Al Pacino Says He Takes Roles In Bad Films To Try And Improve Them

Al Pacino's glittering acting career spans more than five decades. During this time, he has picked up a shed-load of awards and starred in classics such as The Godfather, Scarface and Heat.

But no matter how good an actor you are, when you've been in more than 50 films, they inevitably aren't all going to be good. Yet, it seems Pacino has actually actively pursued roles in bad films to 'try to make them better'.

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The 79-year-old discussed the 'bad habit' in a joint interview with fellow great Robert De Niro.

Speaking to GQ, he said: "I think I'm starting to get a little perverse.

"I'm starting to want to do films that aren't really very good and try to make them better. And that's become my challenge.

"I don't think I go in thinking it's not gonna be very good, but it's like Bob said - sometimes they offer you money to do something that's not adequate. And you talk yourself into it. And somewhere within you, you know that this thing is gonna be a lemon.

"But then, when it comes full circle, and you see it, you say, 'Oh, no. I'm gonna make this better'. And you spend a lot of time and you're doing all these things, and you say, 'If I can just get this to be a mediocre film', and you get excited by that. It's an impulse that I've got to just put away now."

Noble stuff. Sure, he's getting paid a tonne to do it, but still.

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Reflecting on how he managed to forge such a successful career, Pacino said: "It's a combination of luck and other things. Let's face it.

"Just something as simple as being at the right time, the right place. I mean, to come out of the '70s, when our kind of actor was following the way paved by Brando and Dean and Newman and all these great people back then who opened the door for a lot of people like us. And Scorsese and Coppola and Spielberg and Lumet and these people-they were all around then. And Lucas and De Palma.

"This was a period at that time when film was flourishing. It was different than the time before it, I think. Not better or worse, mind you. It was different. And I think that there was a new kind of person out there, in that period."

Pacino stars alongside De Niro in The Irishman, which is released on Netflix on 27 November.

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, US Entertainment

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey