Al Pacino was jabbed with a “fat needle” to numb his pain when he injured himself on the set of ‘The Godfather’.
The Hollywood veteran, 84, was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of soldier-turned mafia don Michael in director Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972’s operatic Cosa Nostra epic, and he has told in his new memoir ‘Sonny Boy’ he nearly lost the role after he twisted his ankle so badly he thought he’d broken it.
He was hit with the injury while filming the famous scene where he flees Louis’ restaurant by jumping into a moving getaway car after Michael guns down a rival mobster and corrupt cop Capt McCluskey – and has now revealed how he was shot with a painkiller to keep him on the job.
Al said on the ‘Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend’ podcast: “My ankle was hurt, somehow it slipped.
“(When it happened) people just swallowed, got around me and they said, ‘He’s hurt,’ and then they put one of these big fat needles in my ankle so I could finish the day, and they kept me.”
Al also tells in his new autobiography about how the studio behind the movie never wanted him for the part: “Paramount didn’t want me to play Michael Corleone They wanted Jack Nicholson They wanted Robert Redford They wanted Warren Beatty or Ryan O’Neal.
“In the book, (Mario) Puzo had Michael calling himself ‘the sissy of the Corleone family’.
“He was supposed to be small, dark-haired, handsome in a delicate way, no visible threat to anybody.
“That didn’t sound like the guys that the studio wanted. But that didn’t mean it had to be me.”
Al added he ended up getting the role after a drunken flight to screentest for the role that would make his career.
He said: “(I was told) I would have to screentest for the role, which I had never done before, and that I would have to fly out to the west coast to do it, which I just didn’t want to do.
“I did not care that it was ‘The Godfather’ – I was a bit afraid of flying and I didn’t want to go to California.
“But my manager, Marty Bregman , said to me, ‘You’re getting on that f****** plane’
“He brought me a pint of whiskey so I could drink it on the flight, and I got there.”
