Bianca Wooden
Al Pacino is still waiting for his “thank you” note from Harrison Ford!
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On Wednesday, the Godfather star joined host David Rubenstein for a conversation in the “People Who Inspire Us” series at 92nd Street Y, New York. In front of an audience, Pacino revealed that he turned down the role of Han Solo in Star Wars — a decision he now regrets.
The actor explained that, in the early days of his career, he was offered a wide range of roles.
“When I first came up, I was the new kid on the block, you know what happens when you first become famous,” he said (via Variety), then jokingly added, “They’d give me Queen Elizabeth to play.”
Al Pacino Says He Didn’t “Understand” Star Wars
The Hollywood Reporter tells us that, in the end, he passed on the role because the script didn’t make sense to him.
“They gave me a script that was called Star Wars. I said, ‘I got the script, they offered me so much money, but I don’t understand it,'” Al Pacino recalled. “I gave Harrison Ford a career, which he has never thanked me for!”
Despite turning down the iconic role, the Oscar winner’s career didn’t suffer. He’d already had his breakthrough in The Godfather — although he almost got fired while filming!
Pacino recalled that director Francis Ford Coppola asked to meet with the actor one evening, and his notes weren’t good. “I came in, and he said, ‘You know, I had a lot of faith in you. And you’re failing me,'” the star remembered. He then claimed that what saved his job was, “The Solozzo scene, where Michael shoots the cop. Coppola pushed that up, because he thought Paramount was about to fire me. I do the scene, they liked it, and they kept me in because I shot someone.”
The making of The Godfather has been recently dramatized in the Paramount+ series, The Offer. When asked to weigh in on the show, the star said, “I watched it and about half of it was true.”
According to Variety, the actor named Scarface as his most “gratifying” role. He also revealed that he’s writing a memoir, which Penguin Press has already picked up.
