and deal with it and ride those.

I do that with most characters. I really did like, I loved Frank Zerko, and I did love Kavokin. I have to say. Did you? What did you see? He was the most pro-life person I ever met. Interesting. This is a guy who was out there doing organ transplants with the soldiers.

He was transfusing blood from dead soldiers into himself to test it so he could save the lives of soldiers that were alive enough to be saved. this is who he was. And that transfusion stuff is what got him, when he died from, eventually. So that was a, but I always sort of felt it in the character, but I didn't visit him. I didn't see him before I didn't,

did the film. And I didn't see him because this was up, the film was up to the point he gets arrested. So I thought it would be, I would get him more, a skewed view from him because he served a time and everything else. But he said, I said, what was it like in prison? And he just looked for him.

I said, how'd you feel? He says, well, I don't know. Can you say anything about it? He says, well, yeah, I said, it was the snoring. Boom, you know, there's a real visual there. You see it all. It's the snoring. He said, we had a great sense of you.

Oh, that's very funny. He had an IQ through the roof, and I loved being around him and talking to him. And he was that kind of person. So I had him after the fact, though. Right. You know, I had made the film already. Right.

Same thing with Phil Specter. Which I didn't go to see him. I didn't go to see the guy in Dog Day, who really existed. Yeah, so a lot of films I did. the man wheel people boy cone sure but you don't have to with angels in america because you got tony kushcheon right it's a great play right it's a great writer so you you know i always sort of refer to the text the text is what i count on is there a common thread through all those

characters the people who appeal to you say that's either someone interesting or complicated or challenging yeah take on a role like that yeah yeah It is. It's part of it. You try to avoid repeats. You don't want to get caught in that. So if you say you do gangster points, well, you do gangster. You do gangster. You play Michael Corleone. You play lefty Luggerio in the... What is that film again called? Donnie Brasco. Yeah. Donny Brasco. And then you play Skyface. So those are three characters from the same genre, but they're different, you know, when you put them. So you try to find that.

And Hoff is Hoff. Sure. You were saying earlier, you put all this work into something, especially the Irishman. You guys worked on that for years. Well, Bob did. Bob put it together. Right. He took years to plant it and put it.

But you never know how people are going to respond to something. No. Right? You get that great group of all-stars together. Who knows how it's going to go. So it must be nice, I have to imagine, to get, gratifying, to get the kind of response that the film has gotten, but also you in particular with the Oscar nomination. Yeah, because you don't call it. You never can call it. It just happens. And you're saying, that's what it is. I'm doing this 50 years. So a lot of these things happen, and you forget it, and they remind you of it. Right. You know, someone said to me at one point, oh, you know, what do you think of this new thing that's happening to you guys?

No, not necessarily. Then I realized, yes, it's a feeling. I said, I sort of have a vague memory of this thing. And it was in the early 70s that happened. But, you know, who can remember the early 70s? So it was in another world. Right. But it was, it is so, it's kind of like, you get used to it a while, and then you say, well, what's the next project?

Right, right. I was so interested to hear you talk about your relationship with De Niro, because I think a lot of people look at you guys in a similar sort of pantheon of American actors. Yeah. And you met each other when you were really young. Yeah. But as you say, you sort of ran parallel lives for a while. Yeah. Maybe up for some of the same projects, competitive.

Even now. Yeah, there was that street. But we somehow, through it all, after a few years, we sort of found each other occasionally and we'd speak. Just speak to what's going on. Because, you know, you're saying, why is this happening to me? Why do I feel like this little? You have to adjust.

Right. My great friend and sort of mentor, Lee Straussberg. Yeah. said to me, because he could see at the young age I was sort of a little off. And he and then I'm saying to me, you know, he said, darling, you simply have to adjust. And what did you take that to mean? I thought, what is he talking about, you know, as usual? When you're young, you'd think it'd take it away.

So I finally think I might have adjusted. Certainly I'm able to deal with what's happening now, I think. So far, I mean, I'm actually doing something I never would have done in the 70s. Talking to you. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun to take this and sort of accept it just to it. And it's how world has changed so much, too.

Well, it happened relatively quickly, too. When you dive into the Godfather in 72 and it becomes what it becomes, I have to imagine overnight. Everybody knows your name. They watch you in films. How did you deal with that level of celebrity? Well, here's the thing. I had a great man in my life, and two was Charlie Lawton who passed, and both of them passed within two years of each other. And I had that great support. And Marty Bergman, who is a producer, I don't know if you've heard of him. Sure, yeah. He was there. Saw me when I was young. I was doing theater a lot. That's how I started.

Right. I started in the theater, and I had success. I did a thing called the Union once the Bronx. It got an OBI. I won a Tony Award before any film. As a matter of fact, play Does the Tiger wear a necktie. Francis was in the audience. Francis Coppola was in the audience. And he saw me there, and I never knew he was in the audience.

And later on, a couple of years later, there it is. So these are the way things happen. That's why I always say to young people, just get out there, you know, do your thing, do what you sort of believe in, what trying to getting the job you know it's hard to explain that but I'm talking to you you know that but when I do talk to young actors I say you know just do it go out there forget about getting it you're not going to get it right you know go to auditions you know I used to go to auditions just have these Shakespearean monologues I'd come in and they would be there they'd say did you read the script I'd say yeah I would

the script but you know I have something you have prepared something and they go oh he's prepared something this guy who are you you know and I'd be of course in rags and stuff and I'd come out there and do something from the living theater's connection see Marty Sheen and I worked at the living theater we were we cleaned it up set the stage we were teenagers and we got a lot of inspiration from that and he was so great Marty and I mean he got in the play he once told me the watching the play, we're in the back. He's just all dirty from cleaning everything up in the toilets and the lobby and stuff, and we're both back there.

A couple of urchins. We actually lived together for a while. And he's looking and I'm looking and he says, wow. And it's a great performance by this guy, Gary Goodrow. I don't know if you remember him, but he was giving a great performance in The Connection. It was a great production, most amazing thing. And Marty looked on and said to me, now one day I'm going to do that point and I looked at him and I thought he means it he's going to do it he had this desire you know yes and he did yes there he was a couple of months later doing that point with the living theaters wow so those are the days of cafes I'm going on here no I love it no I love it so the cafe scene in the village in the 60s

That's what saved my life. And you're working around the clock doing as many shows as you can. Well, we would do 16 shows a week. In a week? Yeah, 16. We'd do three shows. You'd do the one at 8th and the one at 10 and the one at 1 in the morning. Yeah.

There was the village in the 60s. Sure. It was. And I think a lot of us, you know, sort of galvanized in those days and got our learned our sort of went together in a band because we would pass the basket after each show. would drop something in. That's how we ate. So it was, my memory of that is just... So what's the leap then, Al, from passing the basket,

16 shows a week to, I think it was 69 when you won the Tony. I won the Tony. Yeah. So what was the, how did you get from those little cafes to the stage on Broadway? Well, you know, it happened because it was Marty Brickman. That's the reason I'm here talking here today is Marty Brickman. You have a certain amount of luck. And then you have someone like Marty who was a facilitator, someone who had to get things going,

and sort of kind of put me to the side because I didn't know much about the finesse and how to handle yourself in situations. What did I know? You know, I learned. So he was able to, if he saw a project, he sort of, you know, he's the guy who said, thought day afternoon. This is after, of course. It became a little easier for him after the Godfather.

I imagine the Godfather. Panic in Needle Park was a beautiful film, by the way. It really is. I mean, it's Jerry Shatspur. I don't know if you've ever seen it. I haven't seen it, but I didn't Coppola see you in that also? Yeah. And say... Well, that's the reason I finally got the role

because the Paramount didn't want me. Right. And then Jerry Shatspur put eight minutes of it together. A reel, they say, and they showed it to them. And that's how I had sort of a way in. Yeah, yeah. And so what was your life like then during Godfather? Because I know there were some skeptics about whether or not Francis should have hired you for the role.

Oh, skeptics. Who is this guy? They all had the hook. Is that right? Let's get them out there, pull them back in. Because they didn't know who you were. They wanted a bigger name at the time. Is that what it was?

what the reason was. I wasn't doing, I don't think I was really doing anything. Because in the early part of the film, Michael isn't, you know, it's, there's a couple of scenes of exposition, and you are what you are, you know, and I'm there, and you become almost interchangeable. But I saw this role, you know,

as when I first read the book, I saw this role as a very difficult role, and I prefer not to do it. I would rather do something. It seemed more, you know, it was clearer. Michael was complex and, but in screen, it's a, on screen it's different, you know, I, I know I saw a play and it was an adaptation of a screen hit, a movie hit. And a certain character, the actor was playing in the movie was really effective, but

on stage you don't have the close-up and it was A lot of it was thinking, a lot of it was juxtaposition, just how you're feeling and dropping words here and there. But in the theater, that doesn't work as much. It doesn't communicate as much unless you're seeing it on a big screen. Right. You know, it's very interesting. But with me, what I was doing, I needed to be sort of marinated with a director who had an idea moving towards something. And I was very lucky to have Francis Coppola, you know, who was the greatest.

And he's the reason that those studio executives lost the arguments about pulling some of you guys out of the movie? He's the reason, I'll tell you why, one of the reasons. They didn't want a lot of us. They didn't want Brando for sure. I mean, Brando was a no-no. Everybody, and Francis fought for him. But what happened with me is I think Francis very wisely moved one of the scenes. that was about

yet another not a very showy scene and he didn't want to shoot that because he knew they were getting ready to let me go because they looked at the two weeks of rushes Francis even asked me to look at the rushes and said, what are you doing? And I looked at them and I thought

well this doesn't look very good but it doesn't look very bad because I'm heading towards something. I had this all in my head, and I was a young actor, so I didn't really know how to explain it to Francis where I was coming from. And sometimes it's hard to communicate with the director,

especially when he has everything that he has to deal with. So he moved the Saluzzo scene when Mike shoots the cop in Salo in the restaurant. He moved it, put it up front. So I could do that, and they'd see me do. that and if they saw me do that they'd keep me that's something whoa it's incredible yeah so that was he believed in you enough that he moved it around to show them this is a guy yeah he felt it oh he was

that's incredible so do you have a sense at some point that you're doing something different and special and something that's going to last and with while you're doing it yeah is there or does that happen after the fact when you see the response to it well i knew the dog day afternoon because Lament came up to me. But Lament was different than a lot of directors because he rehearsed. So you had a chance to go through the whole movie. It was a play. Sometimes three, four weeks.

He'd rehearsed us all together. And a lot of the rehearsal allowed you to be free. Somehow, that time learning, you didn't hang on each day. You felt you would, you learned it. You learned inside it. You were able to just be free. freer I find it free. And then there's the other aspect of filmmaking,

which is really great as the impoverisitur. Anything can happen because you take the Attica scene. That wasn't written. Before I was going to go out, I don't know if you've seen the film, I'm assuming you're so in the film. I mean, no, I know.

It's really a special lament film. I mean, so I remember him even saying to me, Al, it came up to me and he said, Al, it's out of my hands. it's got a life of its own. And you sort of feel that in the way when you see it. It's got this spontaneity.

Sidney creates it. He just goes, great. So at one point, I was going outside in a shot to talk to the cops and the people out there. And this great AD assistant director comes up and he leans in Bert Harris. Great. So smart. And he sees me.

And it comes up to me and he says, hey, say Attica. See, we did films together. We did Serp and go together. So he knew me. He said, hey, say Attica. Go out there. Just say Attica. I said, Adica?

He said, yeah, just say Attica. He said, and I went out into the thing. And I looked out there and I said, I was there looking around me at everybody. And I thought, well, what is this? So I said, oh, something dawned on me. I realized that was. in the news all the time, the riots in Attica and all those

prisoners that were killed and stuff. So I just said, Attica, huh? Attica to the cops. And I heard that murmur in the crowd because the crowd's saying, yeah, whoa, you start hearing that. Next thing you know, I say, Attica again. And they say Attica.

Before you know it, you're cheering them on and you're having this experience. Now that happens in films. And they take advantage of that. I don't even think Sidney knew. I was going to that right so it was because of bert harris he he gave it to me wow that's an amazing story so sometimes it takes a director or an ad in that case somebody you trust to create the space where you can improvise right and then directors everything where you get the right stuff and films

directors everything yeah that's it that's you know of course the text i sort of think comes first but it's very close director text hey guys thanks for for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Al Pacino after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Al Pacino. So Godfather set you off on this rocket ship to the moon in your career. You go out in this incredible run of films.

You're nominated for Oscars again and again and again. And then along about 10 years later comes Scarface in 83. Yeah. I didn't realize it until I was doing my homework that it wasn't a hit necessarily at the time, critically or commercially. No. It's hard to imagine that now, given its iconic status.

What did you love about Tony when you read that? Oh, what a character. Well, the first time I saw Scarface was seeing Paul Muni do it, and Paul Muri is the greatest of actors. And I was here of all places. I was in L.A., and that doesn't happen often. but then I was doing a film Justice for All, so they had to do

some shots here in L.A. And I was walking on sunset, and I looked up, a few of us, and there was Scarface, Paul Muti, and I knew that Bertolt Pertl Precht had liked Scarface or the American gangster films.

That's why you wrote this great, you know, play, this farce of Arturo Ui, the rise of, the resistible rise of Arturo Ui, which equated the Chicago gangster in the 30s with Hitler's rise. Right. And that's the parallel. And that play is great.

I've done the play. And I saw him, I want to see Munich. Because I heard, growing up, I heard all about George Raft flipping the half and all in, and Paul Muni playing this guy. And I went in and saw it. And I was so, all I wanted to do is imitate Paul Muni. I just said, I love him so much. I got to do that.

He spoke, it spoke to me, you know. So I went and I call Marty Bregman. And Marty Bregman was, I think he was sleeping. I woke him, I said, listen, they're doing Scarface at the Tiffany here. It's amazing. Let's do, because it's 50 years ago, let's do a re-run of it. Let's do revive it in some way. It's great.

So he said, Scarface. He said, I'll take a look at it. And Marty, knowing him, took a look at it because he's a facilitator. If it catch him, you know, if it would catch him, he'd go with it. So I think Bob and Scorsese were trying to do it also at one point. This is what I had heard. And I thought, well, let's see. We've got to do something.

How do you do it? So how do you translate this 30s film into a modern day? How do you do it? Well, Oliver Stone was kind of Marty Brickman's protege. Marty Brickman found a writer of Oliver Stone, who is also a great director, great writer. Got Sidney Lemette back. Sidney said, this is interesting. And it was Sidney Lemette's idea to make it Cuban refugees.

He had that idea. And it was a great idea. But he had a different idea of doing the film. He wanted to bring out other things. And so Marty and him had a bit of a conflict there. And so it separated. And Marty got Oliver Stone and Bride the Palmer. Two opposite areas of the police of guys.

So you're wondering, where is this? And I remember meeting with Oliver in my house and talking about this character, this sort of Tony Montana. And he went back, Oliver, and he wrote that text. And it was a great text. and he just, he sort of put, you just sort of felt this Tony Montana's what he represented, kind of. And we did it with this operatic style, which Brian DePalmer wanted and wanted to take. It was a film, I guess, underneath it was about Averis and what was going on, not just cocaine, it's about greed. And it's the rise and fall, which is always, if it catches, it's always a,

a fun thing to watch. And audiences like that. But we got that. I mean, it was like, it was sad. You know, we didn't get a nomination for anything, except Golden Globe. I got a nomination for the Golden Globe. So it was a real, we thought we had something there, you know.

And then you had those few critics here, a couple who just saw that. What was it too violent, they thought? I don't know what it was. So many times, you know, things were different then. That's 83. What was going on in 83? I don't know.

But there was no room for it. Certainly cocaine was going on. But this wasn't about that. There was an underlying underground, and Oliver, if nothing, he's political. You know that. I mean, it's there. It's underneath it.

So I, and then it got what, it was revived. As a matter of fact, I'm going somewhere, I think, in Miami to do a showing of it. They do it all the time. They revived it again at the beacon with an anniversary and had the crowd. And I had a chance to say to Marty Bergman when he was, he came. Marty Bergman came in a wheelchair. And I said, that's yours.

Well, it's yours, Marty. Marty made it. He created it. He just, he did what producers do. Yeah. He, great producers do. So.

Is that the movie, Al, if you walk down the street right now, if people yelled at you, Hey, Al, Scarface. Yeah.

What's the one you hear about the most? Scarface. Yeah. My whole life. Scarface is the one. Yeah. It caught something and, you know,

it's unusual. Usually, you know, those things you know when they happen. It's, uh, I remember.

doing another film afterward and then I stopped for about four years. Why was that? I just felt I needed to just get away from any kind of pressure to do something. And I didn't do a movie again in four years. And then it was Marty Bergman. It got me. I was living with someone who said, what do you think you're going to do? Just sit around.

You think you'll live in some rooming house now. You've been rich too long, buddy. You feel you better start doing something. You know, I thought, yeah, I always felt, even though I lost all my money in, I think, 87. Yeah. I was in something and lost it. And so I knew I eventually had to go back to it, but I knew I could get work and go, you know. And then this woman gave me this film, Sea of Love,

said, that's right for you. Yeah. And I called Marty. I said, you know, here's this script. It seems right. It seems we can do it. And he liked it. And he said, let's go do it.

And he got See of Love with Harold Becker directing. And Ellen Barkin and that wonderful performance she gives in it. Yeah. So, you know, those things happen. And now I can. got the hunters, right? Yes, yes. I know. I was going to talk about that soon, but I'm so deep and fascinated in your career. Let's talk about the hunters. I told you I watched the first two episodes and had to catch my breath a few times. Wanted to sit down here and have a quick drink,

maybe take it down a little bit. Boy, it is something. I mean, I knew the premise of the show, but I didn't know how you were going to put it on. Yeah. So what appealed to you about this? because I also didn't realize you've never done a TV series. No, no. Here you are. Al Pacino doing TV. What drew you in? Well, it seems, well, it certainly is part of the day, you know, today.

This is what we do. And where is the material? You always sort of look for that. And this guy, David Weil, I mean, you know, he's got it. He had something to say about this with his background. and everything. And he felt it. And it's always something

when it's personal. You know, when you feel it's coming from someone who is personal. Because that's really art in a way when it's personal. I don't know if this is art.

I don't want to go into that. But he, as an artist, found that thing in him to express. In the end, it's about expression And when it's really good, it's about expressing, like Scorsese expresses his feelings about life and his own, you know, progress as a person and age, etc. He felt it.

And with this kid writing, it just sort of felt it. And it has an eccentricity running through it. And it never sort of, you're never quite where, you know, quite know where you are sometimes. and it's not even deliberate. It's just part of his whole, you know, what's going on in his head. And he comes up with these things and some of the stuff in it. You haven't seen those other ones.

I haven't seen the first two. But for people who are watching and listening, sort of the premise of the show is that there's this group of Nazi hunters, right, in the 1970s. Yeah. And there's a group of former Nazis in the United States who we learn. I don't want to get too much away, actually.

But there's something of foot. There was something in the late 70s, too, that had this sort of, either it was a rumor or it was more than a rumor. There was stuff going on. Yeah. And I think part of that is what David Weil remembered. He wasn't around at that period. Right. The tales that came to him.

He was able to put this together and with strong feeling. And they're established and I'm the sort of father of the group because I inherited it in a way because Logan Lerman, who is wonderful in this thing, his grandmother and I sort of started it. She started it and she brought me into it because we were all lovers many years ago and somehow she and I were separated. and, you know, carried, she carried hostility toward me. But it took this incident, her seeing someone in the marketplace that was at Ashwitz. Yeah. And because she was at the camps. We were in the camps.

And it started. That seed started it. And they killed her. Well, you've seen that. Yeah. Anyway, that's what started that thing. And it's interesting. You didn't see it when it goes to the old Jewish woman in Brooklyn.

They'll ask. Not that far. They recruit these hunters. Exactly. So what's the pitch, the Marty Bregman in your life now, comes to you and says, Amazon. I said TV before. I don't even know what TV is.

anymore. It's streaming, it's content. It's all good. It's good. You get a script. With the hunters, you know, my agent is a great idea. You know, Josh Lieberman, he's great. And he had this and his people, Benday is there. And they just came to me with this project and said they're interested, David Weil.

And I really got along with David Weil and the other producers, Nikki, and this group of young people. And they came to my house and we talked about it. And I felt I wanted to be with them and work with them and have fun with them and see what we could come up with. They already had it, but he wrote it. And it was there. And I said, this is good. This is something I think I'm ready to do. What does it take to trigger that with you at this point?

Because you don't have to do things you don't want to do. That's true. That's true. So that you really, you know, you sort of say, you're doing, you do that. What's the matter with you? You do the schmatter stuff? What's wrong with you? So, but you can do anything.

You know, you're sort of a say. But you know what you find, no matter why, You go through periods, like when I had periods where I just felt so good about something, excited by it. And then sometimes I felt actors go through things where I'm just doing this now. I think that's one of the reasons. I stopped for a while and just doing things to do them and you lose sort of perspective a little. So now I figure, well, when something strikes me, I'm doing things now, for instance, in charity. and charity things, and I'm doing something for the veterans.

And I found this great play that I had done way back in 77, 1977, called the Basic Training of Pavello Hummel by the great writer David Wraib. And we're doing kind of a quasi-stage reading of it, because it's important to me that this kind of material gets out there It had a life a long time ago. It's going to revive these things sometime. So we'll do it, and perhaps if it has a, you know, it's effective, we'll do it again somewhere else, you know.

So you find things, I guess, because sometimes I like, you know, theater really is my thing. So there's a lot to choose from in theater, because there's the plays out there. The scripts are new. So you never know what you. you're going to get. So there it is.

And, you know, but I have kids and I have things I have to live. And so that keeps me going, occupied. But it's very rare that someone comes and says, well, I got this thing, you know. Doesn't happen often. With Marty Bregman, he did that, you know, because he'll say, but it's usually, it's usually saw, I had with Carlito's way I did with Marty. Marty produced all these films, Serpico Dog Day, he produced. I think you need someone in your life that has that kind of, that is a facilitator

because especially I'm not, I've never had my own company that I went around looking at things. I never had interest in that. I tried it once. Yeah. It sounds like sitting here, you have a. different view of your life and your careers than as you said if we'd sat across from each other 45 years ago after the godfather my i would just be like this you know i think so what do you as you look back on 50 years of this incredible career you've had what do you think as you sit here

today well i remember when there was that big show and i remember the great um alexander cone was well He was a great producer, Broadway producer. He was like a Barnum and Bailey kind of guy. And he had the night of a hundred stars, you know. And there around us was all these great stars. I mean, Elizabeth Taylor, James Cagney, Orson, Wells. They were all there for the benefit for the actors' fund. And I remember Bobby and I were there, Bob and I were there.

And we had to do the... And Lee was there, Lee Strasbury, and we had to do the chorus line thing, where he took the hat off and did the, and they said the reluctant demutons about me and Bob. Because you could see, we didn't know quite what this was. But Lee was there, and he turned to me at one point. He says, you know, Dolly, I look around and I see, you know what I see? All these movie stars, all these great stars in the past, survivors. I see survivors.

And I feel that that's all survive. So I guess I'm lucky. That's what I think. Deep down, I think I'm lucky. I got lucky here and there. Not lucky, but mostly I got lucky. But you know luck only takes you so far. You don't make it 50 years at the level you are without some talent.

I was lucky in that I also part of it was the fact that I had a desire. Sometimes I've even said. that desire, desire Trump's talent sometimes. So people who have talent, sometimes they do it easy and fay, they just get tired of it, but desire will to do it. I have a certain amount of that. Sometimes, but sometimes it comes up. And what inspires me is the text.

So when I see that, I say, ah, and sometimes I see a really good text, but I don't connect to it as an actor. So you want to find the one that you connect to as an actor, but sometimes you do parts that you don't connect to that way, but you learn so much when you do a world like that. But like Gregman used to tell me, you know, don't be a jerk. Don't do a big, fat movie.

They're paying all kinds of money for to experiment. Experiment downtown. That's the way to experiment. Don't go on a big screen experiment. He was right. to sometimes I try things. I say, see, I want to see what it's like to go through. See, people are coming and they're paying.

So you want to, so that's the way it is. There's entertainment, and then there's what you want to do. And if they both connect, then you've got something. You've been able to do both. I've tried, and sometimes it comes off, yeah. Do you ever think back out to the little kid running around the South Bronx, who they call the actor? And look at them now.

More and more lately, I think about it, and I think about it fondly. I always think about it, because it's kind of cool to think about where you come from. It really is. I think about early inspiration, like my acting director in the second grade, third grade. I think it was Blanche Roth's Seema. I won the Oscar. I thanked her for it. She actually came to my house, my apartment with my grandmother.

I live with my grandmother, grandfather, mother. And so she actually came up there, talked to my grandmother. I don't even know what they said, but I think it had something to do with, you know, this kid has something, I'd think. They knew at that age that you had something. They knew something was there, yeah, and they encouraged it. That's teachers. That's what's so great about teachers.

The encouragement, I mean, that's the great line that played, a wonderful play, Orphins, Lyle Kassler. the world in which they just it's beautiful these two kids living in an abandoned house without a mother and one kid's defective and the this gangster's obviously hiding

out goes there and then it says you need encouragement that's what you need oh I love that word so that's what teachers when teachers do that and get to it it's important it really and she did that and some of the other teachers I had too

when I went high school performance forming hearts. But they were right. They were, they were right. Yeah. Yeah. Stick around to hear more from Al Pacino on the Sunday Sit Down podcast right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sitdown podcast. Now more of my conversation with Al Pacino as we move outside and cruise the streets of Beverly Hills in a classic 1976 Cadillac El Dorado convertible. Give you a lift home, Al? This is the strangest I've ever done. This is it. This is the interview I've been living for. Thank you. You're going to regret this new thing where you do interviews, Al. You drag you around in an El Dorado all day. I guess the only thing that I'm sort of comfortable

with here is there's no seatbelt. This is. Do we have a seatbelt? This is true to the era. Oh, this is true. There is no seatbelt. That's good. Let's feel like I love. All right. I'd like to be inconspicuous. Oh. Yes. Finally. This is like reminds me, when I was playing, I got to say this.

It's funny. It's better say it. I was playing paddle tennis. I used to play paddle tennis in order to get in shape. So I was on a team, paddle tennis team, believe it or not. Two and two. And we had shirts. And on my shirt said, Pacino would cross it.

And behind me was my number. So I was living out the outrigger. This is 20 years ago. Easy. 25 years ago. So I got up in the morning, going out, going to play paddle tennis. You know, I said, I had my tennis racket. And I come out of the thing with my shirt and walking.

And this little old lady with a little dog is walking. She looks up and she sees, she sees me. and she looks at my shirt, same picture. And she says, oh, please. Oh, please. I said, oh, my God.

So, of course, you know, the story is going to be, I saw him. He came out of the out there. He actually has his name on his shirt. That's us right now, basically. Yeah. We got our name on the shirt. We're not getting any callers here.

Nobody seems to, uh... Not yet. We're going to try. Well, if this was New York, I think we'd get a lot more much. Oh, yeah, well, we'd be stopped in traffic and people would be yelling at you. But you know, miraculously, the weather is with us here. It's pretty good. Yeah.

I don't mind the winter weather out here. A little cooler? Yeah, winter here, anytime. So are you a full-fledged West Coast guy now, even though you're a born New Yorker? No, that's not going to happen. No. Okay. I'll be back.

You're here out of necessity. I'll tell you something. That's what really is telling. I have a rental. I don't own a house here. Here? My kids own a house with their mother. Okay.

And I have a rental. I've had for almost 20 years. And everyone says to me what? What are you doing? I was going to say that. I'm going to be leaving soon. There's a story here, isn't it? It says a lot.

20 years later. There, no commitment, huh? No. It's a nice house in a great neighborhood. You know, you really are around everybody. You never thought, hey, maybe I'll buy the place from the landlord? Not even thought it. The thought, certain things repel me, you know.

Not that this town repels me, it doesn't. But the idea of buying a house says, I'm here. You know what I mean? It's too permanent. Too permanent. Yeah. Well, when you're ready to come back to New York, we'll be waiting for you. I'm so ready. But there's a lot of stuff going on.

There you go. Hey, hi, guys. Hi. Nice seeing you. How are you? I'm all right. We're making a film. Yeah.

It's called Willie and Al. Go see it. Oh, my gosh. I think we have Co players so he does the Irishman he gets an Oscar nomination now he's parading around

a convertible so everyone can see him we should have a sticker on the side that says the Irishman How far does an old guy go How far will he go How far will he go for an Oscar? Yes This answers that question

Well, you know, there is such a thing. Believe it or not, the Oscar campaign. I know. You never struck me as a big Oscar campaign guy. That never came to me. But pretty soon everything's your campaign. I once... There's a story I was in San Francisco performing, doing a play.

and I just received a no nomination for Scarface. Right. So I was doing the play, and I came out after a matinee and just came out. And they had a lot of people out there. I mean, so many needed horses of police. The mounted police. Mounted Police there. And they were cheering.

And they had this Oscar for me. Huge. For Scarface, they gave me the author. So I thought this was amazing. You know, I mean, really, talk about something coming in and really, you know, easing the pain. So I had that, and I still have it. And when they gave it to me, I had it.

So I put it in this little bag I was holding. And we went to some local. actors bar or something there were some tables and there was a long time ago of course sure and I'm sitting there at the table and they're talking

and then I decided well I'll do one of my my things and I just pulled out this Oscar people gave me and I said you see this you'll see this talking about Oscars I don't get plenty of Oscars and you know the story's gonna get out

it's all about these things you know I was in a place And the guy pulled out his Oscar. You get a reputation. You get that kind of reputation. The T-shirt and the Oscar, you know? That's a hell of a group in your category this year.

Oh, wow. Brad and Anthony Hopkins. Wow. Does it get Tom Hanks? Tom Hanks. Top to bottom. Jonathan. Is Jonathan up for it?

I think he's in the best actor category. Oh, he's best. Yes. Yes. But there's Anthony Hopkins. And Hopkins, yeah. Oh, my. So, there is no chance.

What? You think there's no chance? Well, I think there's a small chance. There's always a small chance. For any one of them. Joe Pesci. Right. Myself.

Right. Anthony Hopkins. Tom Hanks. Wow. But Brad Pitt. Brad, I think Brad is going to, I think he's going to get it. I hope he goes. I don't live there anymore.

I love you too. I love you too. Take care, my man. Is that your life? People shouting at you. Yeah. When I go out, that's why I walk around with this. But as soon as they hear it, see, I'll put this on.

But as soon as they hear the voice, it's over. Right. It seems to me on the celebrity scale, though, you've kept your life somewhat normal? I have. I know I have. It's been, it was deliberate, of course.

You know, you just do it so much. But, you know, you're recognized. Once you're exposed this way, you're recognized. People, and today is a world of celebrity. And so it's... Maybe you've just managed it better than some, you know?

Maybe. Yeah, I didn't, I don't do much of... these things with the... So that's sort of over. This is the end of this, by the way. Oh, this is great. I love it. I've really got an appetite

for one of these cars now. I know. I'm kind of feeling this. Just the size of it. It's a little slow to respond, I will say. You get the gas, and about three seconds later it goes. That's good to know, Willie.

No, it is true. I have stayed out of the line, because I always thought actors should be seen but not heard. Yes. That was a thought. A lot of actors should be heard.

They got something to say. You know, it's wonderful what they do. But I've never been that type. I just steered away from it. I feel like it helps with longevity, too, because you're not seen as some celebrity object that flames out. Exactly. I think that was the thing with Marlon, too.

Like he used to say, Brenda, I'm not a celebrity. I don't want to be a celebrity. But you are. Yeah. You can't help it. It's there. I don't know if you ever go up there,

but there's a place there that is, it's doomsday. Up here? Yeah. When we go there, it's impossible. Because it's all about, I don't know, and I'm glad that, of course, there's no access. I don't know how they, there's no traffic cop or anything.

It's the, you should see it. It's coming. Somebody's house. like a compound or something? No, it's just this every which you've got to figure. Oh, the intersection. It's an intersection that just. You can't get through it.

You have to just close your eyes and just put your foot on the gas and just go. It's kind of, you wonder why no one has done anything about it. Boy, you come from New York winter where I came from literally yesterday and you arrive here and you go, okay, I get it. You get it. I get it. You get it. That's what it is. Here it is. This is it. Oh, God. You tell me. Have you ever?

They need like a rotary or something. See? They will tell you. But this is, you've got to go all the way that way sometime. When you're going that way. Forget it. It's a bit of a relief when you get back home. So what's between now, between the Irishmen and hunters and the potential Frank Lloyd Wright project?

Well, it's a sort of, like I say, I'm doing that, I'm doing that... The reading. The reading. And it's fun. It's a play that I've been looking at. That's pretty interesting, Tennessee Williams in the last days, which is interesting. They're rewriting it and stuff. There's a lot of that goes on, you know.

It's what happened in Shakespeare's day with the actors. You know, Bill, I got nothing to do here. I'm going this way. What are you? Well, he says, well, to be or not to be? What do you think? Okay, that's a start. You know, that's the name of the, that's the nature of things.

They're, that relationship that an actor has with a writer. You know, and then I've done my, My films, my own private films, I don't know, we didn't talk about it. Like looking for Richard or now Salomey and Wild Salome. A lot about Oscar Wilde in that play, that's sort of unseen play of his that's, I sort of fell in love with when I saw it in London and I just became obsessed with it.

You were incredibly and famously well-versed in the theater. writers. Well, that compared to others. Works. Yeah, I'm somewhat versed. To me, you are, but maybe that's a layman's view, but you... Talk to Jonathan Lithgow, or to Anthony Hopkins, or even Jonathan. My friend, which... How do you forget your friend's name? Oh, what happens? Trust me. It happens to all of us. What, um... He's in the poops.

Oh, Price. Price, my God's thanks. Yes. We had him on Morning Joe a few weeks ago. He did, yeah. Wonderful. And I interviewed John Litko for this show, Blue Air, with you.

These two guys, I tell you, what John is doing with Churchill. Yes. You know, Jonathan Price is the greatest Hamlet I ever saw. Is that right? I saw it in London. He's the greatest, I see. I didn't see Mark Rylens, who's,

One of the great Shakespeare. But I saw him. He did what happens sometimes in Shakespeare. You're witnessing something in an audience. You see how far it goes. And Hamlet, his Hamlet. But you have to have the perspective to have seen a bunch of them, right? And the understanding of the part to know that that's special.

Well, you know, the problem with seeing Shakespeare, or say, take a play like Hamlet, You don't really know Hamlet until you've experienced it many times. Read it over again, played in it, worked it. There are things in Hamlet that, you know, you can't possibly get on one viewing. I mean, it's just not, it's impossible to get it. Right. Things, it's all the nuance of it, in one speech, the nuance,

the nuance, things that you hear and you just say, oh, my, that's it. What you learn, what you learn about life. And it's amazing something that's been around for how many years now, 400 something. Yeah. You can still get something out of it and enjoy it. Because it's about us. Yeah. That's about us.

You hear things. I read it sometimes and read it aloud. I think we did pretty well on this big old boat. I love it. Are we going now to the... I think we're... Actually going back where we started, then they're going to take you over to where you're going. This was wonderful.

I wish it was New York because I could point out some of my landmark. Yeah, well, you know what? Next time you're there, we'll go to the South Bronx. Went out all the spots. That would be the greatest. Wouldn't that be the greatest? I'd love that. South Bronx made me.

It made me that place. It's why I survived. I loved it. Even more than Manhattan. You had a pretty good mom, too, didn't you? Yeah, my mom was wild, but she was great. Yeah. You know, and that's what she, you know, that my grandfather was phenomenal.

I loved him so. And my mother was great. She saved me a lot. I once was doing it, they were doing, honoring me some of my 50s. And I was looking at them very shaving. I was thought, my mom. saved my life my god just dawned up just it came very clear do i get out here oh no just some fans hey man hi oh that's right could she have been more to york when neighbors in new york see how much

the hat helps this is so strange you know to talk to you to get to know you to enjoy your company in this environment oh it's outrageous it is it is I've enjoyed every second of it. Me too. I really love you. It's great to be with you. I must say. This may be my, what do you call it, swan song?

No. But I love it. Your swan song. Oh, on these interviews. Yeah, this is it. Shut it down. Well, how does anything compare to this? If someone would have told me, one day,

I mean, with Willie Geist here, my compatriot. My friend. We'll get you another car and we'll drive around the Bronx. I love this one. And they'll be shouting at you. Oh, yes. We're going to do that. It's one I owe you, okay?

Okay. If I get out here, I'll be going to the flower shop, which is where I always go. One more block, I think. Oh, is that right? Your spot? No, no. There's a place. They have it.

They call it Greek yogurt. Yeah. I don't know. I've never heard us. such a thing, but they say it has no sugar. So you start eating it. Who doesn't love ice cream? You know, it's my... And it's over once you start eating it. It doesn't really taste that good, but it's purple and it's pink and it's chocolate and it's green and you just keep eating it. You're trying to find it. You're trying to find the ice cream somewhere in that yogurt. You can't.

It's a bait and switch. It's baked. They tell you it's ice cream. And it never shows up. It never shows up. And you look for it and you're 400 pounds. And that's it. And they've got you.

That's my life. It's fun. This is so cool. What a blast. Thank you for doing this. Really, this was great. In our language, they call it being a good sport. Oh, you're the good sport here, man.

This is above and beyond. You know, Steinfeld has a show where he does this. I know. It's called a comedians and cars getting coffee. You'd probably love to have you on that show. I think, well, we're wired, aren't? Yes. So some of this will come out.

Oh, yeah. That's cool. Funny. And that's that. Willie, you're funny and you're great, and I love you. What a pleasure. Thank you so much, Al. Thank you.

And I love you too, Al Pacino. My big thanks to the great Al Pacino for an amazing conversation and truly just a surreal day. His new show, Hunters, is streaming now on Amazon Prime. And I'm joined now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast by the producer of this fine podcast, Maggie Law. Hi, Maggie. Hi, Willie. And the producer of the interview for Sunday today erring on NBC, Brittany Mania. Hi, Brian.

Hey. Man alive. Holy smokes. You know what I mean? Yes. That was Al Pacino. And he was just hanging out with us in a convertible riding shotgun while I drove him around Beverly Hills. I'm still recovering from a little bit.

I can't believe it actually happened. Does that go down in, you know, your career is one of the best? Yeah, I think so. I mean, we've done a lot of these for this show, almost four years. Letterman jumps out as being special. People who are in some other stratosphere who existed on a different plane. Absolutely. You never thought you'd meet in your life, let alone spend a day with and have some affection

with and a relationship within that time. So he's up there. He's way up there. Let's talk about the car first, because that was crazy to me. So visual for people, the size of a boat, as I pointed out, at 1976, Cadillac, Eldorado, like you'd see in Goodfellas or Scarface, as he said, or Serpico, one of those kind of era movies. And I was, we walked out of the restaurant, and he saw the car and he got in shotgun.

I got in the driver's seat. And he looked at me and he goes, all right, we're going to hitch up to the trailer now? Because when you shoot a movie, you don't actually drive a car. They put it on a trailer. They tow you. Oh. And they tow you around and you make it look like you're driving. And you chat.

And I said, oh, no. No, I'm going to be driving you. Right. Oh, boy. And so I just, there was Albertino and shotgun riding around Beverly Hills. And I was careful not to get into a breath. Yes. I felt a lot of pressure.

He, like, came alive, though, during. during that car ride. Yeah. Sit down, he was, you know, as you expected. But during the car ride, you could tell he really enjoyed being out and about. He did. And I thought for a guy that famous, maybe that's a burden or you don't want that. And we had the top down, obviously.

And, of course, every car stopped. And we'd be in traffic and everyone rolled down their windows and shouted to him. And I was waiting to see how he'd react to that. And the one lady said, wow, what are you doing? We're making a movie. It's so great. He was having the time of his life. He was enjoying this.

And he was in no rush really to go home. I kept thinking maybe I should turn it right here and we'll go back to the restaurant and he can go back home. And he's like, go up here, take a right. He was very concerned about that six-way intersection in Berkeley Hills. It's a death trap. It's a death trap. But we managed that together. So it was, I keep using the term dreamlike.

It was dreamlike. Yeah. How did that come about? So I was going to say the dream quickly turned into a nightmare when Sun began to It was just a dream for me, maybe. Yes, a dream for you in the sunshine. Yeah. When sun began to set, we realized that the car's headlights were not working, and they apparently

never worked. So your lovely assistant, Taylor. Yes, who's in the room. Yeah, Taylor was a little more experience driving than I am. So she was tasked with driving the car home. We did it together. And that's a, I can't stress on a huge car. Huge.

You don't know where it begins and ends. Right. The front of the car is like several feet long. You can only imagine without headlights. Without how do you see where the car ends? It's a black car. So we had to stop a couple times, get our bearing straight. Taylor was a trooper.

Did you go to the interstate? We didn't. We were on sunset boulevard, which helped with some of the lights, although we're in a more like suburban area of that street. Right. But yeah, we had a stop a couple times. We left a wide berth between us and the car in front of us just to make sure we weren't going to hit them. But we got it home safely and then quickly got into an Uber.

And that wasn't like, you weren't taking it back to the Hertz car rental. That was like a guy's car that she rented. And like he wasn't even home when we returned it. So it was like his friend. Oh gosh. Just dropped off the car. Yeah. Wow.

We had the Uber waiting for us so that we could just drop it and go. See, these are the sacrifices you guys make for a great interview. That is true producing. That is true, true producing. But I thought Maggie just to back inside the restaurant to be able to sit in a booth with Al Pacino and just say, because as I said, he was open to everything. It wasn't like, you have 20 minutes and you can only talk about the Amazon show. That part was fun, the Amazon show.

But to say, hey, Godfather, go. Right. And just have him tell him the story behind the scenes about how the studio didn't want him to be in Godfather was also surreal. I was going to say, I feel like it must have been, like, you keep saying dreamlike, but just to have, like, over an hour to sit down and, like, pick out Puccino's brain on anything. And I was, it's just listening to it. It's just like such an iconic conversation. My one thing on the podcast is his voice, too, and he always says people recognize him for his voice.

And I was like, I could just listen to him for days to talk about all of that. Yeah. And he, I don't know, he was just, you don't know what you're going to get, you know. Sometimes someone that famous who's been through that much Hollywood life is not willing to play a ball. But he walked in wide open. It seemed like he was in a place where he really wanted to reflect on his career. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. He said, you know, his 80th birthday is coming up. as I mentioned earlier. And he's starting to feel a little nostalgic, I think. You know, he's like, I never did these interviews. I never talked about this stuff. And I'm ready to do it.

And we just happened to be the one sitting there. Perfect. I think we sold them with the 76 El Dorado. I think that really closed the deal. And I think I told you, Bray, he sent me an email afterward. No, no. You have Al Pacino's email. Well, it came through like eight people.

But it was written by him. Okay. I'll take it. I know it was written by him because it was in that same language. Yeah. You just heard in the car. Willie, great, and I love you. Yeah, that whole thing, which I just love.

And he had a great time and wanted to thank all of you guys, too, for doing such a great job and taking care because I think it was a big deal for him to sit and expose himself that way. Yeah. With all his career and his story. So it was amazing. Guys, Al Pacino. Al Pacino. Al Pacino. We did it.

We did it. And you got to drive an El Dorado. Congratulations on that, too. Oh, right. You just got to look out for oncoming vehicles. Thank you very much, guys. My thanks, as always, to you as well for tuning in this week. If you want to hear more of our full-length conversations with my guests every week,

be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And, of course, don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.