From IMDB (as in, I didn’t have to create this, it was there for the taking) -
HEADLINE: Pacino: “The Worse the Script, the More I Get Paid”
Veteran actor Al Pacino finds it baffling when he reads movie scripts - because the worse the script, the more the job pays. The Oscar winner insists top actors make very little money when they accept parts based on a decent script. He tells Variety, “I can almost state this is a fact. The worse the script is, the more money you’re offered. Show me a bad script, and I will show you a big payday. Conversely, show me a really great script and forget it. You’re lucky if you don’t have to pay for it.”
When acting legends are making this kind of observation, perhaps it’s time for the industry to really take a look at itself, because reading between the lines here, what is he really saying? I know that actors can be cryptic. It’s how they speak their minds without offending anyone who signs their paychecks. So, let me translate for you.
He says: “The worse the script is, the more money you’re offered.”
He means: The studios have the money, but neither talent nor taste.
He says: “Show me a bad script, and I will show you a big payday.”
He means: bad script = blockbuster
He says: “…show me a really great script and forget it. You’re lucky if you don’t have to pay for it.”
He means: The only good roles are in all of those well-written, socially-conscious films that Hollywood is desperate to keep out. They may not simply be loads of fun, family fare that you can pile your kids in the car and see at a drive-in. They may actually have purpose, meaning, and they may actually have it organically, and not just because each studio needs one film on their slate for the season (Babel, Blood Diamond) that can be an Academy Award contender. Hollywood churns out shit, and the only place to get non-shit is on a non-Hollywood film. Perhaps they should stop manufacturing scripts in meetings, where the symposium of the top execs goes something like this:
EXEC 1: You know what we really need? A movie about an educator who inspires kids in the ghetto to make good on their lives
EXEC 2: That’s great. Get ICM on the line and get a writer.
EXEC 1: Which one?
EXEC 3: Doesn’t matter. They’ll all write what we tell them to write.
EXEC 1: Done.
EXEC 2: Let’s talk cast.
EXEC 3: I’m thinking Hilary Swank, Michelle Pfeiffer.
EXEC 1: I was thinking male. You know, Morgan Freeman or Edward James Olmos.
COFFEE GUY: Actually, they’ve all already played that role.
(Execs look at Coffee Guy with distrust and condemnation.)
EXEC 2: Why are you talking?
I know. I was thinking the exact same thing. Al Pacino can be super-talkative inside his head.
