Al Pacino recalls how he ‘didn’t get fired’ from ‘The Godfather’: ‘Paramount didn’t want me’

In his new memoir “Sonny Boy,” out now, the Oscar winner recalls that Paramount “wondered if I was the right actor” to play Michael Corleone in the film adaptation of Mario Puzo’s book, and how he was ultimately able to prove himself.

“Paramount didn’t want me to play Michael Corleone,” he wrote in an excerpt shared by The Guardian. “They wanted Jack Nicholson. They wanted Robert Redford. They wanted Warren Beatty or Ryan O’Neal. In the book, Puzo Michael called himself “the wimp of the Corleone family.” He should be short, dark-haired, handsome in a delicate way, and pose no visible threat to anyone. That didn’t sound like the people the studio wanted. But that didn’t mean it had to be me.