Did you know I started out as a stand-up comic? People don't believe me when I tell them. That's how I saw myself, in comedy. Al Pacino More Quotes by Al Pacino More Quotes From Al Pacino There was once a great actor named George C. Scott. He was on stage in the Delacourt Theater in Central Park, where they do Shakespeare every summer, and he was playing Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. At one point he took the robes he was wearing and just started flipping them up in the air, out of nowhere. And later, an actor said to him, "What was that, George, what were you doing?" And he said, "They were sleeping." You're always trying to catch them. Al Pacino air summer sleep Is it possible to do something that that makes an audience uncomfortable, challenges them, makes them see things they're not used to? Here in these films [Salome the play and Salomaybe], I have the opportunity to say something about how I feel about things. Al Pacino challenges play opportunity Acting is hard work. At times, it's very energizing and enervating. It's childish. It's also responsible. It's illuminating, enriching, joyful, drab. It's bizarre, diabolical. It's exciting. Al Pacino joyful hard-work acting I've never cared for guns. In fact, when I did 'Scent of a Woman' I had to learn how to assemble one. Al Pacino scent gun facts You take a guy like George Clooney who goes out there to Darfur, and gets things done! That's magical. He's done a great thing. Al Pacino great-things guy done I've had very deep relationships that lasted for long periods of time with people - you could almost call them marriages, even though I didn't marry. But it was costly. Al Pacino deep-relationship long people My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness. Al Pacino shy language firsts The reasons you have for doing a movie will vary with the way your life is going. There was a time when a made a some movies because I felt I needed to work. And I didn't think about the material as much. But sometimes I've thought about the material a lot and thought I was doing the right thing, and it didn't work out. Al Pacino work-out way thinking I turned down a lot of films before I made my first one. I knew that it was time for me to get into movies. Al Pacino film made firsts I'm an actor, and everything about me - the way I perceive things, the way I have seen the world - has been in relation to characters and how I would want to play something or not play it. Al Pacino actors play character When you do these things, you sort of take the journey. The journey is all about how I can interweave the Oscar Wilde story, the story of Salome, the play itself and what it is, what it contains, and my journey as an actor, as a director, as a filmmaker, as a person struggling with whatever I'm struggling with - my own celebrity, my own life. This is semi-autobiographical in terms of my commitment to this kind of thing. Al Pacino journey struggle commitment Women have always had equal importance onstage, and working with them must have altered my sensibilities. I've never felt sensitive to the whole issue, because being macho has never been a problem with me. Al Pacino sensitive issues problem You don't get to know anybody in a movie until after it's over. You work less together in a film than you do onstage. Al Pacino film over-you together I haven't encouraged [Julia Marie Pacino] or discouraged her. I let her go her own way. I did say to her that I thought that she had a real gift, and it's a good idea to know that. It's always good to go with your gift. Al Pacino real way ideas Being the actors of the craft, the trade, one of the big things you do and you learn is about repeating. There is something to the repeats. I think that is part of what is healthy to young actors. Get out and learn something just through doing that, repeating. Al Pacino healthy actors thinking The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers. Al Pacino emotional athlete suffering My dad was in the army. World War II. He got his college education from the army. After World War II he became an insurance salesman. Really, I didn't know my dad very well. He and my mother split up after the war. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and grandfather, and by my mother. Al Pacino dad mother war Show me a bad script and I will show you a big payday. Al Pacino payday scripts bigs It surprised me, the feeling I got when I won the Oscar for 'Scent of a Woman.' It was a new feeling. I'd never felt it. I don't see my Oscar much now. But when I first got it, there was a feeling for weeks afterward that I guess is akin to winning a gold medal in the Olympics. Al Pacino gold winning feelings When my mother got home from work, she would take me to the movies. It was her way of getting out, and she would take me with her. I'd go home and act all the parts. It had a tremendous influence on my becoming an actor. Al Pacino actors mother home
