Francis Ford Coppola confronted the star about his performance in an upmarket Manhattan restaurant, telling him to look back on his acting so far.

Al Pacino suffered an ankle injury on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” and admits in his new memoir to feeling relieved that it might get him fired. At the time, the studio was still questioning whether Pacino was the right fit for mobster Michael Corleone,

In his new memoir 'Sonny Boy', Al Pacino reflected on his breakthrough role in Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather' (1972).

They had been filming for about a week and a half and word got around that Paramount was unhappy with Pacino’s performance, the actor recalls in his memoir, “Sonny Boy.”

Pacino also recalls how he initially struggled on the iconic Francis Ford Coppola film and even received some pressure from the director.

Al Pacino could never have predicted that his performance in The Godfather would be his breakout role. Pacino, who recalls receiving the role of Michael Corleone directly from director Francis Ford Coppola over the phone as “a hundered-million-to-one-shot” in his memoir Sonny Boy,

The Godfather trilogy would have turned out differently if another actor was cast as a main character in the film.

While he went on to draw rave reviews and earn an Oscar nomination for his role in the film, Pacino recalled the negative response to his work after the first few scenes had been filmed. In an extract from his new memoir Sonny Boy published in The Guardian,

Al Pacino has revealed how he was so desperate to get out of his role in The Godfather that he hoped he had broken his ankle while filming the movie