Al Pacino clears up ‘appalling’ Hollywood rumour about The Godfather

‘I’ve only recently found about this,’ actor said of 40-year-old claim

Al Pacino has addressed an “appalling” Hollywood rumour about his career that has done the rounds since the 1970s.

The actor has been reflecting on his career while promoting a new memoir, in which he looks back at his life, successes, key roles he’s played over the last four decades and misconceptions about some of his most famous films.

In Sonny Boy, Pacino addresses his relationship with the organisation behind the Oscars, which was initially fractured when he snubbed the event after receiving his first nomination in 1973 for Francios Ford Coppola’s The Godfather – a film he was almost fired from.

For decades, it’s been claimed that Pacino did not attend the ceremony in protest of being nominated for Best Supporting Actor; the theory goes that the star believed he should have been nominated in the Best Actor category alongside Marlon Brando.

However, Pacino, who was 23 at the time, denies this claim in the new memoir, revealing he didn’t attend the ceremony as he was “afraid”.

He wrote: “I’ve only recently learned that the perception in the industry was that I snubbed the Oscars – that I didn’t attend the ceremony because I was nominated for The Godfather as a supporting actor and not as a leading man. That somehow I felt slighted because I thought I deserved to be nominated in the same category as Marlon.

“Can you imagine that was a rumour that exploded at the time, and I only found out about it recently, all these years later? It explains a lot of the distance I felt when I came out to Hollywood to visit and to work. It was appalling to learn it now, having missed all these opportunities to deny it, not even knowing that this is what people thought of me. “

The Academy would soon forgive Pacino, nominating him for Serpico, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, And Justice for All, Dick Tracy, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman – for which he won – and The Irishman.

However, Pacino thinks Scarface should be on that list. While promoting the memoir on the Today programme, the actor, who played Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s 1983 film, said: “I would have liked to have even got nominated for that one.”

Scarface was a huge critical flop at the time of release, with Pacino writing in the memoir: “Sometimes an audience doesn’t know exactly what it’s seeing right away, and they need time to take it in and absorb it.”

Al Pacino in ‘Scarface’ (Universal Pictures)

He added: “Scarface got no attention from the Academy Awards. I cannot overstate the unbelievable job Brian De Palma did on Scarface, mapping the film and charging it with such dynamism and reach. He took it to the limit. Why he wasn’t honoured for it will forever make me wonder.”

Sonny Boy is available now.