City Of Angels

Al, we've heard that when Robert Altman was planning to make a movie of "Angels" years ago, your name was mentioned to play Roy Cohn even then.

Pacino: Yeah, Altman contacted me.

Did you see Ron Leibman play Cohn on Broadway?

Pacino: I saw Ron and I saw F. Murray Abraham. I remember the effect they had on me, but fortunately I saw it a long enough time ago. There's something about seeing someone do something that you're going to play that gives it--it's almost a model. I did "American Buffalo" that way. I did "Pavlo Hummel" that way. It's almost like, "Somebody did it, so therefore it can be done." It sanctions it for you. And even though you don't copy the model of it, it gives you a kind of confidence that at least it can be done and done really well, so you've got something to go for.

Meryl, you've worked with so many great actors in your career. What was it like to work with Al as compared to Dustin Hoffman or Bob De Niro?

Streep: Same. The same. They're all alike. [Laughter] It was great. We've known each other for 30 years and I'd never worked with him.