“Please Don't Let Me Win”: Al Pacino Shares Funny Oscar Memory – Movie News

There are situations in which it is sometimes better not to win an Oscar: this was the case for the legendary Al Pacino in 1974 for his performance in Sidney Lumet's Serpico. He had his reasons, rather amusing, which he finally shared in a 2018 interview with Playboy.

Warning, prepare yourself for a hilarious story full of twists and turns.

“I was at the Oscars once, for Serpico. It was the second time I was nominated. I was sitting in the third or fourth row with Diane Keaton. Jeff Bridges was there with his girlfriend. Nobody expected me to come. I was kind of wasted. Someone had done something to my hair, messed it up or something, and I looked like I had a bird's nest on my head, a real disaster.“, he said. That's a good start…

He continued: “I sat there and tried to act indifferent because I was so nervous. Whenever I'm nervous, I try to act indifferent or cold. At one point, I turned to Jeff Bridges and said, 'Hey, it looks like we're not going to make it to the Oscar for Best Actor.' He gave me a strange look. He said, 'Oh, really?' I said, 'It's over, the hour's up.' He said, 'It's three hours long.' I thought it was an hour-long TV show, can you imagine? And I had to pee, really.”

Columbia Pictures

A “calming” solution

Al Pacino then resorted to a most calming method – or almost.

“So I took Valium. I was actually eating Valium like it was candy. I was chewing it. Finally, the Best Actor award came. Can you imagine the state I was in? I couldn't have gone on stage. I was praying, 'Please don't let this happen to me. Please.' And I heard…'Jack Lemmon'. I was so happy that I didn't have to get up, because I would never have made it.”

This is a story that we will not soon forget. Although he prayed not to win, his performance would have deserved the coveted prize – just as much as that of the other competitors and the winner, a performance to be watched again and again.

Serpico is to be rediscovered on VOD.