Al Pacino Genuinely Terrified Hank Azaria In One Of The Best Crime Thrillers

Many directors are known for shooting a lot of takes. David Fincher’s penchant for multiple takes led to a lot of demanding days on the “Mindhunter” set, while Stanley Kubrick’s exhausting methods are infamous, such as when he made Tom Cruise walk through a door 95 times on the set of “Eyes Wide Shut.” The question of whether the effort involved in this approach actually yields better results than something like Clint Eastwood’s commitment to using the very first take remains unanswered at this point. But sometimes, shooting take after take results in something undeniably great. Case in point: one of Al Pacino’s most memorable lines in Michael Mann’s “Heat.”

The 1995 crime thriller remains a touchstone of the genre, and not just because it finally saw Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro share a scene and featured one of the best gun fights ever put to screen. “Heat” is a masterpiece for the way it crystallizes Mann’s fascination with the concept of criminality and the individuals who perpetrate it. To Mann, the term criminal is far too dismissive. The people who commit crimes are human beings who exhibit all the complexities and contradictions that come with it. Hence the remarkable way in which Pacino’s detective Vincent hanna and DeNiro’s career criminal Neil McCauley play off each other in such a way that you’re not entirely sure they’re all that different.

In other words, “Heat” has a lot more nuance to it than your typical crime thriller. But that doesn’t mean the entire thing is nuanced. In fact, aside from the aforementioned shootout in the streets of downtown Los Angeles, one of the movie’s standout moments is anything but nuanced. That moment is, of course, Al Pacino’s delivery of the line, “‘Cause she’s got a great ass!” in the scene where he interrogates Hank Azaria’s Alan Marciano — which as it happens, was not only the result of Mann demanding multiple takes but a genuinely surprised a young Azaria.

Al Pacino’s performance as Vincent Hanna is one of his best ever, if only because it combines his ability for nuance with his ability to chew the absolute hell out of the scenery, and yet it somehow still works as a cohesive, believable portrayal of a slowly unravelling LA cop. B

y that point, Pacino was well-established and felt comfortable enough to take some big swings — something that Michael Mann knew how to use to his advantage. Meanwhile, Hank Azaria — who recently tested out AI as a potential replacement for his voice acting on “The Simpsons – was comparatively inexperienced. He had just begun his film career five years prior with a small role in “Pretty Woman” and only really started to break through with 1994’s “Quiz Show.”

When Azaria, whose character was having an affair with Ashley Judd’s Charlene Shiherlis, got his part in “Heat,” small though it was. it must have been a big deal to know he’d be sharing a scene with a screen legend. What he wasn’t entirely prepared for, however, was Mann’s multiple take approach and the unhinged improvisation it would prompt from Pacino.

After Vincent Hanna storms into Alan Marciano’s office, he forces him to admit that he’s been involved with Charlene Shiherlis before screaming the immortal line, “‘Cause she’s got a great ass, and you’ve got your head all the way up it.” According to Azaria, this was completely unexpected. During a Howard Stern Show interview, the actor said, “Michael Mann does a lot of takes […] and you get a little lost in it.” He then revealed that this approach is what led to Pacino ratcheting up the crazy:

“On take, whatever, 70 it was, Al finally, probably out of boredom, but just wanted to switch it up [and] just scream. He had been doing the line you know, [in a more restrained tone] ‘Because she’s got a great ass,’ you’ve been doing it like that and then all of a sudden it exploded out of him. If you look in the movie my reaction, I’m not acting, I got genuinely terrified […] you hear me go, ‘Jesus.'”

But dealing with Mann’s multi-take approach and Pacino’s impromptu outburst was surely made worse by the fact Azaria was on a tight schedule.

Hank Azaria elaborated on his “Heat” experience in an interview with Vanity Fair, where he revealed that he shot his scene with Al Pacino on his 30th birthday. Not only that, his day didn’t end with Pacino screaming in his face. “I shot 24 hours straight,” the actor explained. “I shot all night on ‘Heat’ and then I went right to the “Birdcage” set.” Azaria played Agador Spartacus in Mike Nichols’ 1996 comedy “The Birdcage” with Robin Williams, and he evidently made time during shooting to film his “Heat” scene.

Of all the directors to have for this one scene that Azaria had to squeeze in between filming his other movie, Mann was surely one of the most unhelpful. if only because as Azaria put it, he “shoots like a million takes.” While that might not have been ideal for Azaria, who was trying to get back to the set of “The Birdcage,” the director himself maintains that multiple takes aren’t only the best approach generally, they are the best way to get Pacino firing on all cylinders. As Mann told Variety:

“Al’s best takes are always five, six or seven. It’s never the first two. He’s experimenting around, and then after five, six or seven, maybe it’s a small change. After that, he would deliver a take that was fantastic.”

According to the director, Pacino went one step further in his “Heat” scene with Azaria, asking Mann whether he could do “a wild one.” That’s likely the take that made the final cut, but you have to wonder how Azaria was holding up under such circumstances. According to Mann, he didn’t forewarn the young actor of his and Pacino’s method, so that “great ass” line wasn’t the only surprise on the day. As the director put it, “Al just flipped this guy up and down and cut loose, and that look of shock and amazement on Azaria’s face is because we’re going completely off the script into something totally wild.” 

Thankfully, it all added up to a legendary scene in the best movie Michael Mann ever made.