Al Pacino thanks hip-hop for making ‘Scarface’ successful
Hollywood star Al Pacino has thanked the hip-hop community for their role in making Brian De Palma’s Scarface a successful movie.
The 1983 film starred Pacino as the cocaine kingpin, Tony Montana, who arrived in Miami from Cuba with dreams of taking over the city’s drug trade. Montana managed to achieve the mission he set himself upon landing in America, but it also came with grave consequences that turned his life into a paranoid mess.
While the movie is now considered to be one of the defining motion pictures of the 1980s, it wasn’t always the case. Initially, it garnered a negative response from audiences who couldn’t connect with the narrative shown in Scarface, and the anti-hero, Montana, also failed to strike a cord with those watching in cinemas.
However, time proved beneficial to Scarface, and it’s now widely accepted to be one of the finest movies ever produced as well as a defining role in Pacino’s career.
Reflecting on a new episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Pacino shared his shock at the initial reaction of audiences, explaining, “I was surprised that it had that reaction. The audiences liked it. Took a while.”
On the other hand, the hip-hop community immediately took Scarface to their hearts, and resonated with Montana. At the time, the genre was firmly on the rise which coincided with Scarface finally becoming accepted as a high-point of cinema. Notably, the rapper Scarface took his stage name from the movie, and plentiful more hip-hop figures allowed their personas to be shaped by Montana.
Pacino added: “Hip-hop just got it. They understood it. They embraced it, the rappers. And then the next thing you know, VHS is going out and more people are seeing it. Plus, we’re on the records, these rappers. And then it just carried and it kept going and going.”
Reflecting further on his own performance in the movie, Pacino said he was incredibly invested in the story, admitting, “I don’t know what the hell was the matter with me.”
Furthermore, the legendary actor explained that he’s “never been that committed to a role” in his career before or since Scarface.
Pacino also used the podcast as a platform to dispel any comparisons between him and Montana, maintaining that he’s never consumed cocaine, stating, “Nobody believes me. I’ll say it anyway. It is the truth. I’ve never had coke in my life. I was all about something that was gonna depress this energy of mine. I needed the calm.”