Al Pacino by Al Pacino, Lawrence Grobel (2006, Hardcover)

1979.

To this point, Alfredo James Pacino had never done an interview—that was until he came across Playboy’s 25th Anniversary issue wherein the great Marlon Brando, Jr. (Pacino’s co-star in The Godfather movies) granted an interview to journalist Lawrence Grobel.

Pacino must have concluded, “What is good for Brando, is good for me too.”

And so it was. Nearly a month (forty hours in total) of tapped conversations and two thousand transcribed pages later, Grobel—in Pacino’s words—gives us a peek into the life of the man simply known as Al.

But to the public in general—(some circles consider) Al’s portrayal of the characters that he plays transcends celluloid and ingrains itself in the very consciousness of society.

Don Michael Corleone. Antonio “Tony” Montana. Big Boy Caprice. Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade. Carlito “Charlie” Brigante. And most recently, Walter Abrams.

Just some of the finer roles for a man considered by many to be “one of the greatest actors in film history.”

However, my interests in this book were not on Pacinio’s life, rather his personal insight into a past role—that of Antonio “Tony” Montana.

Antonio “Tony” Montana – More than 25 years after its initial release, fans still can’t get enough of the “two-dimensional” (“what you see is what you get”) Cuban political refugee simply known as Tony. Novels, video games, and comic books have come out in recent years that chronicle Montana’s beginnings as well as multiple “what ifs” scenarios has he not perished at the end of Scarface.

But what is Pacino’s take on the character? Here are a few excerpts from Grobel’s book.

Grobel: Scarface seems like a throwback to the gangster pictures of old. Do you think it should be taken seriously, or should people suspend disbelief and treat it as a roller-coaster ride?

Pacino: More like a ride. I think that’s evident when you see it. But people react differently to it. Some people don’t like rides. It’s somewhere between naturalism and opera.

G: Did anyone in real life inspire you? (For the role of Tony Montana)

P: Well, I used the boxer Roberto Duran a little bit. There was a certain aspect of Duran, a certain lion in him, that I responded to in this character. And I was very inspired by Meryl Streep’s work in Sophie’s Choice. I thought that her way of involving herself in playing someone who is from another country and another world was particularly fine and committed and…courageous. It was very inspiring.

G: You also felt isolated after the initial reviews of Scarface came in and they weren’t the raves you and I both thought the picture would receive.

P: Scarface wasn’t understood. It was about excess and avarice and everything being out of proportion. The character didn’t try to explain himself. It was originally conceived so brilliantly by Paul Muni in the thirties, and that who I emulated. Oliver Stone did a tremendous job brining this character to life. It was a real piece of writing—when you hear lines quoted at you in the streets everywhere you go, and not the same lines either. I’m walking, and somebody says, “Hey, Tony? Can I go now?” These are the kinds of lines they quote. The picture had a fire to it. That was part of Brian’s concept, to do everything in an extraordinary way—to have the violence blown up, the language blown up. The spirit of it was Brechtian, operatic. It didn’t opt for sentiment but had an almost fablelike quality to it. It was probably the most popular picture I ever made, but the reaction