How Losing $50 Million Led to a Shift in Al Pacino's Career

Al Pacino is opening up about going broke late in life. In his recently published memoir, Sonny Boy, the Oscar winner reveals he lost 50 million dollars after his accountant mismanaged his funds. The corrupt accountant went on to serve seven and a half years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme, but not before leaving Pacino without money in his 70s. The actor writes, I wasn't a young buck and I was not going to be making the kind of money from acting in films that I had made before. The big paydays that I was used to just weren't coming around anymore. The pendulum had swung and I found it harder to find parts for myself. Before going broke, Pacino reveals he was selective when it came to the films he worked on, but once he went broke, he started accepting whatever roles offered up big money. The circumstances led him to star in Adam Sandler's notorious Jack and Jill. Just think, Brooks. Let it just float. Okay, okay, okay. Can you do me a favor and not hold me like this? All right, I'm just trying to show you. All you gotta do is make content. That's all. I feel like this is your game and it's not my game. If you want to play my game, Hungry, Hungry Hippo, stop a day. Do you have that here? That's coming. Just throw it. Okay, come on. No matter here, Pitcher. No matter. We got him, we got him, we got him. Oh my God. Oh my God. I am so sorry. I'm sure you have others, though. Ah, you'd think it, but oddly enough, I don't. He also began doing commercials. So you need all the help you can get. And I'm reading the script when I'm rehearsing. Coffee goes with my line of work. Without coffee, I'm going to feel like something's missing in the day. I'm going to feel awkward. I'm not going to feel the same. Most of my scripts have coffee stains on them. That's how you know it's a Pacino script. Pacino writes in his book, Jack and Jill was the first film I made after I lost my money. To be honest, I did it because I didn't have anything else. Adam Sandler wanted me and they paid me a lot for it. So I went out and did it and it helped. I love Adam. He was wonderful to work with and has become a dear friend. He also just happens to be a great actor and a hell of a guy. Pacino recently spoke about including his money problems in his book on the New York Times, The Interview podcast. In what ways did growing up the way you grew up, where money was not readily at hand, do you think shaped your relationship later on with money? You know, I'm the kind of person, I think, that if I don't understand something very well, I just avoid it. There's no sense. You know, if I have a need to learn it, you know, actually, you know, my father, who I, you know, I didn't know really, he was an accountant and a very good one, apparently. And, you know, so he sort of knew. He'd have to, wouldn't he? I mean, but I moved away from that only because I was always into my work or other kinds of things that had nothing to do with money, except, you know, a fool, whatever that saying is. That was very applicable. Oh, a fool and his money are soon parted. Yes, are soon parted.