Sonny Boy: A Memoir

“As a kid, it was my relationship with my friends on the street that sustained me and gave me hope. I ran with a crew that included my three best friends, Cliffy, Bruce, and Petey. Every day was a fresh adventure. We were on the prowl, hungry for life. In hindsight I realize I might have had more love from my family than the other three did. I think that might have made all the difference. I made it out alive, and they didn’t.”

Pacino has fond memories of his boyhood playmates. This passage introduces the author’s childhood world of the Bronx in the 1940s and 1950s, emphasizing the importance of his friends as an emotional support and an escape from the pressures of poverty and family life. This quotation also adds to the author’s theme on Overcoming Loss and Hardship, as he reveals that he lost all three of his childhood friends in their youth.

“I would walk the streets of Manhattan, bellowing out the monologues as I rambled. I’d do it by the factories, at the edges of town, where no one was around. What else was I going to do? Where could I emote? That’s what you do when you’re obsessed.”

After dropping out of high school, Pacino struggled to make ends meet. In his free time he practiced Shakespearean monologues while walking around New York. By revealing how he became “obsessed” with reading and reciting books and plays, Pacino adds to his theme on Performance as an Art and a Career. This quotation suggests that being in character gave Pacino an opportunity to “emote” and express himself, which was a much-needed personal refuge long before it became a paying career.

“He stopped on the stairway, looked back at me, paused, and then said, ‘Al, you’re going to be a big star.’ And Charlie never talked like that. I mean never. As long as I knew him, he never said a word about that stuff. That was not his deal at all. It came out of nowhere. I said to him, ‘I know Charl. I know,’ and I meant it.”

Pacino’s friend and acting teacher Charlie Laughton was a source of inspiration and encouragement for him. Charlie’s prediction that Pacino would enjoy a successful career was particularly prescient. Pacino had strong self-belief from a young age that he could provide for himself as an actor.

“At this point as an actor, I had played my share of exotic and interesting stage roles: lowlifes, gamblers, artists, soldiers. In a sense your preparation for any part is always the same. You have to organize yourself in such a way that allows you to bring yourself to the role. You have to get to know someone else within yourself. And I guess there are a lot of me’s in me.”

Pacino considers how he brings his personal experience to each role he plays. Rather than pretending, Pacino prefers to try to bring his own genuine emotionality to his roles and strongly relate to the character. This passage adds to Pacino’s theme on The Search for Identity as he suggests that each role is a catalyst for self-exploration.

“But since I was a kid, I got criticized by people for being a Method actor, when I didn’t know what they were talking about. Method? I played a role in a play. How I observe it and bring it to life, that’s my task, that’s what I go after. Finding a way to bring something to life so it can go through me. But at that time I didn’t know how to express this to Zeffirelli or anybody else.”

Pacino met with Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, but was not cast in his 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet. He reflects on how he was often labeled a “method” actor, but did not actually formally subscribe to this approach, but simply tried to make each character come to life as much as possible. By considering his approach to his work, the author adds to his theme on Performance as an Art and a Career.

“Francis said he wanted me to play Michael Corleone. I thought, Now he’s gone too far. I started doubting whether he was on the phone at all. Maybe I was the one going through a nervous breakdown. For a director to offer you a role, over the phone, not through an agent or anything—and this role of all roles—that was a hundred-million-to-one-shot. I didn’t even think of it as a shot, because I didn’t believe it.”

Pacino was truly shocked to be offered a film role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. While he had starred in a couple films, Pacino felt that the role of Michael Corleone was beyond anything he had dreamed of doing. By recounting his dramatic stroke of luck, Pacino presents himself as a committed theater actor who initially felt alienated and surprised by his success in Hollywood.

“Actors have to watch out for being typecast: your appearance identifies you, and sometimes actors get stuck playing the same kinds of roles. I don’t think I could have lasted like that. One of the reasons I liked going off to do repertory theater was because I’d get to do roles that I normally wouldn’t be cast for.”

Pacino struggled against being typecast, as he had been cast as a poor New Yorker many times, playing characters who were struggling with poverty or drug use. This passage helps the reader understand why Pacino found the theater to be more creatively satisfying than film acting, as he had a wider variety of roles open to him. This discussion adds to the author’s theme on Performance as an Art and a Career.

“I didn’t know where my grandfather was born, only that he came from Sicily—once my grandfather got to America and no one was chasing after him, he left it at that. Now to learn that he came from Corleone, the very town that gave my character and his family their name? I thought, I must be getting help from somewhere, because how else could such an impossible thing—me getting the role—happen in the first place?”

Pacino was amazed to learn that his maternal grandfather was born in the same ancestral town of his “Godfather character,” Michael Corleone. This coincidence felt like destiny or divine intervention to Pacino. Throughout the memoir, Pacino will often claim that things happened to him thanks to luck or without any real planning on his part, which adds to his self-presentation as someone who appears humble for his good fortune.

“I was wary of the media glare that came with film roles. I saw the future for myself when I did repertory theater. These were plays that could change my life; these playwrights were prophets. They made me a better actor, gave me an education, offered me a deeper understanding of the world, and filled me with joy. Who wouldn’t be satisfied with that?”

Pacino adds to his theme on Performance as an Art and a Career by contrasting film acting and theater acting. While film acting made Pacino a movie star and gave him attention, he was never comfortable with it, and instead preferred to live outside the limelight. By portraying the theater as a place of self-development and learning, Pacino suggests that the theater is where he felt creatively and personally satisfied, even if it is not what he is most famous for.

“A woman said to me, ‘Oh, I’ll drive you home.’ And without a second thought, I got into the car with her. But as we drove, even in my daze, I could recognize that she was not taking me back to where I was staying. I said to her, ‘What is going on here?’ And she said straight out, ‘I’m kidnapping you.’”

Pacino remembers how acting in The Godfather made him famous overnight, giving him a lot of unwanted attention. This frightening story reveals how Pacino was initially naive about the effect his fame had on people, and he had to extract himself from this sticky situation.

“I seemed to have found and accumulated these kinds of people throughout my life, surrogates for the father I never had. Now I had three in the mix at once: there was Charlie, there was my manager, Marty Bregman; and there was Lee Strasberg.”

Pacino recalls how he sought out male role models to fill the void of his father’s and grandfather’s absences. These three men helped Pacino manage his career and advised him on his creative and financial decisions. This passage adds to the story’s theme on The Search for Identity, as Pacino reflects on how his paternal figures guided him even well into adulthood and helped to shape who he became as an artist and a person.

“I used music on the film periodically, maybe for a couple of scenes, to find my way back into Michael. I would go into a dressing room, put on headphones, and turn the sound up really loud while I listened to Stravinsky or Beethoven or Mozart. I would just flood my brain with it, and then I’d emerge and go perform in a scene.”

Pacino recalls how he used classical music to get into character as Michael Corleone when he filmed The Godfather Part ll. By discussing his creative process, this passage adds to his theme on Performance as an Art and a Career.

“I started raving to Charlie about why I didn’t want to make this next picture that Marty Bregman had lined up for me. What was I doing with my life […] I’m not above the occasional outburst of insanity. I am guilty of inconsistency and off-the-wall choices. The haze of the limelight was still new to me, and the anxiety of that attention had infested my environment. My decision-making process was also clouded by my consumption of alcohol and drugs.”

Pacino reflects on the dark days of his early film career when his combined anxiety about his fame and his drinking and drug use threatened his happiness and mental health. This passage adds to his theme on The Search for Identity, as a young Pacino tried to self-medicate to deal with his stressful circumstances and was unsure of how to proceed in his career. By discussing these trying times, Pacino shows how ultimately he grew out of these behaviors and embraced his identity as an actor in a new way as a sober man.

“He was antsy, animated, and agitate […] When the shoot was over, the character I had played just flew out of me. I had been possessed, and then it was gone. Even Sidney commented to me that he saw it go, like a spirit.”

Pacino reveals that he felt totally immersed in his character for the film Dog Day Afternoon, whom he decided should be an anxious fellow. This discussion adds to his exploration of Performance as an Art and a Career as he tries to help the reader imagine the feeling of being in character.

“Within about three years of each other, John and Norman were gone. Like Cliffy, Bruce, and Petey. It was a good thing I understood how to be alone, but it was becoming a bad habit.”

Pacino reveals how he lost two close friends to cancer when he was a young man. He reveals that this left him lonely, a feeling he was used to, but that he had to struggle against his habit of living in isolation. This passage adds depth to Pacino’s theme on Overcoming Loss and Hardship, as his grief for his friends threatened his happiness and connections with others.

“My clothes were ragged and stained with blood. I had been told to keep my arms in the air, because the machine gun I had been using had become fused to my hand.”

Pacino recalls how his shootout scene in Scarface gave him a terrible hand injury which took two weeks to heal. By offering behind the scenes details on this famous film and the distinctly unglamorous reality of performing in it, Pacino adds to his theme on Performance as an Art and a Career.

“Author! Author! was received with venomous disdain. The handwriting was on the wall. I could feel myself slipping into obscurity. What would that be like, obscurity? And why was I welcoming it?”

Pacino recalls an unsuccessful film he starred in and how he struggled to collaborate with its director. While Pacino wanted his films to be successful, he also longed for his days of anonymity and wished that he was not so famous and recognizable. This passage shows how Pacino was naturally more reclusive and continually struggled with living in the public eye, and as such did not mind taking long hiatuses away from Hollywood.

“And so it became a mark on my reputation. Boom: he’s difficult. Can you believe what he did? He wouldn’t shoot. Even if I was doing what was right for the film and faithful to what was in the script, the studio never forgives you for something like that.”

If Pacino disagreed with a director or studio, he would often try to persuade them to change the film, one time even refusing to shoot in order to get his way. He resents that this was perceived as “difficult” behavior, contending that he was not being a diva but instead trying to make the film the very best it could be. This passage adds to his theme on Performance as an Art and a Career, as Pacino admits that his loyalty to his artistic vision sometimes compromised his career when he burned bridges with studios or directors.

“Now, in my middle age, it brought me back to those bohemian days, to the very ethos of the world that had inspired me as a teenager making my first travels into the Village. I hadn’t realized just how much it had inspired me then, in my time at the Living Theater and other performance spaces, and I wanted to rediscover that and get it out of my system.”

Pacino loved how the theater allowed him to relive some of the happier parts of his youth and reinvigorated him with creative energy. This passage deepens his habitual contrast between theater and film work by further explaining his life-long love affair with the theater.

“Diane went on: ‘He’s an ignoramus. When it comes to this, you’ve got to take care of him.’ She meant when it came to my finances—what I’d come from, my upbringing, my early life, right through until then. And she was right. I didn’t understand how money worked, any more than I understood how a career worked. It was a language I just didn’t speak. So what was I going to do now?”

Al Pacino’s then-girlfriend Diane Keaton fiercely defended him to his entertainment lawyer, who knew he had been overspending. Pacino attributes his money trouble to his impoverished upbringing, as he had no experience with saving money or keeping track of his finances. This scene helps the reader understand Pacino’s personal pressures and why he had to leave his beloved theater acting behind and return to more lucrative work in Hollywood.

“I was there, and I felt a depression moving in on me […] I don’t fancy myself a great director or a writer. But there was a need for me to express all this, and even thinking about it was starting to pick me up. Color was coming back to my cheeks. If I remember correctly, I saw my own shoelaces tie themselves. I thought about it all through the nineties.”

Pacino recalls how he emerged from a period of depression by musing on a creative idea for a film about Richard lll and people’s relationship with Shakespeare. This revelation shows how Pacino’s creativity was a boon for him in times of trouble, explaining why he leaned into his work as an actor to find healing. By discussing how he coped with his depression through art, this quotation also adds to his theme on Overcoming Loss and Hardship.

“I was so invigorated by it all. There’s an energy that you get when you’re doing something where you don’t have to sit around and wait to be called to go do your takes. When you watch Looking for Richard, you’re actually seeing me figure out how to direct a scene while I’m in the midst of acting it.”

The author reminisces about how theater acting allowed him to lose himself in his roles and feel energized by the continuous performance. He fondly recalls directing his film Looking for Richard, which was an unusual in that he was directing a movie while performing in a play at the same time. This passage shows Pacino’s love of collaboration, characterization and live acting, adding color and depth to his self-portrayal.

“I was broke. I had fifty million dollars, and then I had nothing. I had property, but I didn’t have any money.”

Pacino recalls his disbelief and distress at going broke in his later years. After overspending and trusting a crooked accountant, Pacino lost all his money, except his assets. This personal admission affirms Diane Keaton’s observations about Pacino’s lack of money sense. Pacino’s willingness to reveal this personal and difficult part of his life creates a tone of candor in his memoir.