"Hath Not a Jew Eyes?"

“I never had a desire to do The Merchant of Venice,” Al Pacino told us. We were sitting with the actor in a New York hotel just a few weeks before the much-anticipated opening of Michael Radford’s film version of Shakespeare’s play, in which Pacino has the challenging role of Shylock. “I couldn’t quite see the character,” Big Al continued. “I had no relationship to it. Then I read the script, Michael Radford’s text, and I thought he made the case for Shylock.” Pacino leaned forward and cocked his head to one side. “I thought I understood where Shylock was coming from. I was able to see the elements of the character — the human elements — and I started understanding the motivation. And that was the point for me. I thought I could play this.”

Oh, does he play Shylock, holding the film firmly in his grip as a sterling cast that includes Jeremy Irons as Antonio, Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio, and newcomer Lynn Collins as Portia circles around his deeply human performance. Radford, an English director who came to international prominence with his Italian film Il Postino (The Postman), has never before directed Shakespeare on stage nor on film. He came to the Bard fresh, wanting only to make a good movie out of The Merchant of Venice. He began by cutting the text down to two hours and giving the players an opportunity to find their way into their characters with a four-week rehearsal period in New York.

“He [Radford] didn’t know what the hell we were doing when we met for rehearsal,” Pacino said with a laugh. “We were all trying to figure out who the hell we were and what was going on.” When we spoke with Jeremy Irons and Lynn Collins, they told the same story of Radford’s reaction to their rehearsal process. For that matter, so did Radford: He told us that he was horrified by their choices and demanded, “‘Is this the way you’re going to do it!?'” Pacino shrugged and told him, “‘No we’re just working on it now. Don’t worry about it'” That reassurance worked. Though Radford admitted being terrified during the entire month of rehearsals, he didn’t interfere with the actors’ process — and they definitely needed those four weeks. “You can’t really talk to someone else in that language if you haven’t found a way in and out of it,” Pacino explained. “Most of the time you’re just doing what we always do, which I guess is called research. It can’t hurt you. But as much as you research, you can’t act research. You have to act something else. But the research gives you something — some confidence, something like that.”

When the research and rehearsals were through, the cast took off for Venice to begin filming. It was there that Radford took a more hands-on approach to their performances. The best example is Shylock’s great speech in defense of the Jews, which begins: “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” “It’s one of the great speeches against prejudice,” Pacino said. “Of course, it’s wonderful to get a speech like that, and you really want to give it the old gun. You want to be Mr. Righteous. But Michael kept moving me away from that. He kept saying, ‘This is something inside of Shylock. It’s an outcry. It’s just something that happens in a moment on the street.'” Pacino stared at us and continued: “I’m sure it’s happened to you — when you just want to say, you know, ‘Fuck off!’ Enough has happened to [Shylock] in his life. He’s earned the right to speak out like that. He does it in an instant, and it’s over. He’s actually spewing out something quite elegant. I only wish that I could talk about things that bother me like that! I like the way Michael Radford allowed it to happen. I think I did about seven takes on that speech.”

The central figure of The Merchant of Venice is not the merchant, Antonio; the tragedy is Shylock’s. When we asked if the real tragedy for Shylock is that he’s living in the wrong age, Pacino smiled sadly and said, “Yeah, I think so. But, his tragedy is also how he dealt with his conditions. As Michael Radford says, it’s really like road rage. Shylock reacts as he does because he feels he’s being violated by the conditions of his life. I remember talking about that scene when Shylock first asks for the pound of flesh. What Shylock is really doing there is taking a risk. He doesn’t think all of Antonio’s ships will go down; it’s a kind of gesture and a way of standing up to his oppressor.”

Ever since Pacino made Looking For Richard — a documentary film about acting, actors, and Shakespeare, as well as a meditation on Richard III, a play in which he has starred on stage — it’s been assumed by many that he’s nuts for the Bard. “I think there’s a myth here with me and Shakespeare, like I’m piped into Shakespeare,” he acknowledged. “I’m not — believe me. I like him the way other people do. I love his work, but I’m not here to be a representative and to present Shakespeare to the world. He doesn’t need me, frankly. He doesn’t need anyone. He’s going to do fine. I’m not worried about Shakespeare.”

When pressed further on the subject, Pacino made it clear that one should not judge actors on whether or not they can speak the Bard’s lines. “It’s not like you’re going to be a big-time actor if you do Shakespeare,” he said pointedly. “It’s something that either appeals to you or it doesn’t.” Obviously, Shakespeare appeals to Pacino. “I was very inspired when I was a kid and I saw Brando do Julius Caesar,” he told us. “It was just wonderful, what he did. Then I found that I wanted to do Romeo and Juliet, so I did scenes from that in school. I loved the language and the fact that it sort of transcended my world, transcended naturalism, and gave me a chance to go a little further emotionally with things at the time.”

Is there more Shakespeare in his future? “There’s a couple of movies I was offered,” he confided. “King Lear, for one, and The Scottish Play. These are two possibilities for me down the line.” If he does either or both of them, chances are that Michael Radford will be at the helm. “I really admire his way of breaking down the script and turning it into a movie,” said Pacino, who was also generous in talking about his Merchant of Venice co-star Jeremy Irons: “Well to start off, I’ll just say that I love him,” he said with a broad smile. “I love the fact that he’s so many things. He’s so funny and great. I just love working with him. You rarely want to work with someone again,” Pacino remarked intriguingly, “but I really would be happy to work with him again. He is truly an artist and he is really witty. He’s a little nuts, too.”

“Are you a little nuts?” was our final question to Al Pacino. (It just popped out.) “Well, come on,” he replied. “Do you have to ask?”

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[The Merchant of Venice opens on December 29]