Al Pacino's Best Screaming Scene Terrified His Co-Star For Real
There's an entire generation of actors, and movie lovers in general, who think Al Pacino is the best actor ever based almost solely on the basis of his 1970s work. Obviously, he was overwhelmingly dynamic. The live-wire energy of characters like Frank Serpico, Sonny Wortzik and Arthur Kirkland spit and popped off the screen with a sizzling intensity that could only be matched by his Method contemporaries (namely Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman). But he might've been more impressive when playing strangely ingratiating outsiders, as he did to unforgettable effect under Jerry Schatzberg's direction in "Panic in Needle Park" and "Scarecrow."
And then there was Michael Corelone in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II." As the youngest and, much to the consternation of his older brothers, favorite son of mafia capo Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), Pacino, over two movies running a combined six-plus hours, meticulously transformed the soft-spoken, seemingly decent Michael ("That's my family, Kay; it's not me.") into a controlling, murderous monster. Pacino's Michael indulges in histrionics at times, but these explosions are rare because Michael understands that he is never more powerful than when he is still.
This held true for Pacino the actor early on, but his shouty grandstanding in Norman Jewison's heavy-handed "...And Justice for All" was, sadly, a preview of high-decibel coming attractions. Over 45 years later, it feels like subsequent generations view Pacino as more of a carnival attraction than an actor. This is all his doing. But while I miss quiet Pacino, I'll allow that some of his over-the-top turns are irresistibly bonkers. The lava-spewing apex of Mount Pacino is and always shall be Lieutenant Vincent Hanna in Michael Mann's Los Angeles crime epic "Heat," wherein one of the actor's most memorable eruptions completely rattled "The Simpsons" regular Hank Azaria.
Vincent Hanna: avid rump connoisseur
In 1983, Pacino permanently reshaped his instrument as the vicious Cuban gangster Tony Montana in Brian De Palma's "Scarface." What initially felt like a virtuoso disappearing act — one that absolutely wouldn't fly today for good reason — became the howling mad norm for Pacino. With disappointingly few exceptions, every character going forward registered onscreen as an active, ready-to-blow volcano.
I'm not crazy about Pacino becoming more of a carnival attraction than an actor, but sometimes the outbursts are crazily in character. This is certainly the case with Vincent Hanna in "Heat." The LAPD cop is the hardest of the hard chargers, a demonically obsessed lawman who's met his flipside-of-the-coin match in Robert De Niro's professional thief Neil McCauley.
Mann is a bit of a madman himself. He prizes in-the-moment verisimilitude, and he puts his actors through their paces in pre-production and principal photography to ensure that they look every inch their part. While Pacino might've bid adieu to subtlety during the Jimmy Carter administration, his fierce commitment to most of his roles is undeniable. It's also key to how he gets away with what would likely be fireable overacting if perpetrated by anyone other than him.
This means his scene partners need to be on guard, particularly if their characters exist as dog food for a pitbull like Hanna to devour. While Azaria was a seasoned actor when he appeared as a low-level Vegas criminal getting bullied by Hanna and his crew in "Heat," he was stunned when Pacino got in his face and unleashed a seismic line reading for the ages (one that /Film considers his greatest scream), as seen above.
Sometimes Pacino's outbursts surprise even himself
At a recent Tribeca Film Festival screening of "Heat" attended by Pacino and De Niro (via Variety), the "Scarface" star was asked about this particular moment. Pacino was surprised to learn that, back in 2018, Azaria revealed to Vanity Fair that the moment caught him completely flatfooted. According to Azaria:
"[Michael Mann] shoots like a million takes, I think Pacino got bored and yelled 'Great ass!' out of frustration, which scared the hell out of me. Not acting at all, he just actually terrified me."
Azaria's terror is palpable in the film, which came as a surprise to Pacino. Then again, Pacino kind of surprised himself. "Seriously," said Pacino at the Tribeca screening. "How 'bout this? I didn't know it was going to happen."
We're so very glad it did happen, because it drives home just how close to self-destructing Hanna is at this juncture in his mess of a life. This is also the closest the film comes to telling us Hanna is a cokehead (something confirmed by Pacino in a later interview) without explicitly telling or showing us that he takes key bumps on the regular to stay sharp... on the edge... where he's got to be.
If you're wondering who in the world could possibly play Hanna as a wired young cop in Mann's planned prequel, Pacino stated his preference to the Tribeca audience: Timothée Chalamet. If he gets the part, here's hoping the versatile 28-year-old star of the "Dune" franchise doesn't go Tony Montana wild and forever lose a vital aspect of his extraordinary range via over-immersion.