Actor Al Pacino revealed Saturday that he didn’t show up to the Oscars in 1973 because of his complicated relationship with fame.
In 1973, Pacino missed the 45th Academy Awards, although he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as Michael Corleone in The godfather.
For a long time, Hollywood rumors claimed that Pacino snubbed the ceremony because he thought he should have received a best actor nomination like his co-star Marlon Brando.
However, in an interview on BBC Radio 2 with British-Irish presenter Dermot O’Leary, Pacino set the record straight by saying he skipped the ceremony due to his struggles with fame.
Comparing himself to novelist Jack Kerouac, who was said to be “embarrassed by fame”, Pacino told O’Leary that he had “a little bit of that” embarrassment in him.
“So I didn’t show up to a few Oscars and I got a reputation because they thought, someone said and my rep said, ‘Oh, Pacino isn’t going because he doesn’t ‘He’s not the lead actor, he’s a supporting actor for the Oscar.’ ….’ Can you imagine me saying, “I don’t want to go because I should be up there with Brando” It’s just not in my nature, it’s far from it? And I knew I didn’t want to because it scared me, frankly, I was working in theater in Boston and I was scared,” Pacino told O’Leary.
Describing his fear, Pacino explained: “Because feeling out of place is a strange feeling. I mean not being able to function because you don’t know the language, in a way it’s a precarious place to be. And I experienced it. several times because I was very famous and I didn’t even know it.”
Pacino, who was nominated for nine Academy Awards before winning one in 1993 for best actor for his role in Women’s perfume, confessed that his struggles with fame began before he earned the 1973 Academy Award nomination.
In 1972, Pacino won the National Board of Review (NBR) Best Supporting Actor Award for his role in The godfather but told O’Leary on BBC Radio 2 that he had an unconventional reaction to the victory.
“I was in Boston doing a play and I was staying with the director, he gave me a room at his house,” Pacino explained. “I remember waking up and he said to me, ‘You won the National Board of Review award for starring in The godfather‘, and I remember saying to him at the time, ‘Wow, sure, that’s cool.’ I said, “Do you know a psychiatrist I can see?” It came out of my mouth because that’s the state I was in.”
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Pacino is currently on a press tour to promote his new memoir Sonny boy. In his memoir, Pacino also addresses the “dreadful” Oscar rumor, saying he didn’t learn about it until years later.
“I only recently learned that the perception in the industry was that I had snubbed the Oscars – that I hadn’t attended the ceremony because I was nominated for The godfather as a supporting actor and not a leading man. Somehow I felt offended because I thought I deserved to be nominated in the same category as Marlon,” Pacino wrote.
He then explains that the rumor partly explains the “distance” he felt whenever he visited Hollywood.
“It was terrible to find out now, after having missed all these opportunities to deny it, not even knowing that that’s what people thought of me,” the actor added.
News week contacted Pacino’s representatives via email for comment.
In the book, Pacino also reveals that he feared being fired from The godfather after director Francis Ford Coppola told him he wasn’t “enough.”
However, the film trilogy proved to be his breakthrough, for which he was nominated for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and two BAFTAs.
You can listen to Pacino’s full BBC Radio 2 interview with O’Leary here.
