Imagine if Al Pacino’s Lieutenant Vincent Hanna had taken “a hit of coke” on-screen in Heat. Such a display of drug use certainly would have, at the very least, altered Pacino’s character in the eyes of moviegoers. And who knows what the ramifications would have been if detective Hanna went up against the conniving career criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) while clearly coked up in director Michael Mann’s classic crime drama nearly 30 years ago. And thanks to Pacino, fans now know that just such a scene was left on the cutting room floor.
According to the meteoric, Academy Award-winning star who brought the larger-than-life character to life in the classic crime drama, a scene was indeed cut from Heat in which Hanna partook of some illegal stimulants. Pacino makes the revelation in his new book, Sonny Boy: A Memoir, and the actor writes (per The Independent):
“Hanna had problems as a human being, problems in his life. He was volatile and edgy and apt to go crazy. He was also chipping cocaine, and I sort of based my entire character on that. We shot a scene where I went into a club, and you actually saw my character taking a hit of coke before he enters. For some reason, Michael [Mann] kept that scene out of the film. [The deleted scene] did explain a lot of my character’s behavior, and without that explanation, I can see how it made aspects of my performance seem extravagant.”
The Oscar winner (Best Actor in a Leading Role | Scent of a Woman) starred alongside not only De Niro in Heat, but Pacino shared the big-screen stage with a who’s who of Hollywood names, including Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd and a very young Natalie Portman. Pacino continued examining the deleted Heat scene by writing the following in his memoir:
“If the audience had seen a moment or two when Hanna took a hit, I think they would have been better prepared to see what I did. But even without it, the intensity of his life – how Hanna worked in his profession, the way he dealt with things – allowed him this freedom to apply that kind of energy. It was almost a technique that he used as a detective, and it worked for him.”
‘I Had $50 million, and Then I Had Nothing’
Al Pacino’s incomparable film resume without question represents one of the finest careers ever assembled by any performer in Hollywood. Nevertheless, some might find it surprising to learn that the Academy Award-winning actor found himself broke in his 70s, despite all of the movies and television work he’d done over nearly 60 years in show business. Pacino also wrote in his new book, Sonny Boy: A Memoir (per Variety):
“I was broke. I had $50 million, and then I had nothing. I had property, but I didn’t have any money. In this business, when you make $10 million for a film, it’s not $10 million. Because after the lawyers, and the agents, and the publicist, and the government, it’s not $10 million, it’s $4.5 million in your pocket. But you’re living above that because you’re high on the hog. And that’s how you lose it. It’s very strange, the way it happens.”
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“It’s got something. It was powerful.”
Today, Pacino is reportedly a $40-million actor (via Celebrity Net Worth) again. However, he admittedly agreed to star in films like Righteous Kill — again teaming up with Robert De Niro — and 88 Minutes solely for the money because he was flat broke. Pacino continued to break down his financial difficulties by also writing the following in his memoir:
“The more money you make, the less you have. The kind of money I was spending and where it was going was just a crazy montage of loss. The landscaper was getting $400,000 a year and, I don’t exaggerate these things. It just went on and on. Mind you, that was for landscaping at a house I didn’t even live in.”
Pacino continues to work as an actor, and the thespian has several projects in the final stages of post-production, at the time of this writing. The A-lister has certainly come a long way from the days of virtually no one wanting him to play Michael Corelone in The Godfather. And for those who are eager to read all about the thespian’s ups and downs in Tinseltown, Al Pacino’s new book, Sonny Boy: A Memoir, is now available on Amazon in a variety of formats.