Al Pacino detailed an “embarrassing” moment from his childhood that resulted in “trauma” to his penis.
“I was walking on a thin, iron fence, doing my tightrope dance,” Pacino, 84, wrote in his Sonny Boy memoir, which was released on Tuesday, October 15. “It had been raining all morning, and sure enough, I slipped and fell, and the iron bar hit me directly between my legs.”
The actor recalled being “in such pain” and couldn’t walk home.
“An older guy saw me groaning in the street, picked me up, and carried me,” Pacino continued. A doctor made a house call to come see him.
“I lay there on the bed, with my pants completely down around my ankles as the three women in my life — my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother — poked and prodded at my penis in a semi panic,” he wrote. “I thought, ‘God, please take me now,’ as I heard them whispering things to one another as they conducted their inspection.”
While he’s still “haunted by the thought” of the injury, his penis “remained attached.”
Pacino detailed his childhood in the book, explaining that he “seemed to cheat death on a regular basis” — with this injury being one example.
“I was like a cat with many more than nine lives,” the actor wrote. “I had more mishaps and accidents than I can count.”
Prior to the book’s release, Pacino told People that writing a memoir “was due” as he gears up to turn 85.
“When you get there and you start experiencing age, you understand why they do put things down,” he said in the interview, published earlier this month. “At least according to me, I’ve had quite a big life.”
Pacino grew up in New York City and started his acting career in the theater. Things changed for his career when the actor was cast as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, which premiered in 1972.
During his People interview, Pacino recalled other Hollywood executives not wanting to cast him — but The Godfather’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, did.
“That was old Hollywood, or least the old Hollywood I came from,” he told the publication. “But Francis wanted me so much.”
After The Godfather made him famous, Pacino wrote that he was offered many roles, some of which he didn’t want (and didn’t take).
“The Godfather followed me everywhere I went and overshadowed everything I did. I was shy about it, and the world wouldn’t let me be shy,” he wrote. “I was absolutely confounded by all the commotion. After The Godfather, they would have let me play anything. They offered me the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.”
Pacino turned down the role — which ultimately went to Harrison Ford — after realizing that he couldn’t “make anything” of it. “So I didn’t do it.”
