(Credits: Far Out / Theater Company of Boston / Alamy)
Being an actor gives you opportunities that few others get, such as working alongside artists you really admire.
While some people pay hundreds to see their favorite celebrity in the flesh, when you are famous yourself, you could find yourself sharing a screen with them, suddenly passing every day together to bring a project back to life.
For Al Pacino, the idea of working with Bob Dylan was almost too beautiful to be true, but in a moment of respectable professionalism, the actor refused the possibility of playing alongside the emblematic folk singer for practical reasons. It seems that Pacino made the right decision, however, because the film, Pat Garrett and Billy the childwas a notorious failure.
Although he triggered a large soundtrack of Dylan, including his classic tube “ Knockin ” on Heaven’s DOOR ‘, the film by Sam Peckinpah was swept by the critics, although the cup that was published was far from what the director had in mind. It was a stretched production, spoiled by disagreements between the emblematic filmmaker and MGM, including execution. The chief of MGM, James Aubrey, tried to take matters into his own hands, reducing the film to a much shorter length, to the great dismay of Peckinpah.
The project, which featured Dylan alongside a selection of stars like James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson and Katy Jurado, was a disaster, and the alcoholism of Peckinpah made only the shot more difficult. Released in 1973, the film arrived at the start of Pacino’s career, shortly after its appearance in The godfatherSo the actor obviously made the right decision by missing the film, appearing rather in the acclaimed Scarecrow And Snake This year.
So why did Pacino refuse the role? As much as he wanted to work alongside Dylan, Pacino knew that at this hinge stadium in his booming career in Hollywood, he had to take care of his health. That, and he didn’t want to ride a horse.
In his memoirs Sonny BoyThe actor wrote: “They offered me the role of Billy The Kid in Sam Peckinpah Pat Garrett and Billy the child. I loved Peckinpah. One of the greatest directors of all time. Can you imagine making a film and being able to play with Bob Dylan? And who wouldn’t want to play Billy The Kid? I thought it was something I could do. Then, I read the script, and I wanted to make rewritings, correcting the script with Peckinpah, the way I usually work with the directors. I could just see it.
He added: “I thought I don’t get on horses. They are too big. I will be in Mexico with Peckinpah, and I will probably die from poisoning to alcohol because I would be so there. And I transmitted it.”
Instead, the musician and actor Kristofferson took the part of Billy The Kid, although he was fascinating to imagine what Pacino could have been in the role. Perhaps the film would have proven to be different with Pacino differently, which quickly turns out to be one of the greatest players of its generation, commanding the screen. However, with the quantity of problems behind the scenes with MGM who affected the project, it seems that the film was sentenced to failure.
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