Oscar winner and superstar Al Pacino has published his memoir today called “Sonny Boy.” T To a point he’s pretty candid about everything in his life, including his great loves.
Certainly, a major one was Diane Keaton, who he starred with in “The Godfather” movies. Their relationship was a major one although it did end in discord when Keaton discovered Pacino was having a child with a woman who worked for him.
Here’s what Pacino writes:
“I have always liked women, but from the time I was very young, I have been shy around them. I don’t woo them. I don’t pursue them. Women either respond to you or they don’t, and if they don’t make the first move toward me, I am a bit reluctant to try again. But with Diane this time things were different. We always had a connection. She understood my read on things, and it felt comforting to have someone who got me. So I went after her. We hung out together, and after a couple of months we decided to get together. We found a tempo and a temperature that was right.
“Diane was working very consistently at the time, making movies that were highly commercial. When she starred in Baby Boom, it was a big hit for her. Having a partner who was more successful than me didn’t faze me or intimidate me. I wasn’t particularly motivated to get back into the game or change my approach to my own work. I just wished Diane joy in her work, which she had. She’d go off and make a film for a few weeks; I’d stay home and do a reading of a play. I knew what an artist she was, and I admired all the different ways she applied her talents as an actor, a singer, a writer, and a photographer. She used to tease me affectionately and call me “a lazy eye-tie,”—a corny old insult for Italians—which would just make me laugh.”
“Diane had a house in California which I enjoyed. I’d go in and out as my sleepy, weepy self, and I was doing fine. Perhaps that’s what I was meant to be, a backward glance to what my life was before I was known, when I would spend it reading and thinking, walking and talking. In New York, I could stroll through Central Park as I did regularly, and I found as time went on, people looked at me less and less. That took some getting used to, but there was something about it that gave me peace.
“Being with Diane had a lot to do with my sense of peace and comfort. I had found that kind of comfort that makes you feel and think with the world. I enjoyed the ability to continue this experimental journey, free from the pressures of having to fulfill anyone’s expectations but my own, if I wanted to. But I wouldn’t have a choice in the matter for much longer.”
“Sonny Boy” is a fascinating read from one of our greatest artists!
