Al Pacino

Interview by Ken Burns

His exceptional talent has brought some of the screen's most unforgettable characters to life. Today, the actor talks about his Bronx childhood, being a dad and (of course) Michael Corleone.

He is a second-generation-American icon. As such, acting legend Al Pacino is in a state of perennial conflict, caught between immigrants before him who never abandoned Old World idealism, and the ironic skepticism of later generations losing their grasp of it. But Al Pacino, 62, makes the best of this dilemma; onscreen, he's as entertaining as he is enlightening. "I give 'em a ball game," he says with a warm grin. "I give 'em a show."

For three decades, he has conveyed the complexities of Americans torn from within. In the film "Heat", he plays a detective tortured by the personal toll his career takes, yet he never seems more in his element than when obsessively hunting down a master thief. As Lt. Col. Frank Slade in "Scent of a Woman", Pacino is as determined to live life to its fullest as he is to bring it to an abrupt end. In his most memorable role, that of Michael Corleone in the "Godfather" trilogy, Pacino is a war hero and a reluctant son within his family's criminal enterprise. But he ends up being its most brilliant practitioner -- better at it than his own father, the "Godfather" himself.

These memorable performances have demanded much from the man. For instance, he has confronted corrupt cops in "Serpico", mob hits in the "Godfather" films and suicidal depression in Scent, which finally earned him a Best Actor Oscar. In his new movie, "The Recruit", a riveting spy drama out next Friday, Pacino confronts a professional and generational divide. He has struggled offscreen as well. In real life, he has dealt with the broken home of his youth, failed romantic relationships and alcoholism. Now, he's enjoying fatherhood with his twins, Olivia and Anton, who turn 2 this weekend. He maintains a long-term relationship with his significant other -- their mother, actress Beverly D'Angelo -- although the two have never married.

As you'd expect, Pacino's manner is a bit frazzled, somewhat resigned, and yet it captures a sense of contentedness with his place in the world. He doesn't simply slump on a couch; he allows the couch to seemingly swallow him whole. The dark brown eyes -- the ones that, onscreen in the "Godfather" films, sent men to their deaths with a quiet but commanding glance to a henchman -- are sunken and tired but still penetrating and expressive. The native Bronx inflections are still there, a bit raspy and weary now, but there's wry wit, too. Pacino has survived his conflicts on- and offscreen, older, for certain, but more than a little bit wiser.

We're not trying to rush this, but when your obituary appears ...
   Pacino: [Laughs.] You mean it hasn't yet?

Not yet. But when it does, it will mention Michael Corleone in the first line. Does the role's iconic status -- one you'll always be linked with -- bother you in any way?
   Pacino: Not at all. I was lucky enough to be picked for that role. My position on the film was very precarious. I thought I was going to get fired. Then, after it came out, its success overwhelmed me. But now I see it as a particular phenomenon that happened to me. It came at a time when the second generation came to the foreground: Everyone who came from Europe and had to work spawned the second generation, who were told they had to sacrifice for the third generation, who would go to school and become whatever they became. Michael was that second generation, the one who became a World War II hero and came home to live life as an American. Then he had to go the way of the gun. That hurts his father. Michael was never really a gangster, even though he did gangster things. He was an educated person who didn't see the world that way. He went against his own principles. There's something classic about that.

Your characters always have been beset by an internal as well as an external dilemma. Your own history is true to that, with its conflict and urban intensity. What's the strongest memory that comes to mind of growing up in the South Bronx?
   Pacino: The roofs. Being up on the roofs. Playing tag on the roofs. Playing ball on the roofs. Jumping from one rooftop to another, with six-story drops. Running, as fast as we can, a whole block over the roofs. That's my memory of that and my friends. Either I was running from people who were after me, or I was running just for the fun of running.

What was the first moment you were aware of something going on in the world? Something bigger than the Bronx?
   Pacino: The first time was the end of World War II, when the streets just flooded with people. Before then, at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning, I could look down the street for hundreds and hundreds of yards and see only my friend. I looked up at him, and he looked at me, and there was always space between us. These people just flooded the streets. It was magnificent. I saw a guy with one leg, and that made an impression on me, a little boy. I remember being lifted up on someone's shoulders and looking all around at these people. I couldn't see the cars. It was great. The war was over.

Your acting came out of your upbringing. Tell us about that.
   Pacino: I was brought up for a while by my grandparents on my father's side. And I have two aunts who were deaf, so a lot of my expression came from living with them. At an early age, I was communicating with them. I had to communicate with them. So, early on, I had a taste of what it was like to express myself.

As a young man, you used to do impressions of Ray Milland playing the alcoholic in "The Lost Weekend". That was foreshadowing: As an adult, you developed a problem with alcohol. How did you overcome that?
   Pacino: I did it the way everyone does. It was part of my life, and now it no longer is. To be really honest about it, alcohol helped me through a lot of things. But I felt that it was time not to do it anymore. I was going to have to get through things on my own.

Now you're a father for a second time, with young twins. Does having an older child [daughter Julie is 12] help you with the younger ones?
   Pacino: The children are the best thing that ever happened to me. But I wasn't around as much with my older one when she was young. I'm very close to her now, and she's close with the babies, too. Instinctively, I trust my reactions more than I would without having had a child before.

And you've never married. Not even to the mother of your twins. Has that been a conscious decision?
   Pacino: I don't have any ax to grind with that. It's something I wish I had done a couple of times. But because you've never been married, it suddenly becomes an issue. I wish I had done it so it wouldn't be an issue. I have a strong feeling that I will. I don't know when. But I know I will.

Your parents divorced when you were very young. Your father left the family. Have you ever reconnected with him?
   Pacino: Yeah. I see my dad occasionally. We were never really not connected; it's just that we didn't see each other a lot. But he saw the babies a couple of weeks ago. He came to see me in a play. He's doing well, and I'm happy he is. He enjoys life. I wish I could say the same.

We all can relate to that feeling at times. What keeps people from enjoying it?
   Pacino: I wish I knew. Part of it is habit. Part of it is genes. But we overcome these things. We start to realize that there are anodynes in life that help us through the day. I don't care if it's a walk in the park, a look out the window, a good bubble bath -- whatever. Even a meal you like, or a friend you want to call. That helps us solve all this stuff in our head.

How do you want to be remembered?
   Pacino: You mean in that obituary? I'd like to be remembered as the only man who lived to be 250 years old! [Laughs.] And as someone who had a chance to do what he always wanted to do. I like to think I'm a guy who wasn't going to make it, and I did. So it's good to buck the odds. If that means anything to anyone, I will be grateful from the beyond.

Photo by ANDREW ECCLES for USA WEEKEND
Stylist: Pascale Grise; clothing by Gucci