Al Pacino, the Hollywood legend known for his roles in films like Scarface, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico and, of course, The Godfather trilogy, rose to stardom when he was cast as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 drama epic. Nevertheless, the process of getting the part was far from ideal. The actor has revealed in his new memoir, Sonny Boy, that Paramount Pictures questioned whether he was the right actor to play Michael.
The Godfather follows the Corleones, a family in New York City whose patriarch, Don Vito Corleone, is one of the leaders of the Five Families of the Italian mafia. Vito gets ambushed, and while his enemies don’t kill him, he’s forced to give the power to one of his sons. He chooses Michael over the rest, and though Michael is reluctant at first, he knows he must follow his father’s steps in becoming the new godfather.
The film’s legacy is unquestionable. One of the greatest films of all time, The Godfather was a box office behemoth that gave director Francis Ford Coppola the ability to control the franchise from that moment on. The film won three Academy Awards, and while Al Pacino was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, he didn’t get the award.
In fact, he would never win an Oscar for playing Michael Corleone. In a report by Deadline, it’s revealed that Paramount Pictures campaigned for other actors to get the role, and it was only due to Coppola’s final decision that he was able to play the part that seemed to be tailor made for him:
“Paramount didn’t want me to play Michael Corleone. They wanted Jack Nicholson. They wanted Robert Redford. They wanted Warren Beatty or Ryan O’Neal. In the book, Puzo had Michael calling himself ‘the sissy of the Corleone family.’
He was supposed to be small, dark-haired, handsome in a delicate way, no visible threat to anybody. That didn’t sound like the guys that the studio wanted. But that didn’t mean it had to be me. It did mean, however, that I would have to screen-test for the role, which I had never done before.”
Ultimately, Pacino Played Michael Corleone Because of Francis Ford Coppola
Pacino recognizes that it was Coppola who took the shot to cast him as Michael Corleone. He also adds that Diane Keaton’s casting as Kay was crucial to them having the necessary chemistry to play the peculiar couple of Michael and Kay as the young man rises to the throne of a very dangerous family. Per Pacino’s claims:
“But here’s the secret: Francis wanted me. He wanted me and I knew that. And there’s nothing like when a director wants you. He also gave me a gift in the form of Diane Keaton. He had a few actors he was auditioning for the role of Kay, but the fact that he wanted to pair me up with Diane suggested she had an edge in the process.”
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Nevertheless, Paramount didn’t stop there, and they still pushed for Pacino to be replaced by a more suitable, seemingly more famous and handsome actor. Burt Reynolds was offered the part, but when Marlon Brando (Vito Corleone) found out, he told executives that he would quit if that happened. James Caan would finally get the role of Michael, but per Coppola’s request, Caan would have to play Sonny Corleone instead. Even when production started, Paramount Pictures was still doubtful of Pacino’s impact as the new don. Today, the actor remembers he stayed on the project because of Coppola’s almost aggressive drive:
“Finally, Francis determined that something had to be done. At this point we had been shooting
The Godfather
for about a week and a half. And Francis said, ‘Well, you’re not cutting it.’[Francis] did move up the filming of the Italian restaurant scene, where the untested Michael comes to take his revenge on Sollozzo and McCluskey. That scene was not meant to be filmed until a few days later, but if something hadn’t happened to let me show what I was capable of, there might not have been a later for me.
Then Francis showed the restaurant scene to the studio, and when they looked at it, something was there. Because of that scene I just performed, they kept me in the film. So I didn’t get fired from
The Godfather
.”
- Release Date
- March 14, 1972