Al Pacino: “When you have access to real character, it stimulates the imagination. It’s something to take off from”

It’s no secret that Al Pacino‘s best work in recent years has been on television.  While his recent films have been awful to mildly disappointing, he has won Emmys for his roles in Angels in America and You Don’t Know Jack.  In his latest TV movie, Pacino takes on another controversial figure, Phil Spector, the famed music producer known for his “Wall of Sound” technique who was later convicted of murder.  Written and directed by Pacino’s past collaborator David Mamet, Phil Spector features Pacino in perhaps the perfect role for the loud, aggressive latter-day Pacino.   He spoke to The New York Post about the role and what interested him about it.

During his murder trial, there was more talk about Spector’s ridiculous hairpieces that he wore in court than the actual trial itself.  Pacino says that acting as Spector was so much based on the feeling he got while wearing the assortment of wigs.  He says, “You put one of those things on, you don’t have to play anything. Let the wig act for you.  Every day was a good wig day for me.” Read more

Al Pacino on His Recent Comedic Turns: “You’re always looking for what’s going to feed you, what’s going to feed the spirit and get you going”

Al Pacino might not have appeared in as many comedies as Robert De Niro or Robert Duvall, but his latest film, Stand Up Guys, has Pacino making a rare clownish turn.  In an interview with Yahoo!, Pacino talks about how he originally wanted to be a comedian and how he ended up a dramatic actor instead.

As for his acclaimed acting style, Pacino sums it up be saying, “When you get me on the acting trail, I get on that train… You’re always looking for what’s going to feed you, what’s going to feed the spirit and get you going” (However, how that applies to his role in the atrocious Jack & Jill is anyone’s guess). Read more

Bobby Cannavale on Acting: ‘It was the only thing I ever wanted to do, really”

There are a handful of actors who scare the crap at me, and  at the top of the list is Bobby Cannavale. It’s not just because he’s a tough looking guy, but he happens to be a phenomenal Broadway actor in addition to his television credits.  In fact, he is currently starring in the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway alongside Al Pacino and John C. McGinley. In an interview with NPR, Cannavale explains why he prefers acting on the stage and his thoughts about how that compares to starring on Boardwalk Empire.

Cannavale explains that when he read plays while in school he felt an immediate connection.  He says, “I was just drawn to them because in my head I heard the voices. I would act out the parts in my head. So it was the only thing I ever wanted to do, really.” Read more

What’s Al Pacino’s Weekly Salary for Broadway’s ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’?

Usually it pays for Broadway producers to cast big-name actors to draw huge houses.  But how much exactly do those big names make?  For Al Pacino, who stars in Glengarry Glen Ross as Shelly Levene, it’s money that most Broadway regulars could only dream about.

Believed to be perhaps the highest of all time, Pacino’s paycheck for the David Mamet play is $125,000 a week plus five percent of the profits, though only after the production makes back its reported $2.3 million costs.  That amount seems even more significant considering the salaries of the entire seven-person cast total total $155,000 a week, meaning the other six cast members make collectively $30,000 a week, including Tony-nominated actor Bobby Cannavale, who plays Ricky Roma (the character Pacino played in the 1992 film version in an Oscar-nominated performance).  Even Pacino’s assistant makes $1000 per week! Read more

Trailer: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin are ‘Stand Up Guys’

Bobby Cannavale: “All I ever wanted to do is to be a working New York actor”

Bobby Cannavale is pretty much everywhere right now.  He just finished a run on Nurse Jackie, he currently has a role on Boardwalk Empire, and he will be starring in the upcoming Broadway production of Glengarry Glen Ross.

It would be hard for some actors to keep this many roles straight in their heads.  “I just took two weeks off to shoot this film, and then I have to go back and finish Boardwalk, and then I start rehearsal the day after that,” Cannavale told Vulture.  “I pretty much keep going like that.  I like living like that.  And the nine-mile walk, I do that shit in the city, that’s my little break.  I don’t need much more than that.  All I ever wanted to do is to be a working New York actor.  And I’m managing to do it.” Read more

Jeremy Shamos to Join Pacino and Cannavale in the Broadway Revival of ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’

With Al Pacino and Bobby Cannavale starring, how could the revival of the upcoming revival of David Mamet‘s Glengarry Glen Ross get any better?

With the announcement today that our friend, Tony Nominee Jeremy Shamos, would be joining the cast as James Lingk.

It was also announced today that Emmy Award winner Richard Schiff will make his Broadway debut as George Aaronow and David Harbour, who recently appeared in The Merchant of Venice with Pacino, will play the role of John Williamson.

The show will begin rehearsals on Wednesday, September 12^th, with previews beginning on Tuesday, October 16^th and an official opening date set for Sunday, November 11^th at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.  Tony Award-winning director, Daniel Sullivan(The Columnist, The Merchant of Venice, Time Stands Still, Proof) will direct. Read more

Al Pacino to Star in a New Revival of ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ on Broadway?

Actor Al Pacino has been linked to a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross for the 2012-2013 season on Broadway, according to ArtsBeat. Producers are keeping mum on the details because the play is not official yet due to actor negotiations.   

However, sources say that Pacino will be playing salesman Shelly ‘The Machine’ Levene in David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play.  This is a switch for the actor who played a different role, Ricky Roma, in the 1992 film adaptation—a role in which he was nominated for an Oscar.

Glengarry Glen Ross originally opened on Broadway in 1984, and was nominated for four Tonys.  The play was also recently revived in 2005—the production won best play revival at the Tonys.  That version starred Alan Alda as Levene and Liev Schreiber as Roma.

Trailer: ‘The Son Of No One’ starring Channing Tatum, Al Pacino, Tracy Morgan, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta

The Son Of No One: A young cop is assigned to a precinct in the neighborhood where he grew up, and an old secret threatens to destroy his life and his family.

Cast: Channing Tatum, Tracy Morgan, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche, Al Pacino

Director: Dito Montiel

In Theaters: November 4th, 2011

Read more

Al Pacino on Directing, Oscar Wilde and Choosing His Roles

I don’t know who originally said it, but it’s been said that every actor wants to secretly be a director and every director wants to secretly be an actor. 

I guess that explains Quentin Tarantino, but apparently it also describes Al Pacino, an actor who is (generally considered) one of the best actors in the history of Hollywood.  

The Godfather and Scent of a Woman star has only directed three films — two of which being the documentaries Looking for Richard and the upcoming Wilde Salome about Pacino’s efforts at staging plays — yet curiously Pacino tells the Telegraph that he has directed other films that haven’t been released to the public.  Why not?  Pacino is insecure about his abilities as a director, saying, “I always feel like a dilettante making movies, because I know great directors and I’m not that.”   Read more

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