Pacino and the Prince

The acting legend discusses playing Shylock in 'The Merchant of Venice', next week's royal charity premiere.

Nov 23 2004

Al Pacino is heading to town for the Royal European Premiere of 'The Merchant of Venice'. Directed by Michael Radford, this new version of the Shakespeare classic screens at London's Odeon Leicester Square on November 29, and not only will Pacino and fellow cast members Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Mackenzie Crook be present, but HRH The Prince Of Wales is also set to attend.

The film sees Pacino play Shylock, one of Shakespeare's most infamous characters, and he took time out of his busy schedule to talk to Time Out about his career thus far as well as his role in the film.

Discussing the sight of himself on-screen at age 64, he tells Dave Calhoun, 'That's one of the horrors of film. You see yourself aging before your eyes. You know how it is – we all think of ourselves at a certain age. Then, as you get older, you catch your image in a mirror and you're shocked by it. You think, 'Who the hell is that? My father’s here!' Or in my case, 'My grandfather’s here!'

And yet his is a face that's been burnt into our cinematic subconscious ever since the young New Yorker burst onto screens as Michael Corleone in 1972's 'The Godfather'. Since then Pacino has consistently excelled in such modern classics as 'Dog Day Afternoon', 'Scarface', 'Heat' and 'The Insider', eventually bagging himself a long overdue Oscar for 'Scent of a Woman' in 1992.

In between these high-profile projects however, he's constantly returned to his beloved theatre (including a successful West End run in David Mamet's 'American Buffalo') and Pacino's performance in 'The Merhcant of Venice' may well be the perfect marriage of the two crafts.

At the same time Shylock is also the part he was seemingly born to play. 'Absolutely' he agrees, 'If you're going to count the perks of getting old – and you probably can't even count them on one hand – that would be one of them. But it’s also a part that could be played by any actor at any age.

'With Shakespeare, it's like playing great music; it doesn't matter how old you are if you're playing the cello.'

To read more of Pacino's ruminations on theatre, film and his extremely eventful career, Dave Calhoun's full interview appears in Time Out London November 24-December 1 2004. Issue No.1788.