Movies - TV
An Iconic Dog Day Afternoon Moment Was Totally Improvised By Al Pacino
By JEREMY SMITH
The full range of Al Pacino's genius was on display in the early ‘70s with performances in iconic movies like “Panic in Needle Park,” “The Godfather,” and “Serpico.”
But his thrilling and improvisatory performance in “Dog Day Afternoon’s” famous “Attica” scene brought out Pacino's boundless gift for invention.
In a fascinating, career-spanning interview with New York Magazine's David Edelstein from 2018, Pacino revealed that his “Attica, Attica” outburst was an in-the-moment ad-lib.
Pacino revealed this out-of-nowhere bit of movie magic only happened because a clever AD got in Pacino's ear before he walked out in front of the cameras.
Pacino said, “[The AD] says, 'Say 'Attica.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'Go ahead. Say it to the crowd out there. 'Attica.' Go ahead.’”
Pacino added, “Cameras are rolling, and I looked around, and I just said, 'Hey, you know, Attica, right?’” The rest as we all know is movie-making history.