Al Pacino recalls his experience working on one of the most popular films of his career, The Godfather. The veteran actor shared feeling exhausted from struggling on the sets of Francis Ford Coppola’s movie during the initial days.
During his appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, the actor claimed to have hurt himself on the sets, and instead of feeling terrible about it, Al Pacino was relieved, as he believed it to be a universe’s sign for him to excuse himself from the movie.
Moreover, the actor also shared with O’Brian that during his first few days on the sets of the film, he faced pressure from the director and the production over not living up to the expectations, and hence, getting hurt and leaving the movie seemed like an option for Pacino.
Explaining one of the scenes to the podcast host, the Hollywood star recalled, “Well, you have to understand one thing, because after I shoot these two guys—who I really loved, by the way—I shoot them and I’m running out and I sort of drop the gun and I go into the street and jump in a moving car.”
He further joked that because “they didn’t have a stuntman, maybe they assumed that I would jump and get hurt, and I’d be outta the film.”
Recalling his injury, Pacino revealed that he unfortunately hurt his ankle by missing the car he had to jump on and instead fell on the ground. However, the actor’s first reaction was to look up in the sky and thank god for getting him into the situation. “I said, ‘Thank you, God.’ This was my thought. I actually said, ‘Thank you, God. You’re gonna get me out of this film.’ That’s how much I wanted to leave it. I said, ‘This is from heaven.'”
Much to the actor’s disappointment, after the accident, the people got around him, and with some minimal treatment, Pacino’s foot was fine in a day, and he continued with the shooting.
While the Oscar-winning actor had a tough time shooting the film, the fruits were definitely sweeter, as The Godfather is believed to be one of the greatest films in Hollywood’s history.
The movie went on to bag 10 nominations at the Academy Awards and won 3 out of them. Al Pacino, too, received a nomination for the cult classic.
