Al Pacino - 1973 interview

I think Al Pacino can start our discussion this evening this production would have been impossible without his presence and I think everyone would like to know how in the beginning he happened to decide to play King Richard the third when he could be off in Italy or in Hollywood or one of those lovely sunny places playing something by a swimming well I've always wanted to do Shakespeare and I thought it was optional whether I did Richard or Hamlet or Iago you know fellow and talking to David we discussed it and I thought well let's go ahead had you seen it done had you ever seen everybody never saw anybody I did the first half-hour of it at the Actors Studio the best way - what was your concept David when he said when he said he would do it you said I'll Pacino and anything and then from there on what about the idea of the concept of doing well I did think that the peculiar combination of values required by that my Richard third is very hard to come by humor for the audience on the other hand a great a great motor for subjective response and that's there has to be a demon that gets to the works his way towards the the crowd I'm on the other hand there has to be someone who's able to talk to the audience and enjoy himself hugely along the way and I thought where else can we find such a person what about the language hell did you work on it at all I mean the fact that it is Shakespearean language and you've always worked in prose and modern I've always I've always loved language you see it we'll just wanted to do a language play I even found the realistic plays I did when I had enough to say it would get my motor going guys I've always wanted to do that I I remember years ago just going over soliloquies Hamlet Macbeth just doing him in my room or anywhere I could when I did scenes in acting class I would usually pick scenes that were from Shakespeare I just love the word and I've always loved and I've never had an opportunity to do it professionally but language is something I always felt can be can be helpful a lot of actors feel that language is something you go to I feel language serves you and you can how that passages in this that give you a turn you on what for example the opening soliloquy various similes in the play after after Queen Angela you'll find that any time I have more than a paragraph to say I get whether it's right or wrong it just sort of moves in on me because I find interesting me enough how little we we use words today especially on my day off when I go into New York I'd meet people the mouths are very lazy we don't talk and this opportunity to talk and say these things I think it's just great

Channel: GBH Archives

Views: 327,359

Rating: 4.9431152 out of 5

Keywords: Al Pacino, Richard III, Paul Benedict, David Wheeler, theatre, actor, stage, play

Id: 1ncOGwfXihE

Length: 3min 43sec (223 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 14 2018