Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino has announced the release of an "astonishingly revelatory" memoir ‘Sonny Boy’ after his rather anticlimactic performance at this year's Oscars.
ADVERTISEMENTAside from giving us a strangely underwhelming finale at the Oscars on Sunday / Monday morning, Al Pacino has made amends by announcing the release of his “astonishingly revelatory” memoir.
For those of you who missed it, Pacino took to the stage at the 96th edition of the Academy Awards to announce the top prize of the evening: Best Film – which ended up going to Oppenheimer.
The veteran actor, 83, abruptly announced the winner without first listing the nominees, as is customary. He mumbled "my eyes see 'Oppenheimer'," leaving everyone momentarily disorientated as to whether the film had won, and leading to a quite anticlimactic final note to a predictable-if-excellent evening.
"It was not my intention to omit them," Pacino said in a statement, adding that it was "a choice by the producers not to have (the nominees) said again since they were highlighted individually throughout the ceremony".
"I realise being nominated is a huge milestone in one's life and to not be fully recognised is offensive and hurtful," Pacino said. "I say this as someone who profoundly relates with film-makers, actors and producers so I deeply empathise with those who have been slighted by this oversight and it's why I felt it necessary to make this statement."
After the ceremony ended, host Jimmy Kimmel said of Pacino’s presentation: “I guess he’s never watched an awards show before. It seems like everyone in America knows the rhythm of how it’s supposed to go ‘And the Oscar goes to …’ But not Al Pacino! God bless him.”
Bless him, indeed. All is forgiven, Al. Especially since the nine-time acting nominee – who has only won the Oscar for Best Actor for 1992’s Scent of a Woman - announced his memoir after the ceremony.
The highly anticipated book, "Sonny Boy", has been described as “astonishingly revelatory” and will be published by Penguin Random House.
The “memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide” will cover the actor’s childhood in New York, his upbringing with his “fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents”, and his time at New York’s High School of Performing Arts. It will also delve into his work in New York’s avant garde theatre scene in the 1960s and 70s before his major movie break with The Panic of Needle Park, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon.
A press statement elaborated further: “The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions – the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.”
Speaking of "Sonny Boy" in a press release, Pacino shared: “I wrote Sonny Boy to express what I’ve seen and been through in my life. It has been an incredibly personal and revealing experience to reflect on this journey and what acting has allowed me to do and the worlds it has opened up. My whole life has been a moonshot, and I’ve been a pretty lucky guy so far.”
"Sonny Boy", which has been years in the making, is set for release on 8 October.
