HBO is preparing room on its Emmy shelf for more recognition, or ought to, considering its two big name star turns on headline-making celebrity cases. One of them is David Mamet’s version of the Phil Spector murder trial, with Al Pacino in the lead role, with a wild look in his eye and from under a variety of increasingly shocking wigs.
For Pacino, it’s the latest in what has been an astonishing range of performances for HBO alone, from Jack Kevorkian to Roy Cohn.
Pacino, speaking on the first day of the winter TV critics’ press tour, via satellite from New York, where he was performing another Mamet work, the hit revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross,” said he was familiar with the case of the case involving the leading producers of rock ‘n’ roll.
“Not extensively,” he said, “but I did know it was out there. And it was bizarre and seemed very strange.
“But it wasn’t until I did the role, of course, that I learned much more about it,” he added.
The benefit of the modern era, with its proliferation of clips via internet available at your fingertips, was a luxury, Pacino said.
“It’s helpful to an actor,” he said. “I would sit for hours just looking at Phil talking about things. And this was after mainly after during the first trial.”
The idea is not exact replication. “ I think that you walk that line of trying not to do the exact mimic of the person, but rather to find — and David’s play helps you — find the internal subtext of a character.
“And what was so interesting to me was, as I kept watching Spector, I started I was waiting for that moment where I could start to feel him in some way inside, to feel that the subtext.
“It’s a strange kind of mimicry because it’s not obviously you know, there are actors who are really gifted at capturing the tone of voice and the gestures really brilliantly. And I admire them greatly. And I try to do that a little bit. It’s hopefully it’s it’s an asset. It helps you.
“It’s just that you eventually want to get you want to do both,” he said. “You know, you want to get to the subtext and the the inner and the outer. And I think that’s what I at least that’s what I try to do. I try to see if they can cross over and, in doing so, find my own expression. And then you know you’re onto something, and it’s got at least has a certain value to yourself.”
“Phil Spector” also starring Helen Mirren as his lawyer in the first trial, debuts in the spring on HBO, no date has been set.
“But it wasn’t until I did the role, of course, that I learned much more about it,” he added.
The benefit of the modern era, with its proliferation of clips via internet available at your fingertips, was a luxury, Pacino said.
“It’s helpful to an actor,” he said. “I would sit for hours just looking at Phil talking about things. And this was after mainly after during the first trial.”
The idea is not exact replication. “ I think that you walk that line of trying not to do the exact mimic of the person, but rather to find — and David’s play helps you — find the internal subtext of a character.
“And what was so interesting to me was, as I kept watching Spector, I started I was waiting for that moment where I could start to feel him in some way inside, to feel that the subtext.
“It’s a strange kind of mimicry because it’s not obviously you know, there are actors who are really gifted at capturing the tone of voice and the gestures really brilliantly. And I admire them greatly. And I try to do that a little bit. It’s hopefully it’s it’s an asset. It helps you.
“It’s just that you eventually want to get you want to do both,” he said. “You know, you want to get to the subtext and the the inner and the outer. And I think that’s what I at least that’s what I try to do. I try to see if they can cross over and, in doing so, find my own expression. And then you know you’re onto something, and it’s got at least has a certain value to yourself.”
“Phil Spector” also starring Helen Mirren as his lawyer in the first trial, debuts in the spring on HBO, no date has been set.