Al Pacino confesses that he needed 25 years of therapy after ‘The Godfather’

[Inkriql]

Al Pacino, who played the ruthless Michael Corleone in The Godfather, has confessed at age 79 that he needed psychological help to manage the sudden fame reported by the project led by Francis Ford Coppola. The actor, who has returned in a big way with Martin Scorsese in the film The Irishman, where he is accompanied by his companions Robert de Niro and Joe Pesci, now feels safe to be able to talk about a problem that many celebrities have hidden during years. A trend that many celebrities have followed lately to make visible and normalize mental health problems.

Al Pacino has now recognized that he had to seek psychological help to learn to manage the sudden fame that came after filming The Godfather, an exciting project that as an actor gave him all kinds of recognition but that brought great pressure when success overflowed the forecasts of its creators in the seventies. "I had to work a lot of things. I went to therapy five days a week for 25 years," the actor told Hollywood Reporter.

According to the actor, these therapy sessions were fundamental in his life. During the seventies the film projects - The Godfather I, Serpico, The Godfather II and Dog Afternoon - and the awards followed and there was a time when the psychological help he was forced to ask served him to relocate his priorities and make the decision to take your job more calmly in the following years and select much more scrupulously the projects you wanted to embark on.

"It was a good decision for me to get away from that frantic rhythm. I liked it. But what happens is that the money runs out," explained the actor who after four years of absence returned to premiere on the big screen Melody of seduction, in 1989. The years, therapy and the passage of time have placed the interpreter on a much more mature and relaxed level that allows him to face success differently and manage fame without feeling the pressure that caused him in his beginnings. In fact, he is living a few months of great media exposure since the premiere of The Irishman who has already received Golden Globe nominations and is in the race to qualify for the Oscars. "I remember going through this before," he says now about the rain of nominations that fall on his job, "although now I think I can handle it a little better. It's a wonderful feeling."

In the multiple interviews he has made on the occasion of the promotion of this film, the veteran actor has come to say that he feels "fortunate" for not having suffered serious mental problems that have caused the death of many other partners. During the Venice Film Festival he was even able to joke when dealing with the issue without forgetting to point out that it is a serious problem that should not be hidden: "People go into depression, it can last and it is scary. I know because I have had episodes of situations that come close to that but not of great intensity. If I'm depressed, I don't know. If I know that I feel free and lucky, "he said then.

Al Pacino also talked about what makes him happy: "I have three children. They have really been my source of light, as well as friends, people I've met over the years and the relationships I've had. They have all contributed to this amazing journey that I have had so far. Right now, I feel that I am fine. "