my best man, al pacino. >> i love the people i play. >> larry: one of the world's greatest actors in a very private guy. he's going to sit down for a rare and revealing interview. you putt the godfather would bomb at the box office. you ever turn down a role you regretted? >> let me see. yeah. >> larry: the academy award winner al pacino. will talk it george clooney, brad pitt and others, all next on "larry king live." we're in al pacino's backyard in beverly hills. last time he was with us after much begging and cajoling was back in 1996. we thought it would be the start of hundreds of interviews, and this is the second time. we've become very close friends. we spend a lot of time together. this is only the second time on the show. let's show you a little clip of the first time from 15 years ago. >> no, don't. >> larry: watch. why have you finally come? >> i've come here? >> larry: yes, finally, after years of asking. >>y is nihility, i guess. >> why do you dislike interviews? >> well, i don't -- i think it's because it starts with the whole idea of being an actor, which is something that is a kind of -- the anonymity of an actor. the more anonymous you are, the easier it is for an audience to accept you in a role. i think it starts -- it starts there. and it's also basically because i think i'm somewhat shy. >> larry: you still feel that way? do you still feel -- >> yeah, i do. but i'm so shy now, i wear sunglasses everywhere i go. >> larry: you play -- >> i sleep with these. >> larry: now do so many things. your so outgoing. why would you be shy in a conversation? >> i've always said there are two kinds of actors. more greggaruous type and the shy type. and both go into acting for the reason that they are able to access stuff because they have these big personalities and they -- they are able to get involved and they are open and they do things. and the other goes into acting because they can't do that. and in acting it allows them that freedom. so i think there's -- i'm sure there's people who are a little bit of both. but -- >> do you enjoy fame? >> this play i did, "remember the local stigmatic," which you saw the movie of. i filmed it. the quotation in there from the author. the start was fame is the perversion of the natural human instinct for validation and the tension. can you follow that? >> larry: yeah. >> i didn't make tuit up, but i just said it. it's a strange thing. when it first happened to me it was quite daunting. and i got the best advice i ever got from anybody. >> larry: is this after "godfather"? >> yeah, after the big movies started coming out. it started earlier in the theater, too. it was escalating. and i got the best advice i could ever get from anyone. lee stross berg, the great lee strossberg said to me, darling, you simply have to adjust about fame. >> larry: al is currently starring on -- >> i haven't adjusted, but i'm trying. >> larry: he's currently starring on broadway in "merchant of venice." he played it in the summer outdoors in central park. that was free, right? >> that was free. >> larry: you works for nothing? >> joseph papp started it. it's a -- it's a great place. and they do it every summer. they do shakespeare. they are even doing other things. >> larry: is it different when you are working without pay? >> no, of course -- i mean -- >> larry: no? >> no. >> larry: you don't ever think of that? >> no. you don't think you are -- again, it's a job. and again, doing it in the park is -- because you are dealing with all the elements of the park. it's not quite what you think it's going to be. it's outdoor theater. but it doesn't work out kind of the way you think it would be. >> larry: so like this, plane goes overhead while you are acting. >> everything happens. it rains. as a matter of fact, we were in the middle of the scene and it started raining. >> larry: what do you do? >> you stop the show. but you don't stop until the announcement comes up by the stage manager. he announces, all right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to stop the show for a while and the audiences love it. they love it when that happens. you go back -- i don't know why. they just do. they like that. you are a part of something that's different. and so -- but we did and we stopped for a full half hour. went back out again. >> larry: by the way, the advance for merchants of advance was the largest on broadway. $4 million. as of weeks ago before you opened. so you should be very proud. the reviews were amazing. i want to touch a lot of bases. you play shylock. in the time of shakespeare, was he anti-semitic in your opinion? >> in my opinion, no, he wasn't. but it's hard to tell what was going on back then. that's 400 years ago what was being interpreted. there's a lot of interpretations of the play. to me, i think there is anti-semitism in the play, of course. but i also think shylock is -- it's also a blatant cry against prejudice in some ways when you think of what they do to this person because he's a jew. and how he reacts to it. and what he's become. what he is made into. >> so before you play him, do you think about it a lot? do you think about how i'm going to -- how i view him? do you have to like him? >> well, yeah. i mean you know, you don't -- first of all you think of anybody you are playing as a human being. and what his needs are. what drives him. why he is where he is and what he's doing. these are the things you focus on. and in that point of view, you are -- as far as i'm concerned, i am looking at the play through shylock's point of view. and he's defiant. he's defiant in the face of prejudice. he defies it. that's what i love about the character. >> larry: you like playing shakespeare? >> i love playing shakespeare, yeah. yeah, i do. >> larry: and i just saw solome. when is that going to come out? you directed it. you star in it. >> one never knows. you know, this has been an ongoing thing for me for four years. it's sort of -- it isn't rare for documentaries to go on for a long time. you work on them. you develop them because there's no script to start with. so i had an idea. as i did with "looking for richard." there was an idea i had. that took me three or four years. you do it while you are doing other things. and it goes back and forth. >> larry: it's a brilliant movie whenever it comes. see it. when you do hollywood, sometimes are you doing it for money? since you love theater so much. >> well, i wouldn't do some of the pictures i did for nothing. i'll tell you that. >> larry: great way to put it. >> sailors, but men. they'll be land rats and water rats. water thieves and land thieves. i mean, pi-rats. >> larry: dog day afternoon, scarface, that great line. do that line. the great line -- >> every day above ground say good day? that's an oliver stone line. >> larry: no, my little friend -- >> say hello to my little friend. >> say hello to my little friend! my little son told me that. he said someone told it to him. what is that line your dad says? it's a catchy phrase. >> larry: when you take an accent like tharkts a cuban accent, do you keep it the night you go home for dinner, too? >> you sort of get involved. it becomes a part of your fabric, a part of your life. even after the movie is over, you are still a little bit in it. your frame is, you know, it was interesting. because it was -- it was a relief for me to come home and i was lucky enough to be -- i had fallen in love during "scarface." i had fallen in love. doing that 10, 12 hours a day and then coming home and listening to my girlfriend's problems and her day, would take me out of what i was doing. and i -- because, you know, it's like you don't talk much when you are doing something like that afterwards. you aren't -- you know, you have -- it's almost tantamount to being a fighter. like a boxer who is in the ring. it doesn't fight much afterward. he doesn't go out and get into a brawl in a bar usually. it's because it's -- you know, it's -- it's what we do. and doing scarface every day for 12, 14 hours every day kind of -- i want to hear other people's issues and their problems. "scarface" was written -- people don't realize this -- by oliver stone and directed by brian depalmer, produced by martin brickman. but oliver stone wrote that text. so when you say say hello to my little friend, i think of oliver. >> larry: when you see your films, are you very self-critical? >> no. i stopped being that long ago. it doesn't serve -- let the others be. i'm going to have enough critics without it being myself. so what i look for is where the actor is working. where it's working. what i can do about it. i don't like seeing movies when i can do nothing about them. >> who put this thing together? me! that's who. who do i trust? me! >> larry: universally repped. >> oh, yeah. >> larry: it's a kults. everyone talks about it. >> i would say it's the most successful movie i made. for me, yeah. >> larry: and dollars taken in? >> yeah. it's really -- and it's been that way for -- it's gotten all this -- and it's across the board. when i go to europe, when i go around. that's the picture they -- >> larry: do you ever turn down a roll you -- role you regretted? >> yeah. >> larry: without embarrassing the actor -- >> i don't want to embarrass anybody. you mentioned a role you turns down and -- but i realized about this role that i could have -- when i first read it i said, no. i'm not right for it. but later, when i -- when i saw it and i realized -- when i saw a comic -- oh, i gave it away now. anyway it doesn't matter. >> larry: it was a comedy. >> i saw somebody doing something in a club. and i suddenly saw what i would want to do with this part. >> larry: lenny. >> and what happened -- we're just going to -- it's -- i just -- that was a great performance by dustin hoffman. it was a great performance. it was amazing. with an irresistible full key... oh, too much? now get an lg quantum™ for $199.99, and get one free. only from at&t. rethink possible. the doctor leaned over and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker." i was put on an aspirin, and it's part of my regimen now. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go see your doctor now. with three seafood-and-steak combinations, all under $20! like succulent lobster and wood-grilled sirloin, or new chardonnay shrimp and sirloin. ends soon at red lobster. has the biggest hotelimp deals we're offering the big deal guarantee. book a hotel with name your own price and if you can find a lower published price anywhere else we'll match it and pay you $25. book now and save up to 60% on hotels. only at priceline. ♪ i knew it was you, frado. you broke my heart. >> larry: godfather one and two may be the best movies ever made. many consider that now, ranked with "citizen kane." >> wow. i know. i know. i know. >> larry: did you like michael coralione? >> i loved the people i played. that's like saying to a painter when he paints a painting that, how did you -- how could you paint this painting of whoever? do you, you know, you don't feel as though -- you don't do that. you see always are looking at the met tor. always looking at what the character is. what is the deeper -- what is being said about our life and our world through this character. you know. and one can make the argument that michael coraleone. why did the audience like him? because it was couched in a drama, so it had a different -- it comes at you differently. it comes out of the drama. >> larry: do you agree godfather is about a family. >> that's what i mean about this. that's was the thing that turned people on so much to the first one. i remember i was there and the reaction was so universal across the board. had a lot to do with family. the family structure. and people related to it. you didn't have to be an italian-american or -- you just related to the whole family dynamic. >> larry: when he goes into the bathroom, gets the gun and comes out and shoots the cop, was it your idea to throw the gun in the air? >> i guess it just happened. >> larry: very effective. >> i think -- >> larry: you tossed it and out. >> and the way it was like -- i'm sure it was in the script. i can't remember that far back. but it's sort of -- yeah, i think it was in the script. >> larry: we're all over the board tonight because i'm just so happy to have you. >> i'm glad to be here. want to stay here tonight? >> larry: do you ever watch other movies and say, i would have liked to have played that? >> no. >> larry: no? >> as far as i can see it, any part that anyone is doing, i couldn't do. so i just look at it and say -- because i look at all parts, movies, as an audience looks at it. >> larry: you do? >> yeah. it's like going to a baseball game or something. you watch them. the pitcher pitch the ball. the hitter hit it. you know, you are -- you don't want to go out there and do it yourself. >> larry: if you were at a film, your own craft -- >> yeah, i don't see it that way. >> larry: you don't cry. >> there's no crying in baseball. >> and i am inclined to agree with that. >> they know when he or she is missing the mark. >> i can't tell you anything more than it just felt right. >> now i'm in big trouble. >> start training now. >> we're humble guys, larry. >> i'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. 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[ male announcer ] get an exceptional offer on the mercedes-benz you've always wanted at the winter event going on now. and stay connected with three years of mbrace service complimentary. >> larry: "scent of a woman," playing, and you are wearing glasses now. you wore glasses as a blind man, right? you had them off a lot, too. >> i had them off a lot. >> i didn't wear sunglasses that much. >> larry: when you are playing a blind person and you had to do that scene at the dance, what do you see? >> it's the oddest thing. you don't see anything. >> what do you mean? >> because you don't focus your eyes. and what happens is you just go into a state. as a matter of fact, i had an eye injury during the shooting of the film because i fell into a bush. and it was -- and the worst kind of eye injury is when plant life gets into your cornea. it's stuck in my cornea. but as i was falling, my eyes weren't focusing and the thing went in my eye. so it's also dangerous to do that. >> larry: so you are saying you were blind during that movie? >> yeah. and what's so interesting because i asked my little daughter at the time. she was at that time about 3. and i said to her, julie, could you show me -- if you were doing something, how do you do a blind person? she was spot on. she was just perfect. i said bam, no work, no preparation, no nothing. she just did it. so it's -- i didn't, you know, i did a variation on that theme, but -- >> larry: was it difficult? >> no it wasn't. well, having an affliction or something, it's sort of -- it's like having an accent. it gives an actor something to feed into it. it feeds you. it serves you as an actor. >> larry: how did you coming up with hoo-wa? >> i had this guy who was teaching me how to assemble and disassemble a .45 blind. >> larry: you did that yourself with the gun? >> yeah. and i would spend hours just learning how to take it. he was a real lieutenant or one of the guys. i don't know what his rank was. one time i did it right and he went hoo-wa. >> hoo-wa! i said what's that? and he would do it every time i did something. he said it's an expression used in the army. so i t