Al Pacino took some "time off" from the promotional tour of his new film Danny Collins to talk life and work at a special event in Dublin last night. Harry Guerin went along, and liked the legend even more by the end than he did at the beginning.
"I was short. Still am." Amazing how a one-liner early on in a two-hour-plus interview can get right to the heart of a man's appeal and convince an audience that he's an ordinary guy from the South Bronx who 'just' does some extraordinary things to pay the bills, one of which was to shrink the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre to living room size and make people think they were right there next to him and interviewer Tom Dunne.
Sure, the big screen behind them helped bring everyone closer, but it was tiny compared to Pacino's bonhomie and energy.
He's playing a superstar singer doing some soul-searching in the upcoming Danny Collins, so it was ironic, then, that the buzz in the room when the lights went down was exactly like the one you get at the best gigs.
The subsequent 'greatest hits' montage was soundtracked by whoops and cheers, and then the 75-year-old ambled out on stage to his first standing ovation.
He looked brighter and cooler than even the most devoted may have anticipated, with a choice in wardrobe and accessories that reminded just how perfect a choice he was to play crooner Collins in the autumn years comedy: boots, black suit, no tie, open necked-white shirt, scarf, bracelets, three rings and two phones - almost as if he was waiting for a call about that next job at any minute.
And as he showed time and time again after he sat down, Pacino's enthusiasm for his profession, despite his age and all the number-crunching changes he's seen in the workplace, remains undimmed. It was an unexpected Sunday night lesson for anyone facing into another Monday morning.
From his movie-going childhood to director Francis Ford Coppola's studio battles to get - and then keep - him on The Godfather, to his delight at hearing the minutiae of his then-partner's day after coming home from the intensity of the Scarface set and on to his sourcing of the "hoo-hah!" during the gun assembly training for Scent of a Woman and that coffee shop showdown in Heat, Pacino's memories proved to be as unpretentious as they were vivid.
He didn't talk up magic and mystery in his craft, but spoke matter-of-factly of great co-stars and directors, multiple takes and not taking characters home with him. He also thanked many people who had helped him along the way. You just knew there was a lot of two/way traffic there.
One story and one ad-lib vied for funniest moment of the night. Pacino's recounting of his trip out West to the Oscars when nominated for Serpico in 1974 was a masterclass in comic timing. The worse for wear and in the middle of a bad hair night after his manager intervened with a dryer, he was gripped by twin terrors: the first, that the ceremony was three hours, not one; and the second that he might actually win in such a state.
"I don't have a speech. I can't ****** walk. My hair is up to here. I got nothing to say. I don't belong here. I forgot the movie I even was in!" Sheer delight followed when Jack Lemmon's name was called.
Later, having deftly dodged the audience question about his favourite leading lady with "She's coming, one day, she's coming!", Pacino then responded to a female fan's contention that she should be next in line for the role off-screen with: "Stay where you are, honey - I'm difficult to work with!"
For all the laughs, it was fitting that a defining weekend in Irish history should close with Pacino reading Oscar Wilde, a spine-tingling end to a heart-warming evening. There was nothing about working with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams on Scent of a Woman and Insomnia respectively; he wasn't asked for his recollections of Colin Farrell on The Recruit and Donnie Brasco was bizarrely overlooked, but hopefully there'll be a next time - and we'll all stay 'til dawn.
Danny Collins opens on May 29.
