Al Pacino has revealed in his newly released memoir, Sonny Boy, that he was once kidnapped by a fan when he was drunk.
The 84-year-old actor has made several startling revelations in his new book and has now revealed that he was kidnapped early in his career.
The Scarfact icon revealed that he was once out drinking with Gene Hackman’s brother Richard Hackman ‘somewhere in our cross-country journey’ when he ‘got so drunk that I could not find my way home.’
Thankfully someone came to his aid as he recalled: ‘A woman said to me, “Oh, I’ll drive you home.” And without a second thought, I got into her car with her.’
‘But as we drove, even in my daze, I could recognize that she was not taking me back to where I was staying,’ Pacino revealed in his book.
‘I said to her, “What is going on here?” And she said straight out, “I’m kidnapping you.”‘
The actor said that he was ‘was well-known’ at the time because of The Godfather but insisted the woman’s behaviour was not just ‘some aggressive flirtation.’
‘I am from the South Bronx. When I see some crazy person trying to do something to me, I know how to escape,’ he wrote.
‘I said, “No, you’re not. I’m getting out.” She said, “No, no,” and she kept driving.’
‘I opened the door as if to jump out of the car,’ he wrote. ‘I was a little drunk, but I was ready to leap from a moving car if I had to. This ain’t happening to me, man.’
Thankfully the gesture was enough to deter his kidnapper. ‘She closed the door and took me home,’ he revealed.
The actor revealed in the same book that was released on October 15 that he is ‘still haunted’ by a childhood injury to his penis.
In an extract, he described the eye-watering injury which occurred when an iron fence hit him ‘between the legs’.
‘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.’ He then recalled the traumatic recovery that he still thinks of.
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 in 2011 he began ‘to get warnings that my accountant at the time, a guy who had lots of celebrity clients, was not to be trusted.’
He revealed that he then took on a role in Adam Sandler’s film Jack and Jill because of his financial troubles.
‘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.’
He admitted that although his finances are back on track, he now ‘has to think very seriously about my estate now.’Adding: ‘That means I have to get advice from people who are way smarter than me.’