Francis Ford Coppola confronted the star about his performance in an upmarket Manhattan restaurant, telling him to look back on his acting so far.
It might now be his most famous movie, but Al Pacino had a rocky start to The Godfather—to the point that the film’s director told him he wasn’t meeting the mark.
Pacino’s breakthrough role was as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Trilogy, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. For his acting in the series, Pacino was nominated for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and two BAFTAs.
However, the star has now revealed that there was initial resistance to him playing the role from Paramount Studios, leading to director Coppola inviting him to a restaurant to tell him he wasn’t « cutting it. »
Speaking on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast to promote his new autobiography, Sonny Boy, Pacino told O’Brien that one day Coppola requested he meet him at the Ginger Man restaurant in New York.
