Money “was a language I just didn’t speak”

Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino didn’t get into acting for the money.

When the now 84-year-old began amassing millions from his roles in notable films like “The Godfather” and “Scarface,” he didn’t have a clear idea of ​​where he was going, he writes in his new memoir, “Sonny Boy.”

“I didn’t understand how money worked, just like I didn’t understand how a career worked,” he writes. “It was a language I just didn’t speak.”

But from paying his landscaper $400,000 a year to maintain a house he didn’t live in to unknowingly paying for 16 cars and 23 cell phones, his finances spiraled out of control.

“The type of money I spent and where it went was just a crazy loss montage,” he says. “The door was wide open and people I didn’t know were living off me.”

However, Pacino’s inexperience was not the only factor contributing to his financial problems. Eventually he learned that his accountant had mismanaged his funds so badly that he was broke. “I had $50 million and then I had nothing,” he writes.

At the time, Pacino was in his 70s and didn’t believe he could make as much money acting as he had at the peak of his career.

Before he went broke, he preferred playing characters he could relate to, regardless of how much money he could make from taking on the role. But after his resources ran out, he began taking whatever acting roles he could get.

“‘Jack and Jill’ was the first movie I made after I lost my money,” Pacino says. “Honestly, I did it because I had nothing else.” He also starred in “some really bad movies that go unmentioned just because of the money.”

However, Pacino found a way to turn something he already loved into a way to make money: hosting seminars.

Pacino recalled visiting colleges and universities in the early 2000s to talk to students about his career and his favorite books and playwrights. Eventually he decided to also hold seminars for the public and found that the pay was good enough to get him through the month.

“So I started traveling around. And I found that they worked,” he writes. “The audience came because I was still popular.”

Ultimately, Pacino says, he always had faith that he could pull himself together and “never gave in to despair” from the financial roller coaster ride he experienced.

“You have this expression: ‘You can’t look back,'” he writes. “Well, I look back and I love it. I love what I see. I love that I existed.”

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