Al Pacino: The Puppy Interview

I love that you bite me. I love it. Wow, that's a strange thing I'm discovering. You like this bike? That's what it is. You don't like me, you like the bike. I'm falling in love. I am in love. Hi, I'm Al Pacino, and I'm here with BuzzFeed to play with some puppies. How are you feeling? So far it's okay. I feel good. How would you feel if you're waiting for a bunch of puppies who are going to bite you? I'm a dog lover, I sure am. I'm an animal lover, to be honest with you. Well, let's bring in the puppies. Yes, I'm ready. Oh, look at that. Oh my God. I can't do it. I just can't do it, sweetie. Look at you. Look at this. I can't believe it. I'm falling in love. I am in love. I cannot believe it's come. You seem to be so friendly. I need this kind of friendship. I need this attention. No interview, all right? We don't need it. Okay. This one. No, no, no. I love this. I don't have any regrets about those things. I don't think. A couple I could have done. I should have done, really. But they were just done so well by the actors that played them that it was worth it. Audition for Star Wars? No, they wanted me to do it. I was on Broadway at the time doing a play. I'm having a great time. I have a break now. And they came with a letter and a script and wanted me to play whatever that guy's name is. It's Harrison Ford I was to play. I'm not at all like him. I got it and I thought this is so interesting I don't understand it. So I sent it to my great, beloved friend and mentor, Charlie Lawton who used to help me with things and is probably why I'm here today with the puppies. So I thought it was really a good script but I didn't understand it. I sent it to Charlie and he read it and he said, I don't understand it. I said, it's the biggest offer I've ever had in my life. I said, I can't do something I don't understand. And of course, Harrison Ford they gave it to him which I'm glad they did. He's a great actor. And I'm a great puppy holder. They do. They feel it, you know, like I do. I feel the love. Wow, it's amazing. It's just amazing that it has lasted and it's become such a part of our culture and stuff. Certainly one of the other reasons that I'm here right now. Look at you. I love that. There are quite a few. I found that if you prepare for the most challenging scene that you're ever going to do you're not going to do it well. You've got to go in unprepared for that. Get a sense of it and understand it in some way but forget it. And then go there and shoot and do whatever you're doing and then get into it. Because it's there. The brain has it. The body has it. It will come out. But as I get older and don't know what I'm doing it gets easier. I think I got that 10,000 hours of doing stuff and you sort of get good at it. But I want to do this. I find creatively it nourishes me. So I still do this. I'm just glad I get through some things but give me a lot of overrated ones. I thought I could. Come here baby. I love this. I should do this all the time. It just stops my brain of conniving and saying things that I think won't be the right thing to say. Every day, every morning I get up and watch. It works. Okay, I'll have my coffee now. I'm ready. No, I think It's so interesting when you move on a little bit some of the films you do, you learn from or all of them you can learn from, you watch them. Some of these places show older films which I really believe in because some of them really are feed you. As they do today. I'm going to sneeze or something. Oh, I'm so sorry about this. Sorry guys. I didn't mean to sneeze on you. Now I got an excuse. That's why my pants are so dirty. I used to walk on rooftops that were very high. We all used to do it from the South Bronx. Eight years old, nine years old, we thought that was fun. And we were fearless in that sense. Kids are. We used to have television antennas on there so we could hold from one to one. It was up there six stories. And some of the guys were great at it. And the thing we walked on was about that wide. I remember it. I'm frightened that I ever did it. I'm frightened telling you that story. Because I'm going to hear, hey, you know what Pacino does? He walks on rooftops. Scales them. But it's true. Fan encounter? Well, I'm going to say this is going to go viral, I'm sure. When I was a youngster and I was sort of famous fans used to sleep in front of my door. I didn't have those kind of places where you go to where you have about six bodyguards. I didn't have any of that. I had to learn to have it. But women just didn't hang out. You would think that. But they did. I mean, it's a fact. That was scary, I must say. Well, once I remember the time I was in my house already. And I became Batman or Lightning Man or whatever you want to call him. I got to that door. I opened it. It was sold. But I was young. I didn't know. I should have let them all in. I was in a cab going to work. I was playing Frank Serpico, a movie I did. Carbon monoxide was filling the air with black smoke. I was so taken with the fact that they were doing that. It's bad for you. So I just had a badge because I was playing Serpico who was a cop, a detective. And I took out his badge. The badge they gave me for the film. And I told the cab driver just pull over by that truck. I opened the window and I said, hey, you, pull over to the side. And I thought, what the f*** are you doing, Al? I almost made a, what I was thinking was a citizen's arrest, but I did it with a badge. No, no. It's the kind of power, you know, when you're playing a cop. Don't go away from me. Why? What did I do to you? I'm just being interviewed. I've done it a thousand times. When these guys grow up, I'm gonna show them what this is. It's an actor blabbing. You know the reason these puppies are with me? Because people don't want to see actors bragging about themselves in their new movie. So they put this in there and people pay attention. Should I name the movie? It's The Ritual. It was good. I liked the script, too. The priest and the exorcist who I play are on different pages. They think differently about what's going on. It's a contrast that really helps the film, I think, because it poses certain questions, you know, which is good. I was looking at YouTube and just heard that I died, which was interesting. People put their wishes on the YouTube. I hope this proves I'm not. Maybe a little later when I leave here. All of them. There's some great actors out there, I just have to tell you, but Abigail is great. She's gorgeous and she's great. She's a great actress. I loved her. Completely. The Godfather. I don't know. I mean, I liked a lot of characters I did to do over again so I could make them better than I did them. Other than that, you know you let things go. You have to. You let characters go. Movies go. You have to. Otherwise, you carry all this around and it gets tiresome. They seem calm. Are they usually calm? Well, somebody loves me. Finally. I really enjoyed being an usher in movie houses. They don't seem to have them anymore. I could get to see the picture and stand still at the same time. I enjoyed it. I didn't care for the uniforms much. My mother was an usherette. I remember it. When I was nine in the neighborhood art house. I was so happy that my mother was an usher. I tell the guys, hey, we're getting free, I think. My little daughter at the time, she put it on my phone. She found it funny. I didn't know what it was, actually. It was a green thing. I said, what is she doing? Who's that? She said, Shrek. I said, Shrek? Okay. And I carried it around, hit the internet, and went viral. And the Shrek people were grateful. I didn't get any reward for it. I love Shrek. I love Eddie Murphy. He played the duck. Oh, whoa. I just said I love you, too. I mean, I love him. I love you, too. And I love you. What are you doing? My son and I catch sevens all the time. He understands it better than I do. And it's great. It's beautifully done. I know Ben Stiller, who's a great director. He does some great work in that. There's this new thing going on now. Advertised for it. It's called Adolescence. Which I haven't seen, though. How I dare even mention it. I haven't seen it. But I hear great things about it. Sophia Loren? Abigail? I don't know. I haven't thought about that yet. You see, I'm the kind of person that needs to think about things before I spout what I feel. I have no idea. Bob Dylan? Timothee Chalamet, of course. He's really good at that interpretation, man. And now I've just ruined my career because of puppies. In those days, I didn't know. I just didn't realize I could keep something like that. What costume do you wish you had taken? I like what I wear as a monk. I like what I do as King Lear. I like one costume you wear throughout the film because you don't have to keep changing. It's drag. You have to do things like this. What is it? I like it. Of course, it's better than sulking in my house, which is what I do often. What would be one thing you would do if you weren't famous for a day? Hide. I love to go to parties. I put them to sleep. Damn it, about 40 million people out there watching this thing. Don't be such a schmuck. Try to understand things a little more. Nobody's picking on you. Just be cool with it. Be cool with this thing. If you can't be cool with this, this is so easy to be cool with. This is a good interview. I'm feeling good about it. I'll dream about it tonight. I'll take it with me for life. That's the beauty of this idea. Since an old person blabbed about his past and now his new film and talked about how great it is, it gets a little monotonous and it could be boring. But with this, everything's interesting. Isn't it? Pup Culture Rescue. You gotta go. You gotta see this to believe it. It'll take your heart. It really will take your heart. Because I love those shelters. All my dogs I got from that. If you want, the ritual is in theaters right now. I don't know if it's as good as this, but it's close. Pup Culture Rescue.