The Al Pacino Show Part Two

The SIMONE star talks synthetic actors, playing a director, and being Harrison Ford

By P. MACDOUGAL     August 23, 2002

Al Pacino's new comedy SIMONE features the legendary actor as Viktor Taransky, a Hollywood filmmaker who creates a computer generated actress called Simone (Rachel Roberts). Simone quickly shoots to superstardom, but Taransky soon finds that his creation has become more important than himself in the fickle world of Hollywood. Today Pacino continues his talk about the film.

As an actor who has worked with a variety of directors over the years, Pacino found his past experience useful when he took on the role of a director for SIMONE. He admits that he called upon some of his former helmers' traits in order to play Taransky.



"I would think that has a kind of a subliminal [effect]," he says. "It is there somewhere in my own consciousness because I have come in contact with it so much. I tried to think of a couple of people that it could be based on, not that I acted like them, but I think my character has got a little bit of a John Cassavetes [quality]. He is a mixture, he is a bit conflicted, he wants to do these movies yet he makes movies that are so esoteric and strange and romantic and odd really, eccentric films."

On the topic of eccentricity, Pacino explains that working with the so-called synthetic actress in SIMONE was a unique experience. As an actor who generally does not do visual effects films, he found the process to be quite unusualthough perhaps not as difficult as working with some real-life actors.

"It was very difficult," he laughs. "[Synthetic actors] are very difficult, you know. It makes you feel synthetic yourself! What is it like working with synthetic? It is funny because we know what it is like with [actor] feedback and the feedback is such a major part of working, especially the way I work. It is a give and take, but I have worked with some actors who if you hit the ball over the net, if you don't hit it at the spot exactly where they want it they throw the ball back at you and say, 'Do it again.' But with a synthetic actor you can't improvise as much. But that is O.K. and my character is really working with a synthetic actor; she really is in the picture. If I was doing a movie where she wasn't supposed to be a synthetic actor, then it would be unclear, but because she is not supposed to be there, it suits the character to be that way."



As portrayed in the film, the synthetic character of Simone is irresistible to audiences and the mass public. This, of course, leads to her huge success as a superstar and to Taransky's downfall as his creation becomes too powerful for him to control. Pacino says that Simone's appeal isn't just limited to her adoring fans thoughthe Taransky character also finds her irresistible.

"She is irresistible for the audience differently than she is for Taransky," he says, and then adds with a laugh, "Do you think we should do a sequel, she goes into politics? What the audience feels about her being irresistible and what they feel in terms of why they are watching it, what they endow her with, perhaps that is what [the film is about]. It talks about what we endow Simone with, what we expect of her and she fulfills it."

In terms of real-life stardom of the non-computer generated kind, Pacino has his own thoughts on the modern Hollywood star-making machine.



"You know, you have a whole area of television where you have a lot of people working and I think it is the same always in movies," he says. "Movies have always been the sameI don't think movies have changed in terms of stars in movies. What has changed is that television actors become movie stars because television becomes a training ground for them whereas in the olden days, theater was the training ground for the potential stars. That is where actors went but today they go to television first and get their training in terms of getting scripts and understanding the media because television is filmed too, and you are dealing with the frame. They act for it and they go to classes for that that direct them in that way so they are prepared to do movies more than they are to do stage. I think what has happened is there are less actors on stage doing stage work. That is the big change because television has become a kind of a stepping-stone for film. John Travolta, way back, he started out on a television show. Steve McQueen did it, Clint Eastwood did it, so it has always been, but television has grown."

Still, no matter how famous a star isor thinks he isthere's always a certain fan base that just can't tell their movie icons apart. Pacino recalls one actor in particular who he always used to be mistaken for.

"I was recognized, 'Harrison, Harrison,'" he laughs. "'I am not Harrison Ford! Do I look like a Harrison to you?' That was awful!"

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