Al Pacino’s Best Screaming Scene Terrified His Co-Star For Real

In 1983, Pacino permanently reshaped his instrument as the vicious Cuban gangster Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s “Scarface.” What initially felt like a virtuoso disappearing act — one that absolutely wouldn’t fly today for good reason — became the howling mad norm for Pacino. With disappointingly few exceptions, every character going forward registered onscreen as an active, ready-to-blow volcano.

I’m not crazy about Pacino becoming more of a carnival attraction than an actor, but sometimes the outbursts are crazily in character. This is certainly the case with Vincent Hanna in “Heat.” The LAPD cop is the hardest of the hard chargers, a demonically obsessed lawman who’s met his flipside-of-the-coin match in Robert De Niro’s professional thief Neil McCauley.

Mann is a bit of a madman himself. He prizes in-the-moment verisimilitude, and he puts his actors through their paces in pre-production and principal photography to ensure that they look every inch their part. While Pacino might’ve bid adieu to subtlety during the Jimmy Carter administration, his fierce commitment to most of his roles is undeniable. It’s also key to how he gets away with what would likely be fireable overacting if perpetrated by anyone other than him.

This means his scene partners need to be on guard, particularly if their characters exist as dog food for a pitbull like Hanna to devour. While Azaria was a seasoned actor when he appeared as a low-level Vegas criminal getting bullied by Hanna and his crew in “Heat,” he was stunned when Pacino got in his face and unleashed a seismic line reading for the ages (one that /Film considers his greatest scream), as seen above.