‘Godfather’ star Al Pacino relieved after on-set injury, ‘could be my release from that prison’

Al Pacino felt ‘relief’ after seriously spraining his ankle while filming ‘The Godfather’.

At the time, studio executives thought Pacino was not suitable for the role of Michael Corleone. Pacino, who was 31 years old at the time, knew the ax could fall on him at any time.

One scene required Pacino to run and jump onto a moving car.

“I had no stand-in. I had no stuntman. I had to do it myself,” Pacino wrote in his memoir “Sonny Boy,” via The Guardian. “I jumped and missed the car. Now I was lying in a gutter on White Plains Road in the Bronx, flat on my back, looking up at the sky. I had twisted my ankle so badly I couldn’t move.

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“Everyone from the crew was standing around me. They tried to pick me up and asked me: was my ankle broken? Could I walk? I didn’t know. I lay there thinking: this is a miracle. Oh God, you’ You’re saving me. I don’t have to take this picture anymore,” he continued.

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“I was shocked by the feeling of relief that came over me,” Pacino explained. “Showing up to work every day, feeling unwanted, feeling like an inferior, was an oppressive experience, and this injury could mean my release from that prison. At least now they could fire me, recast another actor as Michael, and not lose every day.” dime that they had already visualized. But that’s not what happened.”

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Pacino rose to fame for his role in Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’. He caught the Academy Award-winning director’s attention after starring in “The Panic in Needle Park.”

Many A-list stars wanted the role of Michael Corleone, including Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson and Ryan O’Neal.

Coppola, however, had his eye on Pacino.

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“Francis wanted me. He wanted me and I knew it,” Pacino wrote in his memoir, according to the outlet. “And there’s nothing like when a director wants you.

“He also gave me a gift in the form of Diane Keaton. He had a few actors that he auditioned for the role of Kay, but the fact that he wanted to pair me with Diane suggested that she had a head start in the process. I knew she was doing well in her career and had appeared on Broadway in shows like ‘Hair’ and ‘Play It Again, Sam’ with Woody Allen.”

Diane Keaton and Pacino got their respective roles and hit it off as friends.

“She was easy to talk to and funny, and she thought I was funny too,” he wrote. “I immediately felt like I had a friend and an ally.”

Original article source: ‘Godfather’ star Al Pacino relieved after on-set injury, ‘could be my release from that prison’