Now considered one of the greatest actors of our timeIt’s strange to think that even Al Pacino was very nervous when it came to taking on what is by far the most beloved role of his career. A long time ago, at the beginning of Francis Ford Coppola’s film “The Godfather”, the actor who would become the son of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) had serious doubts about his future in the film (which turned out to be turned out to be not only a success, but also one of the the best films ever made).

In Pacino’s Memoirs “Sonny Boy” the actor explains that the pressure was strong for his place in the Corleone family tree. What the young actor proposed did not work. The studios could see it, and worse, so could its director. It was during an unplanned meeting with Coppola that Pacino quickly realized how close he was to not necessarily sleeping with fish but at least being shown the door with “The Godfather.”

During a one-on-one with the director, Pacino explained everything. “Finally, Francis said, ‘You know how much you mean to me, how much I trusted you.’ At that point, we’d been shooting ‘The Godfather’ for about a week and a half and Francis said, ‘Well, you’re not cutting it,'” the actor recalled. Fortunately, after rearranging the filming schedule, a crucial scene in Michael’s story was moved forward and saved Pacino’s skin, but not before Pacino took his lumps in the process.

After watching her performance opposite Diane Keaton at the wedding at the beginning of “The Godfather” (which would become one of the greatest scenes in Coppola’s filmography)Pacino began to see the problem. The man who remembered his sister’s special day wasn’t the cold-hearted monster who would wake up in a quiet Bronx diner when Michael murdered Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and McCluskey (Sterling Hayden). This is what the studio needed to see, and thanks to Coppola’s booking development, they got it.

“That scene wasn’t supposed to be filmed a few days later, but if something hadn’t happened to allow me to show what I was capable of, there might not have been any more filming. late for me,” Pacino confessed. Things were going well until the actor twisted his ankle trying to get into the getaway car, which Pacino took as a blessing. “At least now they could fire me, cast another actor to play Michael and not lose every penny they had already invested in the film. But that’s not what happened,” he said. -he added.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen and what Pacino and Coppola ended up with was enough to bring Paramount back to the side of the filmmaker and his leading man. “Then Francis showed the restaurant scene to the studio, and when they watched it, there was something. Because of that scene that I just played, they kept me in the movie. So I didn’t “I didn’t get fired from ‘The Godfather.'” Pacino explained. It was a hard blow, but one that perhaps could have been avoided if the actor had followed the advice of Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano); get out of the place very quickly, but you don’t run.