According to The Hollywood Reporter , The Godfather star reveals in his new memoir Sonny Boy that the 2011 Adam Sandler -led comedy “was the first film [he] made after [he] lost his money” at the hands of a Ponzi scheme.
“To be honest, I did it because I didn’t have anything else,” he admits in the book, per THR . “Adam Sandler wanted me, and they paid me a lot for it. So I went out and did it, and it helped. I love Adam, he was wonderful to work with and has become a dear friend. He also just happens to be a great actor and a hell of a guy.”
After Jack and Jill , Pacino still had trouble finding work, conceding that he “wasn’t a young buck” and “was not going to be making the kind of money from acting in films that [he] had made before.”
“The big paydays that I was used to just weren’t coming around anymore,” he continues. “The pendulum had swung, and I found it harder to find parts for myself.”
Pacino discusses how his finances were the result of his accountant, as he notes that in 2011, he had begun “to get warnings that [his] accountant at the time, a guy who had lots of celebrity clients, was not to be trusted.” Per IndieWire , he also cites his overspending, penning that he “had property, but [he] didn’t have any money.”
“In this business, when you make $10 million dollars for a film, it’s not $10 million,” he writes. “Because after the lawyers, and the agents, and the publicist, and the government, it’s not $10 million, it’s four and half in your pocket.”
Per THR , he also added, “The kind of money I was spending and where it was going was just a crazy montage of loss…. And I thought, It’s simple. It’s clear. I just know this. Time stopped. I am fucked.”
Also in his memoir, Pacino looks back on shooting The Godfather , sharing that he perceived an on-set ankle injury to be a “miracle” at the time.
“Oh God, you’re saving me,” he recalls thinking at the time. “I don’t have to do this picture any more. I was shocked by the feeling of relief that passed over me. Showing up for work every day, feeling unwanted, feeling like an underling, was an oppressive experience, and this injury could be my release from that prison. At least now they could fire me, recast another actor as Michael, and not lose every dime they’d already put into the picture.”
Sonny Boy is out now.
For more entertainment news and streaming recommendations, visit decider.com
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
Comments / 0