In his new memoir, Sonny Boy, Al Pacino reveals that 21 pages of scenes he shot with Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood were hacked in the editing room. As a result, the running time was reduced to just two minutes. Pacino is not blaming Tarantino, nor is he blaming Tarantino for it. The Oscar-winning actor is grateful to the director, as “Hollywood” is one of the few late-career projects that made Pacino “much more famous than he ever was.”
“I’ve become famous in a different way, not because of the work I’m doing, but because of my interactions with different people and being in certain things and living in Hollywood,” Pacino said. is writing. “I’ve been very fortunate. Starting with ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ I’ve been in three films in a row that were very influential in many ways. I didn’t get paid a lot of money. But I loved the role because I had worked with Quentin Tarantino, Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie. That’s why I did it, and I said to my lawyer: “How can I do this without getting paid?”
“We rehearsed a 21-page scene with Leo, and he had a monologue that he delivered beautifully and said everything there was to say about the industry in 1969,” Pacino added. “But movies have their own rhythm, and when Tarantino completed that scene, it turned out to be about two minutes long. I don’t blame him. He had no reason to do it. There was.”
Pacino starred in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Marvin Schwartz, the Hollywood agent for DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton. The actor said Tarantino’s films are “great movies.” And just the fact that I was in it gave me some kind of fame. ”
“Next up is ‘The Irishman.’ Bob De Niro and Scorsese came to me years ago and talked about what we were going to do, and I was all for it,” Pacino said. is writing. “And in the end, it’s the screenplay. I go out and do it. I have a big part. I’ve been nominated for an Oscar, and I’ve worked with Brad Pitt, Joe Pesci, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks and I had no problem accepting that I was the loser among them that night.When I was nominated for The Irishman, I took my kids to the Oscars. What could be better than that?”
Films such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman once again led Pacino to work with some of the industry’s most respected auteur filmmakers. He admits in his book that he started taking big-paying acting jobs until he was over 70, because he was penniless at the time. Prior to that, Pacino “would appear in a movie if he felt he was relevant to the role and could bring something to the role.” He was able to get back into that spirit thanks to Hollywood and The Irishman.
Pacino’s memoir “Sonny Boy” is now available for purchase.
