From MSNBC, 1997

Al Pacino: the Devil finally emerges

By Joe Leydon

NEW YORK — Speak of the devil: Al Pacino strides into the swanky hotel room, a vision of slumming royalty in a basic black, ankle-length leather coat.

He hates the interview process, but has graciously agreed to talk about his latest movie, "The Devil’s Advocate," a chore he pretends to enjoy. He has nothing but nice things to say about the film and his top-billed co-star, Keanu Reeves. But, if he must promote his work, he will have a little fun in the bargain.

Pacino flashes a grin that, for a moment, strongly resembles a row of gleaming kitchen knives before trailing off into a conspiratorial chuckle. Right away, he wins you over with what seems like candor. It’s all part of an act, of course, because you know — and he knows that you know — that he will tell you only what he wants you to know, and not one syllable more. But if you’re willing to play the game, you can be amused — and, occasionally, enlightened — by what he has to say, and the exuberance he brings to saying it.

Pacino brandishes his robustly seductive charm as a lethal weapon throughout "The Devil’s Advocate," a movie in which he plays John Milton, founder and head of a high-powered New York law firm. As you may have gathered from the TV spots and coming-attractions trailers, Milton is really Satan. And Kevin Lomax (Reeves), his new employee, is in imminent danger of losing his immortal soul to this wily trickster.

"What was gratifying to me," Pacino says, "was the chance to play a character that allows you to do almost anything.

"I mean, how are you going to be judged? What’s the barometer? It’s like, sometimes, people can say, ‘Well, he didn’t do that.’ Or, ‘He wouldn’t do this. ’ But with the devil — anything goes, really."

Indeed, Pacino parades through "The Devil’s Advocate" with the hungry-wolf fervor of an unhinged hambone who can’t resist chewing every piece of scenery in sight. Eyes glowing and adrenaline pumping, he is so stoked that, in some scenes, he appears to vibrate even while he’s sitting perfectly still. He preens and purrs, rants and raves, enchants and intimidates and, through it all, comports himself with the absolute certainty that his audience will love everything he’s doing just as much as he does.

Fortunately for all parties concerned, Pacino is right: His crowd-pleasing performance is an unmitigated hoot. For all its other qualities, the movie wouldn’t be nearly so entertaining without it.

Which makes it all the more fortuitous that director Taylor Hackford ("An Officer and a Gentleman") was able to talk Pacino into taking the part.

"I had turned down the script a couple of times before Taylor got involved, " Pacino says. "When it came around this last time, it was Taylor’s vision of it that interested me.

"And also — well, sometimes, you look at a script again after a period of time, and your attitude changes. I’m reading one now that I can’t mention, that I first read 10 years ago, that I possibly would do today. But 10 years ago, you might say, ‘Well, this is interesting — but who’s going to buy this?’ It’s the same thing with this picture. The script has been around, and it’s gone the route to the point where, today, it seems to touch on some things that make it seem very current. Like, the whole idea of lawyers being called the new priesthood. I think people can relate to that more these days."

At 57, Pacino is behaving very much like a man obsessed with making up for lost time. In the eyes of countless fans and numerous peers, he has been an enduring icon since his breakthrough movies of the 1970s: "The Godfather," "Serpico," "Godfather, Part II" and " Dog Day Afternoon." But after stumbling through the disaster of "Revolution," the 1985 epic that had him miscast as a Revolutionary War hero, Pacino took an extended sabbatical from movie work.

He began his "comeback" with "Sea of Love" (1989), an erotic thriller in which he co-starred with Ellen Barkin. But Pacino wasn’t really at the top of the A-list again until 1993. That’s when, after going home empty-handed from too many Oscar ceremonies, he finally won the Academy Award as Best Actor for his spectacularly cranky performance in "Scent of a Woman."

Since then, Pacino has been juggling a multitude of projects on both sides of the cameras. During the past 24 months alone, he earned respectful reviews for "Looking for Richard," his quirky documentary about the joys of Shakespeare, and maintained high visibility with starring roles in "Heat," "City Hall" and "Donnie Brasco."

These days, Pacino can take his pick of many plum roles. Trouble is, having too many options can be a mixed blessing.

"There was a period when I was out of it for a few years, " Pacino says. "Almost four years between movies. But for some reason during the last few years, I’ve been more interested, more active. Sometimes, you’re waiting and you’re not particularly excited about anything. But you’re still living in a workaday world, trying to develop yourself — trying to explore things, trying to go into areas where you haven’t been before.

"You have to decide, ‘Which one do I choose?’ And as you get older, and your time’s running out, you’re trying to figure out, ‘What am I going to do in this next year?’ There’s something to be said for not doing anything, and waiting for something inspired. But that doesn’t seem to happen enough. So you start to figure, like they say, you bring the body and the mind will follow. You hope that, if you go ahead and do the thing, somewhere along the line, you’ll get excited by it. Sometimes, the cart is leading the horse in that respect."

Even so, Pacino thinks the journey is worth the effort. Standing still, he has found, simply isn’t in his nature.

"It’s really all about being engaged in what you do. I remember my grandfather was a plasterer. And the thing I’m left with about my grandfather, because he raised me, is his love of what he did. He went away and did that eight hours a day, and then he came home. And you got the feeling that, more than anything else, he wanted to go back there and do it again. I remember seeing him in the midst of his work, and noticing how focused he was.

"I’ve been doing this now for going on 30 years in movies. I have the same doubts I’ve always had. But I guess it’s about having a pursuit, and staying with a thing."