The Godfather: Al Pacino reflects on how close he came to getting fired

Al Pacino was constantly flirting with the fate of being fired while filming The Godfather. Thankfully, Francis Ford Coppola was convinced of the actor’s talents and rearranged filming sequences in the film to better position a pivotal scene – the one where Michael Corleone commits to the family business by offing another mobster and a corrupt cop in a restaurant. You know the one.

“They were going to let me go. Francis said, ‘I want you to know, I believe in you. Francis pushes that scene forward. The studio liked it,” Pacino said while attending The Godfather’s 50th-anniversary screening at a Tribeca Festival retrospective series event. Pacino was overjoyed at the idea of Coppola instilling so much faith in his burgeoning abilities as a scene-stealing actor. He even called his grandmother in the afternoon the director vouched for him to tell her the great news. She informed him that his late grandfather came from the town of Corleone in Sicily! Fate can be spooky sometimes, eh?

The film won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Costume Design, Sound, Film Editing, Original Score, and Director.

Pacino recalls the making of The Godfather to be emotional for all involved. He recalls that one evening he found Coppola “bawling his eyes out” after shooting the Don Vito Corleone funeral scene. Confused, Pacino inquired about the filmmaker’s tears. “The light had gone so they can’t shoot anymore and felt they had enough,” Pacino said. Then he saw Coppola, the man who rearranged scenes so he could shine. “He is sobbing. I said, ‘What’s wrong Francis?’ He looked at me and said, ‘They won’t give me another setup.”‘

“‘They wouldn’t give him another shot. I thought, huh, this may be a great film. When you have that kind of passion that you are bawling your eyes out because of one extra shot.”

Can you imagine The Godfather without Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone? I certainly can’t. There are many exceptional actors in that film, though Pacino’s role remains the most memorable for me. It appears as if Coppola has an eye for up-and-coming talent in addition to keen visions behind a camera.