Pacino on Pacino: Eminent actor talks film, fans, fame
at Plaza Theatre
It was called "Al Pacino: One
Night Only," but it easily could have been called "Al Pacino: My Life
As Performance."
The iconic star of the
"Godfather" movies, "Scarface" and "Scent of a
Woman," among many others, turned his onstage interview in front of about
1,200 people in the Plaza Theatre into a 2-hour and 15-minute performance.
Joined by Houston PBS interviewer
Ernie Manouse, who barely got a word in edgewise, Pacino ruminated on fame and
talked about his initial interest in acting and a few notable film roles,
particularly mobster Michael Corleone in the "Godfather" trilogy.
Fame, he said, can be good and bad.
"You get a lot of access when you're well known," he said.
But it can be a little daunting
being recognized.
"The strangest people wanna
talk to you," he said.
He raved about the value of
teachers, even though the Bronx native didn't finish high school. He did learn
his craft doing theater and passing the hat.
He singled out the crazed drug
kingpin Tony Montana
as a favorite role.
"I feel I'm expressing
something that will reach, and look, it's still going," he said of the
film's lasting cultural impact.
He took about 30 minutes worth of
questions from the audience and ended the performance with a monologue from
Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," drawing a standing ovation from
the crowd.
The event was a fundraiser for the
new Plaza Theatre Endowment Fund, a planned $10 million account to cover
upgrades to the historic theater, opened in 1930 and restored in 2006.
The El Paso Community Foundation
turned to one of cinemas biggest stars to get it started.
Pacino, for all his stories, told
animatedly on his feet or slouched in a chair, said all of his drive and study
wouldn't have meant much without one key ingredient.
"I was lucky, lucky, lucky.
That's all I can say," he said. "I really believe that."
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