Did Al Pacino Refuse To Work With Keanu Reeves Unless He Took A Significantly Lower Salary Than Him?
Highlights
- Keanu Reeves took a $2 million pay lower to work with Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate, showing his dedication to the project.
- The movie to begin with had Brad Pitt in the lead position, however he and director Joel Schumacher decided in opposition to it due to script problems.
- Despite rumors of Reeves struggling with his lines on set, he had a implausible revel in working with Pacino, elevating his recreation within the procedure.
With over a dozen films in his extensive film repertoire raking in over $100 million each on the field administrative center, Keanu Reeves' bankability as a film star hasn't ever in point of fact been up for debate. However, in contrast to maximum, Reeves is not precisely losing sleep over his colossal earnings. From generously donating to charity, to diving into indie tasks, and turning down multi-million-dollar film projects, the 58-year-old has demonstrated over and over just how little is eye-watering $350 million internet value fazes him.
So, it was once infrequently a shocker when stories surfaced that Reeves, hell-bent on sharing the display screen with Hollywood legend Al Pacino, determined to hack off a whopping $2 million from his Devil's Advocate paycheck. While each Reeves and Pacino have stored mum about this intriguing move, there's nonetheless one lingering query that remains unanswered: Did Reeves take the large pay cut willingly, or did he find himself cornered by means of Pacino's hefty salary calls for?
Keanu Reeves And Al Pacino Starred In The 1997 Film Devil’s Advocate
Based on Andrew Neiderman's gripping novel of the same title, Devil's Advocate intricately weaves the story of a successful younger lawyer who rapidly snags a job at a major New York City legislation company, only to uncover that the company's bigwig is Satan. Released in October 1997, the supernatural horror flick stars Keanu Reeves as the sharp-witted Kevin Lomax and Hollywood titan Al Pacino as the cunning John Milton/Satan.
Though Pacino and Reeves both ship standout performances within the film, they weren't exactly the preliminary forerunners. The mission, which had been floating round Hollywood for fairly a while, was once to start with set to star Brad Pitt, handiest to undergo a radical forged shake-up at the ultimate minute.
“Brad and I had been going to do it,” acclaimed director Joel Schumacher told Los Angeles Times of the film ahead of its October debut. “All the sets were designed, and we had been nearly in a position to go but we couldn’t in finding any individual proper for the satan’s function.”
Though a fascinating challenge, Schumacher and Pitt in the end made up our minds against it, bringing up script problems. “It used to be this very darkish, seductive story in regards to the energy of evil. I keep in mind one incredible scene the place Brad would were chased throughout the other levels of New York’s subway machine with each and every level being a stage of hell in ‘Dante’s Inferno,’” Schumacher explained.
“But the script needed work and I knew that Brad was once on the cusp of his breakthrough as a celebrity. I didn’t want to take any possibilities for him. That was a key reason why I determined to move. So did he.”
Keanu Reeves Had To Take A $2 Million Pay Cut To Work Alongside Al Pacino In Devil’s Advocate
With Brad Pitt now not in the operating for the lead position, director Taylor Hackford became to Hollywood legend Al Pacino, best to be met with a overall of three unequivocal rejections. Pacino would later share his first impression of the project in a retrospective revealed by way of New York Daily News.
“Right from the beginning, I may just feel there used to be one thing on Taylor’s mind,” he stated. "Something he feels he can go after. It's a sense you just get from some people, and Taylor has it. But the very first time I saw the script, it wasn't complete.”
Fortunately, after several script edits, Pacino finally embraced the project. “Then that thing Taylor was reaching for, it finally started manifesting itself in the script,” Pacino revealed per New York Daily News. “Suddenly it became a challenge. [But] you want a challenge in this business, you want to see if you can reach what you’re going for.”
However, tweaking the script wasn’t nearly enough to hook the Hollywood legend onto the project, as he promptly tossed in some salary demands that left the studio’s $57 million budget running for cover. It was at this point that Keanu Reeves made one of the most legendary "great man" moves of his career: forfeiting a staggering $2 million of his salary just so the studio could afford Pacino.
“I’d rather people didn’t know that,” Reeves said of the highly endearing move in an 2019 press conference. “It was a private transaction. It was something I could afford to do, a worthwhile thing to do.”
How Did Keanu Reeves Feel About Working With Al Pacino In Devil’s Advocate?
After coughing up a substantial chunk of his paycheck to share the screen with his idol, you'd expect that Keanu Reeves had the time of his life filming Devil's Advocate. However, almost a year before the film's release, sources revealed to Los Angeles Times that Reeves was constantly fumbling is lines on set, much to Pacino’s chagrin.
“Keanu is a sweet guy and may be a star, but he’s screwing up his lines right and left and the accent is so bad there’s been talk of dubbing it in,” one source revealed. “It’s driving Pacino nuts. Everyone suspects Al is disgusted, wants out and that’s why he’s always late.”
However, producer Arnold Kopelson promptly discredited these sources. “Keanu is very serious about being the best he can be in this movie,” he said. “He does not flub his lines. He is supposed to be from the South and has a slight accent.”
The acclaimed producer's claims were later corroborated by Keanu Reeves, who, in a subsequent interview, appeared more than satisfied with the deal he’d struck to secure Al Pacino's role in the film. “I knew by working with [Mr Pacino] I could only raise my game, so to speak,” he mentioned, in accordance to Fandomwire. “We work in utterly alternative ways but our dating used to be, for me anyway, unbelievable. I had some of the easiest times of my lifestyles with him.”
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