Here’s something scary: Al Pacino never watched William Friedkin‘s famed “The Exorcist” before working with the late auteur on “Cruising.” Pacino, who is now playing an exorcist in “The Ritual” alongside Dan Stevens, told Entertainment Weekly that a half century after the film‘s release, he finally feels up for seeing it.
“I didn’t even see ‘The Exorcist’ in my life,” Pacino said, adding, “It’s a great film, I hear. I should see it. I think I’m strong enough to see it now.”
Pacino’s “The Ritual” co-star Stevens reminded Pacino that “The Exorcist” was directed by “your friend Billy Friedkin.” Pacino previously led Friedkin’s X-rated 1980 film “Cruising,” which was released seven years after Friedkin’s iconic 1973 film “The Exorcist” that spurred a franchise.
Friedkin infamously slammed Pacino by telling a reporter that Pacino wasn’t as “prepared” as his fellow actors on set. “I don’t give a flying fuck into a rolling donut about what Al Pacino thinks,” Friedkin said. “I cared a lot about what Tommy Lee Jones thought, because this guy was a brilliant, professional, prepared actor. And he would think about his character more than me, the director. He would come to set with brilliant ideas, and I don’t feel the same about Pacino.”
Friedkin also said during the commentary for the film that he had “never worked with an actor who was less prepared” than Pacino.
While even Josh Safdie observed years later that Pacino rarely revisits “Cruising,” the film is deemed to be one of Pacino’s best performances. In the thriller, Pacino plays an NYPD officer who goes undercover in the underground S&M gay subculture to track down a serial killer targeting queer men.
As for Pacino now familiarizing himself with Friedkin’s filmography, it’s about time: Friedkin died in 2023. He told IndieWire in 2018 five years before his passing that he never viewed “The Exorcist” as being a “horror film.” The feature was adapted from Bill Blatty’s book of the same name.
“Faith is a mystery,” Friedkin said while promoting his documentary “The Devil and Father Amorth” at the time. “Bill [Blatty] identified ‘The Exorcist’ as being a work about the mystery of faith. People call it a horror film. Blatty and I never spoke about a horror film. We made a film about the mystery of faith, which was his concept, his idea, his belief system.”
