Al Pacino has said that he’s started deliberately starring in bad films in order to “try to make them better”.
The actor was speaking in a joint interview with his long-time collaborator Robert De Niro.
- READ MORE: ‘The Irishman’ review: De Niro & Pacino reunion betters ‘Heat’ in Scorsese’s epic crime drama
During the interview, with GQ, Pacino referenced a “bad habit” that he’s started getting himself into. “I think I’m starting to get a little perverse,” he began.
“I’m starting to want to do films that aren’t really very good and try to make them better. And that’s become my challenge.”
The actor continued: “I don’t think I go in thinking it’s not gonna be very good, but it’s like Bob said: Sometimes they offer you money to do something that’s not adequate. And you talk yourself into it. And somewhere within you, you know that this thing is gonna be a lemon.
“But then, when it comes full circle, and you see it, you say, ‘Oh, no. I’m gonna make this better.’ And you spend a lot of time and you’re doing all these things, and you say, ‘If I can just get this to be a mediocre film’, and you get excited by that. It’s an impulse that I’ve got to just put away now.”
We assume this new tact didn’t have to apply to The Irishman, which saw Pacino and De Niro reuniting on screen in Martin Scorsese’s new crime drama.
An NME review of The Irishman said: “If this is to be Pesci, De Niro and Scorsese’s final fling together, then they couldn’t wish to end on a better note. The director’s 26th feature film is a meditative and classy offering. Hollywood’s old cronies are still the real deal – magnetic, riveting and unique. Let’s hope we see them again soon.”
“I don’t see us putting on a movie like this,” he told The Guardian. “I hope we do other films together, but like this? Not likely. This is it.”