Al Pacino nearly KIDNAPPED by woman offering him ride home

Al Pacino came dangerously close to starring in his own real-life crime saga when he narrowly avoided being kidnapped in the early days of his career.

The 84-year-old Hollywood icon recounts the wild night out with Oscar winner Gene Hackman's brother Richard Hackman in his new memoir Sonny Boy, per People. 

During one of their stops 'somewhere along our cross-country journey,' Pacino found himself in a situation straight out of a thriller.

'I got so drunk that I could not find my way home,' Pacino admitted. Just when things couldn’t get more surreal, 'a woman said to me, "Oh, I’ll drive you home." And without a second thought, I got into her car with her.'

That decision quickly set off alarm bells. 'Even in my daze, I could recognize that she was not taking me back to where I was staying,' Pacino recalled. 'I said to her, "What is going on here?" And she said straight out, "I’m kidnapping you."'

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He made it clear this wasn’t just 'some aggressive flirtation.'

With his Bronx street smarts kicking in, Pacino knew it was time to make a move. 'I am from the South Bronx. When I see some crazy person trying to do something to me, I know how to escape,' he wrote. 

His solution? Go big. 'I said, "No, you’re not. I’m getting out." She said, "No, no," and she kept driving.'

That’s when Pacino decided to turn up the heat. 'I opened the door as if to jump out of the car,' he said, fully prepared to bail out if it came to that. 

'I was a little drunk, but I was ready to leap from a moving car if I had to. This ain’t happening to me, man.'

His bluff worked. 'She took me home.'

The memoir excerpt comes after Pacino revealed he was so anxious about the possibility of being fired from The Godfather that he secretly hoped his injury on set would provide an opportunity to exit the film.

Despite ultimately earning an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Michael Corleone in the 1972 classic, Pacino reflected on the studio executives' doubts about his suitability for the role in another excerpt from Sonny Boy.

'The rumor had got out around the set that I was going to be let go from the picture,' he wrote, in an excerpt from The Guardian. 'There was a discomfort among people, even the crew, when I was working. I was very conscious of that.'

However, after he broke his ankle while filming a scene which saw him attempting to jump into a moving car, Pacino felt a wave of relief at the prospect of being released from the project. 

'Thank you, God, I’m gonna get out of this film,' he told Ben Mankiewicz during a rare interview on CBS Sunday Morning. 

He echoed the sentiment in a preview clip from Monday's episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast.

'My ankle was hurt, somehow it slipped,' he told host Conan. 'So I was just looking up at the sky and I said, "Thank you, God."'

'This was my thought. I actually said, "Thank you, God. You're gonna get me out of this film." That's how much I wanted to leave it. I said, "This is from heaven."' 

Despite the doubts, Pacino stayed on with the cast, and the influence of The Godfather on cinema is undeniable.

Often celebrated as one of the greatest films ever made, it achieved remarkable success at the box office and garnered critical acclaim. 

The film secured 10 Academy Award nominations, winning three prestigious Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Currently, Pacino is gearing up for his next role as King Lear in a Shakespearean production, having recently been seen in Los Angeles sporting royal attire.