Francis Ford Coppola Shares Original Footage of Al Pacino Auditioning For Micheal Corleone in THE GODFATHER

Director Francis Ford Coppola recently shared footage of a young Al Pacino auditioning for the role of Michael Corleone in the classic 1972 film The Godfather.

Coppola said that Pacino was considered too short and too scruffy for the role: “The interesting thing here, was a reason given to me against casting Pacino was not only was he too short, but also too ‘scruffy’.

“So we got him a haircut and dressed him more non-scruffy and more collegiate, and then the criticism was he so cleaned up, he lost some of his natural appeal. I realized they just didn’t want Al no matter whether tall or short, scruffy or collegiate.”

Coppola went on to say: “The first ‘too scruffy’ haircut was given to him by my wife Ellie. For the second haircut, we went to a local barber and he found out it was for a ‘Godfather’ actor, he had a heart-attack. (The barber really had a heart-attack and was taken off to hospital afterwards)”

This is really cool to watch, and there’s some fun insight here that cinephiles will appreciate.