Description
From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Journalist Grobel, who literally wrote the book on interviewing (The Art of the Interview), puts his talent on full display in this compilation of interviews conducted with Al Pacino over 25 years, giving the reader as much insight into interviewing style as into the legendary actor. Notoriously private, Pacino shares stories about his formative years, his preference for the theater over movies and how he handles criticism. Pacino's views on acting, punctuated by stories of preparing for iconic roles like Tony Montana in Scarface, are fascinating, and his obvious passion for and dedication to acting in all its forms is inspiring. But it's the personal side of Pacino many readers will look for, and Grobel does a deft and graceful job eliciting tales from the actor's upbringing and notorious fear of romantic commitment. Although the two are friends, Grobel maintains a respectful distance in the book, allowing Pacino the slack to cut things short or-after a few attempts-decline to answer. Part of the book's draw, however, is witnessing the two become closer as the years go by, their conversations becoming less formal and more intimate, making for increasingly engaging and illuminating reading. Until the famously shy Pacino authorizes a proper, official biography, this title makes a fine substitute. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist These interviews of Pacino conducted by Grobel and spanning the years 1979 to 2005 read more like old buddies conversing than formal discussion between aloof professionals, and in fact, Grobel and the notoriously aloof actor have became close friends. Still, even in what he claims was his first interview ever, Pacino seems, surprisingly, relaxed and open. Altogether, these are nine warts-and-all portraits of Pacino, full of surprising details about him and his life. For example, at one point Pacino laments that he is never given a comic role, despite his early experience writing and appearing in comedy reviews in the Village. Equally fascinating are moments when Pacino turns the tables on Grobel, answering questions with other questions that throw Grobel off balance and require him to be as on-his-toes as Pacino clearly is. Grobel and Pacino maintain a remarkable openness throughout, by the end creating the illusion that the reader has really gotten to know the man behind Serpico , Scarface , and Michael Corleone. Jack Helbig Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Lawrence Grobel is the New York Times bestselling coauthor with Montel Williams of Climbing Higher , as well as the author of the national bestseller Conversations with Capote and Conversations with Brando . A contributing editor at Playboy and Movieline's Hollywood Life , he has written for the New York Times , Rolling Stone , Details , Entertainment Weekly , and many others. The winner of a PEN Special Achievement Award, he is also the author of The Art of the Interview . He teaches at UCLA. Read more
Features & Highlights
- For more than a quarter century, Al Pacino has spoken freely and deeply with acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Lawrence Grobel on subjects as diverse as childhood, acting, and fatherhood. Here, for the first time, are the complete conversations and shared observations between the actor and the writer; the result is an intimate and revealing look at one of the most accomplished, and private, artists in the world.
- Pacino grew up sharing a three-room apartment in the Bronx with nine people in what he describes as his "New York Huckleberry Finn" childhood. Raised mostly by his grandparents and his mother, Pacino began drinking at age thirteen. Shortly after he was admitted to the renowned High School for Performing Arts, his classmates nicknamed him "Marlon," after Marlon Brando, even though Pacino didn't know who Brando was. Renowned acting coach Charlie Laughton saw Pacino when he was nineteen in the stairwell of a Bronx tenement, and the first words out of Laughton's mouth were "You are going to be a star." And so began a fabled, lifelong friendship that nurtured Al through years of not knowing where his next meal would come from until finally -- at age twenty-six -- he landed his first salaried acting job.
- Grobel and Pacino leave few stones unturned, touching on the times when Pacino played piano in jazz clubs until four a.m. before showing up on the set of Scarecrow a few hours later for a full day's work; when he ate Valium like candy at the Academy Awards; and when he realized he had been in a long pattern of work and drink.
- As the pivotal character in
- The Godfather
- trilogy and the cult classic
- Scarface
- , Pacino has enshrined himself in film history. He's worked with most of Hollywood's brightest luminaries such as Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, Michael Mann, Norman Jewison, Brian De Palma, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams, among many others. He was nominated for eight Academy Awards before winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in
- Scent of a Woman
- . Pacino still seems to prefer his work onstage to film and, if he's moved by a script or play, is quick to take parts in independent productions.
- Al Pacino
- is an intensely personal window into the life of an artist concerned more with the process of his art than with the fruits of his labor, a creative genius at the peak of his artistic powers who, after all these years, still longs to grow and learn more about his craft. And, for now, it's as close to a memoir as we're likely to get.
