Q: Have you been involved in anything salacious?
A: When I was younger, there was the sex thing. That’s par for the course.
Q: What do you mean, the sex thing?
A: Well, you know.
Q: No, I don’t know.
A: When you’re a movie star, it went with it. It’s a kind of rite of passage, socially.
Q: What did you do to deal with the pressures of fame?
A: Many years ago, in the late ‘70s, I toured colleges along the East Coast and I presented a kind of show where I got a lot of books and poetry and pieces of Shakespeare and other writers that I admire, read it to the class and then afterward we would talk and I would answer questions. It was really a way of expressing and finding out about where I was at that particular time, so it was very therapeutic for me. My early career was a real rush of movies and stardom – it was almost overwhelming. I found that speaking live to people, young people, about what I liked and what had been happening to me was very good for me. I was quite overtaken by success and fame. I was one of those types who responded to it in a negative way. It was not easy. Here I am, 150 years later.
Q: What Shakespearean soliloquy or speech inspires you the most?
A: “To be or not to be is” beyond anything I can comprehend. I understand it on a superficial level, but the depth of it just boggles my mind. I think it’s probably the greatest of all speeches ever written.
Q: With the upcoming release of Looking for Richard and the rest of the films in your DVD box set, are you trying to show the public the work you want to be remembered for?
A: There’s the commercial Al, that’s been around a long time, and my movies are always being played on television, I’m very well known and all that stuff – I go all over the world, I have access to many things, many people, many places and it’s wonderful. But now I’m at a point where…I thought it was time to show some of it, to show some of my feelings about things and what I preferred at the time. I prefer them still but not to the extent I did at the time.
Q: How else has getting older changed you?
A: Everything changes with age. The parts change with age, your feelings about them change, roles that I would’ve wanted to play 10 years ago, I don’t want to play now. I was watching Revolution, and the things I did in that picture, holy smokes! I can’t believe I did that, it’s like another person. It’s the thought of it, it’s just appalling to me.
Q: What was appalling about it?
A: The physical stamina that that took. I was just shocked by it. I didn’t think I had it in me ever, and I wasn’t terribly young when I did it. I was in my early forties. That was the first thing I was struck by, not by the acting, not by anything else, but by the physicality.
Q: On that note, you were terrific in Dick Tracy. Why haven’t you pursued more comedic roles?
A: A lot of people don’t even realize I was in Dick Tracy – there’s no proof! My name wasn’t on the movie because my price was a little high. I enjoyed the opportunity of making a character from nothing – there wasn’t a comic strip with this guy in it, and so I had to come up with the face and the nose and the head. I’m much more a European Italian than I am an American Italian, and I’ve always felt that that style of acting comedy is in me. I put comedy as much as I can into all my movies, if I can help it.
Q: The Godfather was hysterical.
A: I’ll never live that one down.
A: When I was younger, there was the sex thing. That’s par for the course.
Q: What do you mean, the sex thing?
A: Well, you know.
Q: No, I don’t know.
A: When you’re a movie star, it went with it. It’s a kind of rite of passage, socially.
Q: What did you do to deal with the pressures of fame?
A: Many years ago, in the late ‘70s, I toured colleges along the East Coast and I presented a kind of show where I got a lot of books and poetry and pieces of Shakespeare and other writers that I admire, read it to the class and then afterward we would talk and I would answer questions. It was really a way of expressing and finding out about where I was at that particular time, so it was very therapeutic for me. My early career was a real rush of movies and stardom – it was almost overwhelming. I found that speaking live to people, young people, about what I liked and what had been happening to me was very good for me. I was quite overtaken by success and fame. I was one of those types who responded to it in a negative way. It was not easy. Here I am, 150 years later.
Q: What Shakespearean soliloquy or speech inspires you the most?
A: “To be or not to be is” beyond anything I can comprehend. I understand it on a superficial level, but the depth of it just boggles my mind. I think it’s probably the greatest of all speeches ever written.
Q: With the upcoming release of Looking for Richard and the rest of the films in your DVD box set, are you trying to show the public the work you want to be remembered for?
A: There’s the commercial Al, that’s been around a long time, and my movies are always being played on television, I’m very well known and all that stuff – I go all over the world, I have access to many things, many people, many places and it’s wonderful. But now I’m at a point where…I thought it was time to show some of it, to show some of my feelings about things and what I preferred at the time. I prefer them still but not to the extent I did at the time.
Q: How else has getting older changed you?
A: Everything changes with age. The parts change with age, your feelings about them change, roles that I would’ve wanted to play 10 years ago, I don’t want to play now. I was watching Revolution, and the things I did in that picture, holy smokes! I can’t believe I did that, it’s like another person. It’s the thought of it, it’s just appalling to me.
Q: What was appalling about it?
A: The physical stamina that that took. I was just shocked by it. I didn’t think I had it in me ever, and I wasn’t terribly young when I did it. I was in my early forties. That was the first thing I was struck by, not by the acting, not by anything else, but by the physicality.
Q: On that note, you were terrific in Dick Tracy. Why haven’t you pursued more comedic roles?
A: A lot of people don’t even realize I was in Dick Tracy – there’s no proof! My name wasn’t on the movie because my price was a little high. I enjoyed the opportunity of making a character from nothing – there wasn’t a comic strip with this guy in it, and so I had to come up with the face and the nose and the head. I’m much more a European Italian than I am an American Italian, and I’ve always felt that that style of acting comedy is in me. I put comedy as much as I can into all my movies, if I can help it.
Q: The Godfather was hysterical.
A: I’ll never live that one down.