Al Pacino has shared a painful story that leaves him ‘squeamish’ even now.
The Scarface actor, 84, shared a horrifying anecdote in his new memoir Sonny Boy in which he detailed a childhood injury to his penis that left him ‘still haunted’ decades on.
The Godfather star said he was around 10 years old when it happened, and it was ‘one of the most embarrassing experiences of his life.’
Speaking about his upbringing in the book’s first chapter, Pacino admitted he ‘seemed to cheat death on a regular basis.’
‘I was like a cat with many more than nine lives. I had more mishaps and accidents than I can count.’
In the extract (per People), he described the eye-watering injury which occurred when an iron fence hit him between the legs.
He recalled: ‘I was walking on a thin, iron fence, doing my tightrope dance. It had been raining all morning, and sure enough, I slipped and fell, and the iron bar hit me directly between my legs.’
The Heat actor said he was ‘in such pain he could hardly walk home’, and that an ‘older guy’ saw him struggling and ‘carried him’ to an aunt’s apartment.
‘I lay there on the bed, with my pants completely down around my ankles as the three women in my life — my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother — poked and prodded at my penis in a semi-panic,’ he continued, as he recalled waiting for a doctor to make a house visit.
‘I thought, God, please take me now, as I heard them whispering things to one another as they conducted their inspection.’
Elsewhere in the book, the Hollywood icon revealed he was flat ‘broke’ at one point in his career after working with a corrupt accountant.
He said he first realised he was in trouble in 2011 after he started ‘to get warnings that my accountant at the time, a guy who had lots of celebrity clients, was not to be trusted.’
Then renting an extravagant Beverly Hills home, taking friends and family on a European trip, and spending money the average person could only dream of, he quickly realised upon returning home from his vacation, that his finances still looked the same.
Pacino had unknowingly been working with a corrupt accountant, which resulted in a loss of $50million (£38.4m).
‘The big paydays that I was used to just weren’t coming around anymore. The pendulum had swung, and I found it harder to find parts for myself,’ he continued.
‘Jack and Jill was the first film I made after I lost my money. To be honest, I did it because I didn’t have anything else,’ he wrote. ‘Adam Sandler wanted me, and they paid me a lot for it. So I went out and did it, and it helped. I love Adam, he was wonderful to work with and has become a dear friend. He also just happens to be a great actor and a hell of a guy.’
While it seems the actor’s finances are back on track, he admitted that he ‘has to think very seriously about my estate now. That means I have to get advice from people who are way smarter than me.’
The actor also recently spoke about another more recent health issue, in which he claimed his ‘pulse stopped’ in a medical emergency which almost killed him.
‘I sometimes think, Why can’t I find some steroids that won’t kill me? I took some when I had bad Covid,’ he said.
Recalling the terrifying medical emergency, he told The New York Times: ‘They said my pulse was gone. It was so — you’re here, you’re not.
‘I thought: “Wow, you don’t even have your memories. You have nothing. Strange porridge.”’