announcer: from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." charlie: al pacino is here. he is an oscar, tony, and emmy award-winning actor.

lee strasburg at the actors studio once said of him, some actors play characters. al pacino becomes them. here is a look at just some of his work. al: you stole my wife. you think you can steal my wife? you're supposed to love me. >> i love you. i was going to go out and score for you. al: the reality is we don't wash our own laundry. i don't care who gets it anymore. including myself. if i have to go to outside agencies -- where my going to go? where am i going to go? al: i knew it was you, fredo. you broke my heart. you broke my heart. get over there, will you? he wants to kill me so bad, he can taste it. attica! attica!

attica! al: you want to play rough? ok. say hello to my little friend! al: you want to learn the first rule? you would know if you have spent a day in your life. you never open your mouth until you know what the shot is. >> there was a time i could see, and i have seen boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out and their legs ripped off. but there is nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit. there is no prosthetic for that. al: if it's between you and some poor bastard who's wife is going to be turned into a widow,

brother, you are going down. >> this guy is the top scientist in the number three tobacco company in america. he is a corporate officer. this guy is the ultimate insider. he's got something to say and i want him to say it. i want him on "60 minutes." >> you may call it mercy killing. i call it something else. i call it a medical service for an agonizing and terribly suffering patient. that is what i call it. charlie: over the years, many of his contemporaries have spoken about him on this show. >> is almost impossible for him to do anything false. he doesn't know how to. the lines will go. he will not be able to get out of the chair. there's a line of truth in him that's inviolate. where you can really see him in his magnificence is "the

godfather." >> he is technical. he knows every camera, every hit, every mark. helen: never fails. he knows the cutting, the editing. and within that very structured form which film is, very tight he is utterly free. it is just so inspiring to be around. charlie: pacino starred in a adaptation of the novel "the humbling." al: oh. look at this! >> this is emily. al: emily. let me take that. oh! >> are you hurt? are you ok? al: yeah. >> look at what happened to him. al: what is in here? >> these are some of my things.

al: i was thinking. don't you think it's time you told your parents about us? charlie: in a second film just-released called "danny collins," pacino plays an aging rock star that receives a letter from john lennon and decides to change his life. al: hello, l.a.! see those golden girls? >> they are grandstanding. >> no way. you don't surprise a guy my age. you give me a heart attack. >> do you remember an interview when you were a kid? "time" magazine? john lennon read it and he wrote you a letter in 1971. can you believe it? >> dude, danny collins, stay true to yourself. stay true to your music. my phone number is below. we can discuss this. >> i'm a joke. i haven't written a song in 30

years. i'm having a breakdown. i'm broken. ain't nothing left to break. what would have happened if i had gotten that letter when i was supposed to? i want to cancel the rest of the tour. i need a plane. jersey. >> welcome to the hilton. look who it is? >> ic. so you are staying indefinitely here? are you on drugs? >> currently or in general? >> currently? >> no. >> are you asking me to dinner? >> i think so. >> i'm going to have to decline. >> not a fan? >> currently or in general? >> in general. >> no. but we have good banter. >> i am meeting someone for the first time. how do i look? >> slightly ridiculous. >> see you at 7:00. >> no, you won't. you expect it to be easy meeting your grown son for the first time? >> hello. >> why are you here? >> just making some changes.

>> in a few minutes my husband will walk through that door and this will be the last time i ever see you. >> you have every right to be angry. >> i don't care enough to be angry. nice to meet you. have a good life. >> you shouldn't give up. >> i agree. dinner tomorrow? >> [laughter] good night, danny. you are nervous. i miss that. >> i spent my entire life becoming the man you aren't. >> i don't know what to say. >> i don't need you to say anything, i just need you to leave. >> you will have to deal with it because i'm here. >> you can't buy redemption. >> dinner tomorrow? >> you know what i like about you? you never give up. >> some dinners are worth fighting for. charlie: "danny collins." terrific cast. al: what a cast. charlie: when you see that montage, what do you think about this career that you have had and continue to have?

al: it baffles me. you spend your life just moving along. it's one of the perks, but also one of the issues you have when you are with a group of people. and you are in their company and you know that we all sort of feel that way. actors are transient. charlie: someone said gypsies. all actors are gypsies. pacino: they are. they have it in their spirit. when i look at things, there is a certain, mercifully, there is a distance you have. you look at it and say, you want to call it developmental. i remember because they have a special evening for kazam. they showed all the movies he did. he got up on the stage and he said, wow. how am i still walking around?

i remember they did one for me actually. i went up there and thought, there is no rehab in this. where's the time i was in rehab? i never was in rehab. charlie: the question posed in john lennon's letter in danny collins, stay true to yourself. have you? al: well, you know, i guess so. here and there. i veered off. i don't know. i don't make those kind of -- i don't think of myself as being true to myself. i can feel when i'm not. i can feel when i got off the track. charlie: in your personal life or in performance? al: in both, but more in the performance than personal life. personal life is a bit too random for me.

i'm playing characters that have lived these lives all over the world and stuff. and gone to the accessibility of things in life and the world. you are traveling. charlie: do you keep saying yes to parts? you have these movies coming out. you keep seeing yes, and and these questions, i want to walk the other way. al: it's true. i think i've gotten out of something when i'm finished with it. on the street, i see people with campers and wires on the floor i just go to the other side. i feel as though i know what they are going through. it's different when you direct a movie. you are in every part of it. and it's also different for an actor as you prepare for a movie because there is the rehearsal period. we don't have enough of in films today.

but early on movies i did in the 1970s, we had really substantial rehearsal periods. to develope characters and relationships with other actors. here you just -- in this movie we had no rehearsal. in "danny collins." charlie: because of the budget? al: yeah. that's what it is. it's the budget. it is the budget we are always facing. we would rehearse at my house on the weekends to get what we could in, because -- charlie: why do you do it? because you love it? because it's who you are? i once said to a fighter, why do you do it? you have made all the money in the world. you have a great family, all of the things anybody would aspire to. international fame. and you said, charlie, it's what i do. it's what i do. i'm a fighter. you say, i'm an actor. it's what i do.

al: it's funny. you have the text. you see, i live by the text. the play is the thing. the shakespeare. and when i see that text, i don't want to do it -- charlie: you want to be in movies? pacino: i don't need it. i don't think i needed until i read it. i read it. and the process is ever-changing because there is a time or you want to do something because it challenges you and you feel you will learn something from it. so you do it. you can fall flat on your face. the results of that. mostly, you are trying to a bodyweight things in your life -- you were trying to evaluate things in your life and you deal with the things in life, the children. things come up. at the same time, that script -- i read one the other day that i won't say what it is. i had not read anything and i

thought, "they pull me back in" kind of thing. charlie: you think about what you can do with that character. is it the excitement of getting inside of the character? pacino: it's the world the writer creates. it's the text. it is -- what an opportunity. i have an opportunity to do this again. or for the first time. and there is something about the -- almost this thing that i it is almost an obligation to get involved in it, i feel. charlie: this is for you. does this "add value" to this? al: yes. or i can find something anything that i'm doing that relates to something inside of me. that i've been wanting to express or talk about. is a form of acting. when i first started, i think what kept me an actor is when i realized i could speak through

this venue. and i could speak about things in life that i couldn't before. i could not find the words. but the playwright allowed me to express something. charlie: it is a coming together of the actor and the text. it gives you the possibility to make it something bigger? that is what an actor adds. al: and to move on from a life you know to a life you may not know and find out about it. and get a sense that you are involved. involved in something that is bigger than your life. charlie: "the humbling." the 2009 novel. you liked it. al: yes. charlie: what attracted you to it in terms of, as an actor, did

you see things there that you have thought about? al: yes. charlie: losing your skills, in a sense? al: yeah, i guess -- charlie: how did you see it? al: i saw it as a potential movie. at a certain point in life, your can't do any things anymore. your age comes in and you can't -- charlie: it happens to everybody. [laughter] i see people every day who are athletes. al: the athletes is a more obvious one. the actor has the grandfather socks. charlie: the thing about acting is it's a bit like people say you should not read tolstoy until you're 30 because you may not understand it. al: they say you should not do "hamlet" until you are 40. except you have to do it earlier because you won't do it if you wait until 40. you have to learn to much and you know it's impossible. i didn't do it. i never felt i was right for hamlet. i love the play.

it is probably my favorite play of all of shakespeare. i never did it. i did scenes from it. but i never felt that i could exist in that play in a way that i thought other people have. i thought as i got older, i would understand. there is a point of understanding it as an audience and understanding it as an artist. charlie: "hamlet" had you doing a reading with someone -- al: it was strasburg. i was afraid to do anything. i was very young. i got to the actor's studio a young age. i would stand around and watch them and i would go home. throughout my life, i have committed to memory certain monologues that i like. charlie: you were almost a teenager? al: early 20's. i thought, gee, i have these great monologues in me. a great eugene o'neill monologue.

and i had the wonderful -- what a peasant slave am i. i had them committed to my mind. i went for the first time. i was sitting there for six months. finally, i got up the nerve to sign up. lee strasburg lifts the paper and he was able to pronounce my name. al pacino. most people said "pakeeny." he said, al pacino? what's this? "hamlet," and "the iceman cometh." he said ok, you know, we take all kinds in here. [laughter] i got up there and i did a ferocious peasant. and i went wild with the eugene

o'neil -- and i was really giving it the old gung ho. stepping on the gas and stuff. it wasn't that good. it was over and he was looking at me and the audience got kind of teary about it. it had a lot of commitment and energy. he said, here's what i would like you to do. immediately, this was the genius with him. he said, i want you to do i want you to do hamlet as hickey from "teh iceman cometh" and hickey as hamlet. i immediately went into it. you is very happy about that. -- he was very happy about that. i did not pause. i just switched it.

charlie: the character of hamlet and the text of hickey. al: yes. and the text of hamlet and -- charlie: and hickey as the presence he had. al: i learned more that day than i had in my entire life. charlie: the first part of philip's book is called "he lost his magic." do you fear that? al: oh, my. as you get older, too, the stamina, especially what this character does in "the humbling," he does theater. eight performances a week. i'm doing these enormous roles. i don't know if you ever saw the movie "the dresser." they don't even know what character they are playing. they were doing three a day. we do one a day. the exhaustion and the tools you have as an actor. your own appetite. i don't think you go up there to do king lear if you don't have an appetite. it is impossible. there are certain things we cannot do if you don't feel like it. you can't walk through it. maybe if you do a movie of it. it is possible.

charlie: in one sustained performance? al: no, you can't. charlie: do you want to do lear? al: not particularly. charlie: not yet? al: there's another one that i have had offers to do all the time as a movie. i can see myself possibly doing it one day as a movie because it is great, of course. but i haven't found my way to lear. i don't think it is my room. charlie: but you love richard. al: i love richard. richard i could possibly do again. i did a reading of it. it was at philadelphia harmonic -- i was hosting, believe it or not, the 158th anniversary of the theater there. it was a wonderful orchestra. i was the mc of the thing. i don't know how that happened. charlie: not easy. al: no.

i found myself doing it. i was mainly talking about the first time i heard serious music. classical music. remember the old lewis and stadium here? i heard "right of spring" and i was here when stravinsky himself conducted it. talk about inspiring moments. i won't forget that. we were talking about times we heard the music for the first time. anyway, i did "richard." i did several poems by e.e. cummings. with the music behind me. this was a new experience. i loved it. chris plummer does it from time to time. so i did "richard" and my great friend charlie lawton, who passed on a couple years ago, he said that you should try richard again. i said, yes.

i wonder why he said that. then i went to philadelphia. two years later i'm up there doing richard and it was so different and so much a part of me in a way. i added something. charlie: richard hasn't changed. you changed. al: i changed. do you know what i used to do with richard when i was in boston? i was young, early 30's. this was me doing richard. i would be in the dressing room and i was in the rectory. we did it in a church. church and the covenant. it was the only time we got into it a little bit. it was in the midst of real turmoil in my life. i had just become a kind of movie star. i was drinking. i was in this state of constant -- so before i would go on, and i would come out of the pulpit.

i would say "now is the winter --" over a microphone in this church. but i wouldn't go out. i would stay in the dressing room in the rectory, and i had this girl. i won't mention her name. she was a spunky girl. a very young apprentice. i think she was at harvard. she was so smart and so much fun to be with. she was my assistant. i would be there in the rectory making up for richard and she would come in and say, "five minutes out." i would say, doesn't matter what it is. this would happen every night. she would say, what do you mean? i would say, i'm not doing it tonight. she says, no, no, no. they're out. i said, no. i'm not going to do it. you are not going to make me do it. she says, i'm not going to make you? oh yes, i am. you are going on that stage. i would say, stay away.

we would have this huge fight and i would hear "places." [laughter] i would go off into it. that was preparation. charlie: you are ready to go. al: i was ready to go. what kind of preparation is that? i have never heard of that. but the point is, you get it when you can. it comes to you in the moment. charlie: and you have to find it. al: yeah. i think, at least when you are doing -- i would call the richard i did at the church of the covenant, inspired richard. after that, i think the richard i did was basically a lot of it by the numbers. a lot of it trying to remember what i have done before. it didn't have the same flavor to it. it wasn't coming in the same place of expression. charlie: inhabiting a character, do you have to find a hook for you? you have to find something about the character? someone once said, i think it may be olivier, when i put on

the suit, i know what the character is -- something like that. al: it does help. charlie: but unlocking the character because you will inhabit the character, what do you look for? anything other than what the text says to you? al: yeah. you look for that thing that moves you. i don't know what it is. i like repetition. there is a saying that goes rep -- repetition -- repetition keeps me green. i love that saying. fresh. i love that idea because we do performances over and over again, doesn't that get boring? no. it's in the repetition that the creation comes. that the expression comes. i was doing richard once. not particularly well. the show was going on. and we couldn't get this court scene with a lot of people in it and i couldn't understand what i was doing. we would call rehearsals.

we would rehearse it and talk about it, think about it all this kind of work with able together trying to figure out something. the 85th performance of richard, on my 85th entrance, i knew the court scene. i understood it. i was there. i could play. charlie: but not 84. al: but not 84. i guess i was getting closer. i just gave up the ghost, i guess. i said screw it and gave up. i will keep going on and i found it. remember the great actor sam levine? i was watching the royal family once in the theater and sam levine comes in. opens the doors and comes in. i was a young actor. i thought, wow. as soon as i saw it, whoa. charlie: that was an entrance. al: it wasn't an entrance. it was something else.

it was a gift. he was opening the doors to something spectacular. with light in it and everything, and energy, and joy. and you know what it was? he had done it for 50 years. charlie: [laughter] exactly. al: that's a big thing. charlie: did you use that in terms of your performance? al: sometimes -- i've done performances where they got worse until they got better. charlie: because you are searching. al: here's the thing i did in "american buffalo." i did it all over the world. i remember people talking about, wow, he's like a tiger. he struts back and forth like a leopard in a cage. i thought that was very nice and probably that's what i was doing for a while. after doing it for four years on and off, i found myself in boston.

i think it was the curran theater there. we were doing this -- boston, at the wilbur. that is right. and i came out and i said the opening soliloquy written by david mamet. i come in, whole thing, and it is a long time. and i realized i had not moved. i had not moved from the spot. so what happens, the economy came. that thing came. it was not there for years, and it just came. that is what i mean. charlie: in an instant, some people would say the act of art, as in sculpture, is getting it down to a size. it is taking a role or obtaining. it is, in a sense, defining it down to where it works for you. al: that's right. charlie: stripping away so that what you see is the essence of a

character, of the scene. al: you see it in sports a lot too. you say, he didn't do anything. he did not do anything. of course, that's what you go for. charlie: you mentioned david mamet. what is it about the two of you? pacino: it's coming out in the what is it about the two of you? you are going to be with him again. al: it's coming out in the fall. charlie: do the words speak to you? does he have a sense of character? al: he presents the world in a way and i think he and i just hear it. we are colleagues on this play he is doing, collaborating and he is doing all the work. i am there. it's good to have someone, even him, to bounce off of. i am home thinking about something. i see him there a few days

later, a week later. and he has written down what i was thinking about. so i think, ok, just go with that. charlie: the power of observation. al: it was just -- he is such a -- to call him a great writer is a redundancy. but the same time, he surprises me. he understands. charlie: you have done that more than once. pacino: i was in the movie and then i did the play. charlie: i know. al: i knew the great dan sullivan, the director, wanted me to play it. and i thought, yes. this is the time to play because i learned about it in the movie a certain way. i took a tack on it, because it was a movie.

with theater, you can just explore more. with movies, it is hard to explore. i knew it would be different. it was a great adventure for me to do that part. charlie: do you want to do macbeth? al: i've been told a lot about that, too. i can't even mention the name. charlie: it is the myth of the theater that you cannot mention the name. al: i love the play, of course. i don't know. i don't think it is for me. it's just great. charlie: what else is on that list? al: well, i guess, maybe doing richard again. i want to play iago for a long time. that's a part i wanted to play and i was ready to play it. charlie: you said wanted. do you still want? al: the thing is, the cart is before the horse. sometimes you just get it and you go. if you sit around wanting it --,

you know, in my off time for years, i practically know iago. the longest written part in shakespeare is iago, believe it or not. i know hamlet and i know these parts. i know the words. charlie: because you have practiced? al: i practice. everything changes in the real. it's like shadowboxing. in real life, it's a different story. i love the idea of driving a car. me and strasburg were talking about. everything is good. you haven't been in the car yet. i can shift. i can do this. you do everything right, you shift, you do this. then you turn the key and the car goes. what is this? you are ducking cars and going on the sidewalk. that is the difference of rehearsing alone and getting in there with other people. at least you get familiarity. i love learning it. this is fun.

charlie: i think you almost dropped out of high school didn't you? al: i did drop out of high school. charlie: to go act. al: actually, i went to work. i went to work because we needed money in my family. an economic necessity at the time. i did go to the village at age 17. i was really fed by all that going on in the 60's. i was at coffee houses in the village and doing 16 shows a week or whatever play, passing the straw basket around. the audience would drop something. charlie: charles, what is the nature of the friendship? al: you could call it symbiotic.

at the same time, mentor. charlie: how did it start? al: i was 17 and he was teaching over there. hp studios. i was there. he was a student of lee strasburg. great people. i was there as a kid. a teenager, really. anyway, i heard about him. i took one look at this guy and i knew that i came from that. there was a familiarity. charlie: i'm going to talk about some of the things you have done. i know you have talked about this before. when you did "dog day afternoon," did you know that you and sidney had created something? al: it's interesting. when we were doing it, i remember seeing it. we rehearsed for a long time. i remember, as charlie once said, with this picture, you pull the pin and let it go.

as sydney said to me, it has its own life now. while we were shooting it. he says, it has a life of its own. i thought, yeah. wow. i couldn't tell. marty bergman, very wisely because i was drinking those days, too. it was kind of an apartment under the bank. both me and judith would be hitting on weed. judith molina, you know, she played my mother. they were all upstairs. i was downstairs alone. when sydney moved. we had rehearsed for months. he moved the actors along. he was pretty much about performance and stuff. when i would go up there, it absorbed me. i came back to the bank and

sydney wanted me to reshoot. he saw the last shot that that fellow i was channeling in some way, whatever the character was, evaporated. it went out of me. it was gone. when i had to come back, i had to re-create something. we had to reshoot something. i couldn't get it. i couldn't get it. charlie: this is akin to the idea of how long does an act to -- an actor take a part with him? a week? a month? and once it evaporates, if you have to reshoot, can you recapture it? al: i have been doing it so long now. i let it go. i let it go. i used to go back when i was younger. i would come back.

in the dressing room, i would leave. i have to move on. i do it right. it's a line from the play. that was kind of the thing. i had to literally do that. it kind of stuck with me for a while. that place i had to go to. especially the first two of "godfather." charlie: you did not see him as a gangster? al: i never saw him as a gangster, no. charlie: you saw him as -- al: i saw him as someone that inherited this thing. this was there. charlie: did not expect to be there at that early time in his

life but understood it was his responsibility to family. al: was his destiny. charlie: destiny. al: i always felt that about him. he had certain ingredients that would allow him to do what he did. his father saw that in him early on. it's a long story with that one. i never wanted to play that part. that was francis that got me to do it. he got me to do it. he wanted me to play that part. charlie: he fought for you, too. al: fought for me, completely fought for me. to such a degree. i kept saying, francis, it's all right. i will do other things. i was afraid of the role, by the way. charlie: some actors say that's good. it that it's the best thing they can have. if they are not afraid of it some tell me they don't really want to do the part. it has to scare them to be motivated to do it. al: that is certainly healthy. when anyone sees you in a role you go through a period where you become well-known, what is known as "bankable." it is dubious because you don't

know if somebody wants you because they see you in the part or because you can bank the movie. you can get confused by that. sometimes you do roles -- the best time is when a director wants you. charlie: how well did you know marlon brando? al: well enough to love him. i did not know him as well as other people had. i found him to be the most -- that kind of sensitivity where he can sort of feel you. he feels your stuff. and he gets very concerned. he was concerned about me. because at the time, there was so much controversy.

i was going to -- charlie: after "godfather?" al: before. while we were shooting it. he came over and put his hand on my shoulders. he knew i was going to go. i was a man who did not have long left for the set. francis wanted me. the studio didn't. they didn't want brando either. brando, you know. me, it did not matter. they were shocked that francis -- charlie: did francis bring in -- was it "panic?" al: "panic" is a beautiful movie. charlie: he was the photographer. al: just a beautiful directorial -- charlie: francis brought them in. al: he brought eight minutes

from "panic in needle park," and just showed it to me and that brought me in. the part of michael corleone is sort of built. it's constructed in a way that it starts from almost a shadow that turns into this presence. that is the way i thought of finally getting to that so by the time you see him at the end, he's kind of an enigma. that is part of the power of him, because we don't know where he came from. it has that feeling to him almost mythic. charlie: does that make you like godfather ii better than i? al: i like them both. i has the story. it's the original. it's a great story. ii has francis's story. he talks about himself in that movie in a way. a lot of him is in it. a lot of his personal feelings he gets out about himself. that is what gives it that power. charlie: i always wanted to ask you this. brando became interested in the show and would watch it all the time.

he would call me up and write me notes and he would call himself "bran flakes." al: i heard about that. charlie: what was his gift? al: to define it. the genius of character. that's all i can say. he did cross that line where he had great beauty as a movie star and he was a character actor one of the few. you had paul muni before, a great character actor, but never did you have a movie star. the great movie stars, the great actors, including gary cooper, cary grant. marlon was a character actor. that means that he plays roles that were different from each other. very distinctly different from each other. charlie: how have you managed to

be a star to this day and not play character roles as much as you play stars? you are at the center of these two films. al: again, i go by what i'm feeling. charlie: is it box office? you tell me. al: i think it's always been -- some movies i have made, they are character-driven. different characters that i play. i don't know. it is a mystery to me. it really is. it is a mystery that i'm here talking to you and i'm still doing this thing. i started early, too, as an actor. i was in a play in the new york, and i got an award for that year. it faye dunaway who saw me in

this and told the great producer marty bergman. that play, there was something in that play. it's hard. it is a beautiful play. john lasalle was in it, too. and i had been acting maybe 10 years before that. i was quite young, my mid-20's. it started this along. i did feel, oddly enough, as an explorer in my work in a way experimenting and trying to learn more about the classics and myself. i got a lot of joy out of that. i was at a place in the actor's gallery down in soho which no one could even find in those days. and then to be lauded in a way suddenly, everything upped the

stakes. the star thing came in. the title came in. somehow i was trying to preserve something. i thought i understood earlier on because i then found myself in another world. i liked. i thought it was a good thing. i still think it was a good thing. it was a lucky thing. things happen that way. there was a -- maybe something happened that was a new kind of person. it was not comparable to things other people were seeing. they came out of the 1960's, came out of this time in america where people like me were given an opportunity or whatever. i don't know. it was a combination of things.

i remember one time, i did a scene one time, charlie, we had this scene in the studio. i will never forget this because i saw him on his deathbed, and i said, charlie, remember the time when they were doing this big thing and i was one of the seams in the school and every teacher brought their student that they wanted to show how they were doing there. i went into this thing and i did this scene. i said, remember when i came to see you, charlie, grabbed me and said, good stuff. good stuff. and the teacher got up. and went crazy against me. they thought it was the worst. it was like, who do you think you are? luther adler? you come up here and do this. what is this about?

i told charlie in the hospital in the hospital, do you remember that time? he said, yeah. what was that? why did he get so upset? he said, he saw a new era. i thought that, in some way, i think it's very dramatic to hear that when charlie says, i don't know if it true. but i do know it was interesting because that was happening. it happens today something comes along and you get used to it. in the old days, actors have to pronounce things a certain way. to be seen in the audience. i don't mean to compare myself to people. i was always reading books about actors. and edwin came at a time when he came from a whole other climate.

a whole other world. there is something about the roles i played in this situation and the times we are in and i got lucky. and it's been this thing all my life. everybody says it, but it's true. i remember saying wants to someone, we are all together and actors. at the same time, you're doing so well. all this stuff, you wanted it.

i said, you you wanted it, i think i had to have it. charlie: oh, wow. as i remember this guy saying to me, you are doing so well. he was a few years into it. what is it? why you? why not me? i always wanted this. i want this stuff. that you have. i said, yeah. you want it. i think i had to have it. charlie: oh, wow. had to have it. al: that's an interesting distinction. one doesn't know. charlie: you had to have it. al: believe it or not, i could tell. i knew at some point, this was my time. i never to it would -- i never knew it would turn into this naturally. i knew it was my time that i would be seen. enough had happened and this part in this play -- you know, i went up to boston, i did three plays for repertory.

i went to do a part in a play. i got up and did it. they said you were going to be great in it. it was not good at all. as a matter of fact, i remember i was in the dressing room. somebody came down. i heard it on the speaker. my entrance was coming up. and this guy in the dressing room was really excited by this review of the play we were doing. i said, what is that? he tried to cover it. why is he covering it? i said, can i see that can i see that? he said, yeah, here. he pushed it over to me. i looked at it and it was a great review. this person, that person, how great. with one exception. [laughter] it was al pacino in the role, it was terrible. as i was reading it, my cue came on and i had to go on stage. i had to perform after reading that in the play he was criticizing. but i laughed. i think at a certain time the ability to look at something like that and laugh, it might have helped me a little bit.

i don't know. it hurt. another part that i did not want to do i was ok in. it was always the question of, what do we do? you walk along the street, you see a certain tree. you either take a picture or you get the canvas out or you painted. you never know what is going to happen when you read a script. and with actors, if you don't try it, you are not going to know. what happens is if you start to censor yourself, i think when you start to censor yourself a gets a little -- because we don't know. charlie: you have been willing to take risks. al: yeah. charlie: thank you for coming. al: great talking to you charlie. charlie: "the humbling" and "danny collins," two really

remarkable profiles of actors, one a singer and the other a theater actor. looking at their own life and what they might have missed and where they might go. thank you for joining us. see you next time. ♪

>> on that friday evening, something magical happened. >> it all starts right now.