16 Crazy-Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About Al Pacino

Is there anything cooler than a star who says they can't remember the era in which they were making their best material? Bowie allegedly couldn't remember recording Station to Station, and Pacino says that most of the '70s were a wash.

While sitting down with Entertainment Weekly in 2015 he said, "Somebody even asked me about a couple of movies I had done in the '70s and asked me to talk about the '70s and I remember saying, ‘I don’t remember the '70s. I cannot recollect them. I have these moments I [remember some] of the movies I was in only because there were posters with my name on them."

You know that groundbreaking performance that Pacino made in one of the greatest films of all time? Well, it almost didn't happen thanks to nervous studio heads. In 2015, Pacino told Nightline: "They wanted to fire me when I was on the picture ... [during] the shooting, first couple of weeks. Because they kept seeing the rushes, you know, or the footage that was shot, and they kept looking at it and thinking, ‘What is he doing?’”

During a 2007 Q&A, Pacino revealed that he based his entire character in Heat – a film he refused to name in the interview – off of one scene that was left on the cutting room floor. He told the audience,

"I was in a movie once, which will go nameless, and I did a certain thing in this movie: I based my entire character on a scene of me snorting [coke]. And no, this isn't Scarface. There was just one little scene of me chipping [coke], so that's what I did. Well, they cut that scene out of the picture. They had their reasons for it, legitimate reasons, I'm sure. But what happened is I based my character on the fact that he chipped [coke], so my interpretation – my reactions to things – were colored by that." 

Everyone's had an annoying miscommunication with Siri at one point or another, but Pacino responded in a way that regular folks only wish they could. In 2013, Pacino was eating at LA diner Brite Spot with Christopher Walken and got so tired of Siri giving him misinformation that he allegedly smashed his phone in the middle of the restaurant, saying, "That’s the last time that f*cking witch speaks to me!"

It's a well-known fact that many people were up for the main roles in Star Wars, but just knowing that Al Pacino could have leant his manic energy to the most important space opera in history is mind boggling, to say the least.

Of the almost-casting, Pacino said, "It was mine for the taking, but I didn't understand the script."

According to Australian comedian Jim Jeffries, after performing a private show for some Hollywood A-Listers that allegedly included Leonardo Dicaprio, Eddie Murphy, Warren Beatty, and – of course – Al Pacino, Jeffries was approached by the Serpico actor. Pacino then went on the nicest tirade in Hollywood's recorded history.

According to the comedian, Pacino compared Jefferies to Rodney Dangerfield (whom he's nothing like), and forced him to say that he was a director before Warren Beatty delivered a delicious, side-eyed burn.