The scene is set in the Kate Mantilini restaurant on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. Two men sit across from each other and share a cup of coffee. Both are inconspicuously dressed; the taller one wears a grey suit and white shirt; his slightly smaller acquaintance is in all black garb, suit, shirt, and tie. The director yells “Action!” It would be the first take from 11, and cinematic history is about to be made.
The film is called Heat, and the two men at the table are acting giants Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Pacino. De Niro. The names themselves bring on a cascade of memorable characters, which have thrilled generations of cinema enthusiasts, and like Marlon Brando before them, have influenced a never ending parade of actors.
In one popular antidote, Spanish actor Javier Bardem describes how he received a message from Pacino, congratulating him for his Oscar nomination in Before Night Falls (2000). Bardem went on to say: “I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in Al Pacino.”
Not to be outdone, De Niro has also received equally high praise for his body of work. We’re No Angels (1989) co-star Sean Penn clearly stated: “Robert De Niro is the reason that I became an actor.”
Both men were raised in similar circumstances. Alfredo James Pacino was born on the 25th of April, 1940. His parents were Rose and Sal Alfredo Pacino. Sal would leave the family when Al was only two years old. As a result, he and Rose had to move back in with her parent’s house in the South Bronx. They, coincidently, were from a town in Sicily named Corleone, which would figure heavily later in Pacino’s life.
In between working odd jobs to make ends meet, Rose would take little Al (nicknamed Sonny) to the movies. Afterwards, “Sonny” would then recite certain scenes word by word. His favourite was re-enacting Ray Millard’s alcohol fuelled lunacy in Billy Wilder’s classic, The Lost Weekend (1944). Mused Pacino: “You get affected by it. When I was young I fell in love with what happened...with that world. Once I fell in love with that, that was it.”
3 years after Pacino was born, on August 17, 1943, on the opposite side of the social spectrum, came into this world Robert De Niro Jr., the child of bohemian New York artists, Presbyterian raised, atheist painter Virginia Admiral; and Robert De Niro Sr., an abstract expressionist painter of Irish and Italian descent.
As with Pacino, De Niro’s parents would divorce when he was two, and he would go on to live with his mother, in Little Italy, Manhattan. This time, however, it would be De Niro’s father who would take him to the cinema. De Niro revealed a surprising choice of film as his main catalyst to become an actor: “Can-Can (1960), the movie with Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. It had a sort of glamour. I remember coming away from seeing it and telling a friend that night that I was going to be an actor.”
As a child, De Niro attended the progressive Little Red School Home, and was then enrolled into Fiarello H. La Guardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts. Coincidently, Pacino would also attend the same school, although neither have spoken of any run-ins with each other.
Regardless, separate factors drove both to drop out; Pacino had to find work after the death of his mother Rose; while De Niro joined a Little Italy gang, who dubbed him “Bobby Milk” because of his pale complexion.
Yet these trysts into the workforce and unlawfulness would only prove to be a distraction from parallel destinies which lay ahead.
New York’s famed Actor’s Studio is located at 432 West St in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. Since its formation in the 1950s, it has trained some of America’s finest actors that have graced the stage and screen. James Dean honed his craft there. Ditto the late Paul Newman. And -despite his constant denials – Marlon Brando was also known to be a student.
The Actor’s Studio was popular for teaching the famed “method” approach to acting, created by Russian Constantin Stanislavski, and brought to worldwide recognition by acting guru Lee Strasberg, who exclusively taught his “emotional recall” technique, where a character should be built by focusing on an actor’s experiences. It was a style of acting which impressed Pacino. And, after several auditions, he finally made it into the Studio, and immersed himself in everything the Studio had to offer.
As a result, Strasberg would become a father figure to Pacino. It is then no surprise to find that Pacino is now a joint president of the Actor’s Studio, alongside fellow actors Harvey Keitel and Ellen Burstyn.
As Pacino immersed himself with all the Studio had to offer, De Niro opted to stay on the outside of the Studio’s closed ranks, and study at the infamous Stella Adler Conservatory. While Strasberg preached the actors need for self analysis and sense memory, Adler proclaimed his method to be rubbish. She urged her students that to properly embody their character, it starts and ends with the script. Through Adler’s teachings, De Niro would learn the tools in which would embody his characters emotionally, as well as physically.
Both men would partake in theatre workshops and off-Broadway productions. As far as a career on stage was concerned, Pacino has the upper hand, scoring an Obie award (an off-Broadway version of a Tony) for The Indian Wants a Bronx in 1968; and, scoring the Tony award the following year for Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
De Niro would be the first to make a splash in movies, appearing in Roger Corman’s exploitation gangster classic Bloody Mama (1968), shocking his co-stars by lying in an open grave in order to stay in character. A fruitful collaboration with burgeoning filmmaker Brian De Palma would follow, with Greetings (1968), The Wedding Party (1969), and Hi Mom! (1970) all receiving notices from critics.
It was around this time that Pacino would also make his mark as a film actor, starring as a junkie in the harrowing, The Panic in Needle Park (1971).
But once again, destiny would take the pair to greater plateaus.
|
