"You want to give me the cash... or do I kill your brother first... before I kill you?" "Why don't you try sticking your head up your ass?" "See if it fits." "I would say the most defining experience about Scarface... was my first opportunity to work with a truly great actor." "Working with Al, he's an incredible talent." "All of the films I have made with Al, I have created for him." "Specifically for him." "Specifically for the things that I thought he could do best playing." "I have a long and an old relationship with Pacino." "I represented him when he first started." "So I have a great knowledge of his instrument... which helped me... in Scarface and the other films I've made with him." "I'm Tony Montana, a political prisoner from Cuba." "I want my fucking human rights, now!" "I felt that this Scarface... was a piece of so many different kinds of gangsters we've seen." "He was representative... of a collective person." "He wasn't organised so much." "He seemed almost like a renegade in all of this." "Even though he would comply... you knew eventually that he couldn't stick to any format... any controlled environment." "He was out of control, which was an attractive thing in this character to play." "Who put this thing together?" "Me!" "That's who!" "Who do I trust?" "Me!" "But it was a long, arduous casting process." "We saw Steven and liked him right in the beginning." "I was born in Cuba in '56." "Actually, I was born the day that Fidel Castro arrived... from Mexico, ready to start the revolution." "My dad, at a certain point, decided... that things weren't gonna get any better." "So he gathered us and took us to the airport... my little brother, myself, and my mum, in 1960." "They got off the ground and once they were in the international airspace... he said, "I'm not going back." ""I'm out, I'm gone." So we arrived in Miami." "He had a dime in his pocket." "We lived from house to house, in different people's houses... in the first few months... and did the whole exile experience." "We can be outta this place in 30 days." "Not only that, but we got a green card and a job in Miami." "Now are we made or are we made, man?" "Over the years, I grew up to be an American." "That's what I wanted to be, to be like the kids in my school... who didn't have Spanish surnames." "I got through high school, went to Europe, saw it, and came home and said:" ""I've got to do something."" "I went to junior college just to kill time... and I walked into an audition for a play." "A Tennessee Williams play." "I got cast." "Once I was in, in the rehearsal process, I said, "This is it." ""This is what I do."" "I was living in Manhattan and studying with Stella Adler... going through that whole journey of the starving actor." "I got a call about an interview." "This woman, she's casting this film." "It's called Scarface, starring Al Pacino... and this second role is his buddy." "I go and she says, "Oh, my God, they're right." "You're perfect."" "She goes, "I have to call Brian." She gets on the phone and calls Brian." "And Brian says, "Send him over."" "I go meet Brian and he says, "Okay." ""All right, so you speak Spanish?" "You're really Cuban?"" "He goes, "Okay" and calls Marty Bregman." ""Okay, I'm calling the producer."" "He calls Bregman and goes, "He's right, he's perfect."" "I went back to LA and met Marty Bregman." "And Bregman, from day one, says to me in his voice." "He says, "Kid, you're gonna do this movie." "You're gonna play Manny." ""You can't get the part yet because there's a lot of variables..." ""a lot of things, but hang on to this thought." ""Learn this, be it, and be ready." "When the time comes..." ""step in, you're gonna do it."" "Steven Bauer was chosen to play the second male lead in this... after he had read for us." "His background certainly didn't indicate... that he could stand up onscreen next to Al, as most of the scenes were with Pacino." "And if you look at any of Pacino's work... it's very difficult to watch any other actor if he's on the screen." "And Steven, in a reading, convinced us very quickly... that he was the right person for this." "Eventually he said, "You're gonna meet Al."" "He was in Brian's office." "I went over there and it was love at first sight." "It was great." "I walked in, and he was there." "He was just like a kid." "We hit it off, like, immediately." "It was a done deal." "It was like we were ready to start to be those guys." "Steven and I became very close friends... and we spent much time together... just going over our relationship and what it was in the past." "We enjoyed it." "We had fun doing that." "Making kind of a scenario, making up a story... and that was a lot of the work we did together." "What you told me to tell them." "That we..." "I was in sanitation." "They didn't go for it." " Sanitation?" " Yeah." "I told you to tell them you was in a sanatorium, not sanitation." "But there was a long process until it ultimately... settled on the final cast..." "We were getting to a point where these decisions had to be made." "Al would sort of go back and forth, "This is good, but this isn't quite working."" "We ultimately had a screen test at the ninth hour... and finally decided on Michelle." "Tony Montana." "Elvira." " Hello." " Manny Rivera." "Elvira." "Michelle Pfeiffer was a young actress that nobody had heard of." "Michelle Pfeiffer's agent called me and suggested that I meet with her." "I said, "If she would be good enough to fly herself in..." ""I would see that she would certainly get a reading."" "And she did." "For me, that was very important." "I had every intention to pay for her transportation, which we did... before we hired her a couple of months later." "But if a young actor is that committed or is that interested in doing that role... if they would take the dollars, which are hard-earned dollars... at that point in their careers, and come in... or make that kind of an effort, we always pick up the tab." "And she did, and we auditioned her." "We read her with Al and a lot of other young ladies." "I think we auditioned every young actress in the business at that point." "And at the theatre that we used at casting... when she got up on stage, she brought out the light." "Who, why, when and how I fuck is none of your business, okay?" "Now you're talking to me, baby." "That I like." "Keep it coming." "Don't call me "baby"!" "I'm not your baby." "Not yet, but you gotta give me some time." "It's interesting because I don't think even he was aware of it." "But the relationship happened." "It was right then and there." "Because nobody had heard of her." "And nobody we were interested in maybe casting this role up..." "She was just magic." "And that's why we used her." "There was no question, from the moment she read... that she was gonna do this part." "Michelle Pfeiffer was very interesting because it was one of her earlier movies... and I think she was very attentive and committed." "And she is a very... involved working person." "She's involved all the way." "With this picture..." "I didn't know her... and she seemed like... she wanted to discuss a lot of what was going on." "And I remember her being very intense and interesting." "I catch you here again, I'm gonna wipe you all over the fucking place." "Yeah?" "Go ahead!" "Do it now." "I want to see it." " I want to see it now, big shot." " Don't push me." " I want to see it now!" " Don't push me!" "Get outta here!" "Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was a very wonderful young actress... when I first met her." "And we picked her like we picked Michelle." "We read her and she was magic." "She was the person." "She was Gina." "I remember rehearsing with her and going over something." "I can even remember talking about what was going on... in this relationship." "Because it was a strange thing that does take place... and I don't think he thought of his sister that way." "But he felt a love for her... and he felt a purity for her... that obviously represented something to him." "He endowed her with this innocence and saintliness." "It was an odd thing and an interesting thing... to have in a movie." "It had a certain tragic element to it." "She's beautiful." "How come you..." "Stay away from her." "You hear?" "She's not for you." "We just clicked." "She was their favourite and I was their favourite... and they put us together and we read... and the chemistry was right." "And she's just as wholesome, and as able to turn and be that... fiery..." "That spitfire when she turns on him." "You got some nerve, Tony!" "You think you can tell me what to do?" "You can't tell me what to do." "I'm not a baby anymore." "I'll do what I want to do, see whoever I want to see." "And if I want to fuck them, then I'll fuck them!" "I don't know why all her scenes used to get me all choked up." "Because she was so pure." "So, it comes down to one thing, Tony boy, and you never forget it." "Lesson Number 1:" "Don't underestimate... the other guy's greed!" "Robert Loggia was chosen, again, on the basis of a reading." "Robert Loggia is a fine actor and he fit the role." "He did an exemplary job." "I thought Robert Loggia seemed to just embody this guy." "He was, I felt, very daring in his portrayal." "He and F. Murray Abraham, I thought both of them... contributed a great deal to the movie." "What do you think of him?" "I think he's a fucking peasant!" "But you get a guy like that on your side... he breaks his back for you." "The group that we surrounded Pacino with in the film were all Cuban." "Basically all Cuban." "Anytime that there was a problem in the accent, in Al's accent... they had the right to interfere and suggest that he was off with it." "You a Communist?" "How'd you like it?" "They tell you always what to do, what to think, what to feel." "Robert Easton was a tremendous help to me with the dialect." "And also the Cuban people who I met and spoke with... who gave me a lot of insights into some of the mannerisms." "All of which I tried to put into a capsule... and swallow and see what would come out." "And I was trying more not be as authentic... because I don't believe you can really be authentic... unless you can mimic very well." "But if I could take the accent and the mannerisms... and sort of heighten them in a way... for this approach to this movie..." "Because I think Brian De Palma was gonna take... a larger-than-life approach to this film... to conceptually deal with the movie in a more operatic style." "Just slightly larger than life... and so I think that was incorporated into my interpretation." "Al did a lot of interesting things." "When I first met him, we were doing some screen tests." "We were testing Michelle Pfeiffer and other ladies." "And then after we finished that day, he said, "Johnny, can I ask you a big favour?"" "He said, "Only speak Spanish to me once we start the movie."" "I said, "Really?" "Why?"" "He said, "I wanna hear Spanish." ""Maybe I don't understand, but just talk to me in Spanish."" "So I did." "The entire picture, Al Pacino and John Alonzo spoke Spanish." "He was Spanish himself, so when I was off with an accent..." "I asked John if he would help me." " I know that he spoke to me in Spanish." " That's part of his preparation." "And that's part of what makes him one of America's finest actors." "We had a month of rehearsal time." "It was unheard of." "But Bregman and Brian insisted on it." "We could have taken it on the road, like a play." "Scene, scene, scene..." "We had a great cast." "These great actors." "Brian was great." "His graciousness and his generosity... and the wisdom that it took... to allow what he allowed." "Allow for exploration and spontaneity when there was room for it." "It was a total ensemble piece... and a lot of playing the scenes back and forth." "Al and the other actors would improvise... and find things to build into the scenes." "Oliver would come back and rewrite them." "There was a lot of that." "I felt good when he was involved, because he responded to the script... in such a passionate and positive way." "And this idea he had of making this thing larger than life... a little bit more heightened, the reality, appealed to me." "Say hello to my little friend!" "Every actor I've ever met does Tony Montana." "This country, you gotta make the money first." "Then when you get the money, you get the power." "Then when you get the power, then you get the women." "Whether it's Bruce Willis, who does an incredible Tony Montana... or Tom Cruise, who does an incredible Tony Montana... or Alec Baldwin." "They all do him." "It's like we used to do Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront." "It's such an audacious character... with such wonderful lines." "Al did such an incredible performance... that every actor in the world... loves to play that part." "So say good night to the bad guy!" "Come on." "The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again... let me tell you."