Al Pacino spoke candidly about the challenges of fame and revealed that it once led him to seek therapy.
The celebrated actor, 84, won an Oscar for his role as a blind veteran in 1992’s Scent Of A Woman and eight additional nominations for his performance.
But despite her tremendous success, the star has always found fame to be a source of discomfort and unease.
Speaking to Dermot O’Leary on his BBC 2 radio show, the Oscar-winning actor said: “Jack Kerouac, the great writer, the greatest generation writer who lived in the city, couldn’t stand it and someone said of him that I was embarrassed by the success.
Fame embarrassed him. So, I think I might have had a little bit of that in me, or something like that.
Al Pacino, 84, spoke candidly about the challenges of fame while speaking to Dermot O’Leary on his BBC 2 radio show on Saturday.
The celebrated actor won an Oscar for his role as a blind veteran in Scent Of A Woman and eight additional nominations for his performance (pictured, Pacino tangoing with Gabrielle Anwar in 1992’s Scent of a Woman).
“So I didn’t go up for a couple of Oscars and get a reputation, because they thought, someone said and my agent said, ‘Oh, Pacino’s not going because he’s not the lead actor, he’s a supporting actor for the Oscar.’ ….”
“Can you imagine saying, ‘I don’t want to go because I should be up there with Brando’? (laughs) It’s just not in my nature at all. And I knew I didn’t want to go because, frankly, it scared me.
“I was working in Boston in the theater and I was scared.”
Delving further into the matter, he continued: ‘Because feeling out of place is a strange feeling. I mean not being able to function because you don’t know the language, in a way, is a precarious place to be.
‘And I experienced it several times because I was so famous and I didn’t even know it.
‘And then I started experiencing it before I even got nominated for an Oscar. And I remember I actually won the prize, a big prize, and I was in Boston doing a play, and I was staying at the director’s house, and he gave me a room in his house, and I remember waking up and saying, “You won the National Board of Review award for acting in The Godfather,” and I remember saying to him at the time, “wow, that sure is great.”
‘I said, “Do you know any psychiatrists I can see?” Coming out of my mouth, because that’s the state I was in!”
The Oscar winner has had an extensive career, with award-winning films such as Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, but previously admitted he had more fun doing the job when he was younger.
The Oscar winner has had an extensive career, with award-winning films such as Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather under his belt, but the actor admits he had more fun doing the job when he was younger (pictured: Al Pacino in Scarface)
“Normally when I make movies, I’m not very happy,” he told NYT magazine. “They can be tedious, but you can go to your caravan and do whatever you want.”
So how exactly does an award-winning actor spend time in his trailer on set? Watch YouTube and TikToks like everyone else, of course!
There are so many things on YouTube,’ he said. “I even like TikTok when I see it.”
She especially likes watching videos about rescue dogs and recently watched a video about a deaf girl regaining her hearing.
‘I love that stuff!’ he told the magazine.
As for his next role, the actor is preparing to play Shakespeare’s King Lear. He was spotted in September in Los Angeles wearing a royal outfit.
He also recently helped celebrate his girlfriend Noor Alfallah’s, 30, birthday at a star-studded bash.
In an Instagram video of Noor’s 30th celebration shared on Thursday, the couple, who welcomed son Roman in 2023, looked in love as the Oscar-winning actor helped her blow out the candles on her cake.
Pacino has four children and his other three are adults.
He shares daughter Julie Marie with ex Jan Tarrant and twins Anton and Olivia with ex Beverly D’Angelo.
