Al Pacino recounts his disgusting first encounter with Marlon Brandon

“He was eating Chicken Cacciatore with his hands… They were covered in red sauce, just like his face…”

While he has just blown out 84 candles, Al Pacino will release his memoirs. His book, Sonny Boyrelates, among other things, his first meeting with Marlon Brando on the set of the film The Godfatherin 1972. A strange encounter, based on chicken and Italian mushroom sauce…

At the request of the director Francis Ford Coppolathe young actor was forced to have lunch with his comrade, already legendary: “In reality, I didn't want to talk to him. I thought it wasn't necessary.”writes Pacino in an extract from his book published in The Guardian. “Just thinking about it made me uncomfortable. Honestly, it terrified me. He was the greatest actor of our time. I grew up admiring legends like him, larger-than-life icons like Clark Gable and Cary Grant. These actors were famous at a time when fame still had meaning, before that aura faded. But Francis insisted. So I did it.”

Al Pacino thus describes their first real discussion on set, during the filming of the scene where Michael Corleone visits his father, Vito, in an abandoned hospital. “He was sitting on a hospital bed, and I was on another. And he was asking me questions: where did I come from? How long had I been doing this job?” But Pacino admits to having difficulty concentrating, distracted by Brando's behavior during this impromptu meal : “He was eating chicken cacciatore (wine and mushroom sauce) with his hands… His hands were covered in red sauce, as was his face. That was all I could see. No matter what he said, my mind was glued to this spectacle. He was talking – gurgle, gurgle, gurgle – and I was completely mesmerized.

The meal swallowed by the star did not fail to disturb Pacino: “I wondered what he was going to do with his chicken bones. I prayed he wouldn't ask me to throw them in the trash. Finally, he got rid of it, without moving from his bed. He gave me a questioning look. I thought: 'What is he going to do with his hands?' I was about to offer him a towel when suddenly he rubbed his sauce-filled hands on the white sheets of the hospital bed, without even thinking, and continued talking.

Stunned by the relaxed (even a little dirty) attitude of Marlon Brandohis comrade from The Godfather admits to having thought: “So this is how movie stars behave? You can do whatever you want… When our lunch was over, Marlon looked at me with his soft eyes and said, 'Yeah, kid, you'll be fine.' I was raised to be polite and grateful, so I probably just said thank you. I was too scared to say anything else.”

Despite this lunar sequence, Al Pacino remains admiring of The Godfather's performance, the main reason for the film's timeless success according to him: “Marlon showed me generosity, and he shared it with the audience“, he writes in Sonny Boy. “This is what makes his playing so memorable and touching. We all dream of having someone like Don Vito who we can turn to. So many people are mistreated in this life, but if you have a sponsor, you have someone to turn to, someone who will sort things out.”