That young Pacino fella’s come a long way over the years

Early in his career, Al Pacino was performing on stage in Boston in a role considered to be perfect for him. While listening for his cue to head to the stage in the dressing room, he saw another cast member reading a newspaper.

When Pacino asked his co-star what he was reading, the actor became sheepish. Pacino saw that he was reading a rave review of the play, except for one element. Just as Pacino heard his cue to head to the stage, he read a line in the review suggesting that it was very difficult even to “tolerate him.”

“I laughed — I was young enough to laugh,” Pacino recalled. “It hurt, but it was funny. It was funny because it hurt.”

It’s even easier for Pacino to laugh these days. This week is serving as something of a victory lap for the Oscar-winning actor.

Wednesday night, he received the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Tuesday, he appeared at the premiere of his new movie, “Ocean’s Thirteen,” then headed to the 20th Century Fox lot to speak to an audience that had just seen the premiere of another new film, “Babbleonia,” in which the actor discusses his craft and his longstanding relationship with the Actors Studio.

“Babbleonia” will be a bonus disc in “The Al Pacino Collection,” which includes three film adaptations of stage plays (“Chinese Coffee,” “The Local Stigmatic” and “Looking for Richard”) directed by the actor and due in stores June 19.

Taking questions from the audience for more than an hour, Pacino reflected upon his celebrated career, which began in earnest when he was initially turned down for membership in the Actors Studio in New York.

“They’re very nice — they give you a pat on the back, but they say, ‘No,’” Pacino recalled with a wry smile.

Pacino recalled that two of his signature moments in his film canon never even appeared in a script: Between takes while filming the botched-bank-heist film “Dog Day Afternoon,” the film’s assistant director, Burtt Harris, suggested he shout out the word Attica, a reference to a recent prison riot. When he did so, the crowd watching the shooting cheered and began chanting along with the actor.

For his Oscar-winning turn as a retired military man in “Scent of a Woman,” Pacino sought instruction from a lieutenant colonel. “Every time I got something right, he said, ‘Hoo-ah,’” Pacino remembered.

The phrase became his signature line in the film.

“That’s the fun thing about all of this — when something like that lands, it’s wonderful. Of course, they don’t all land.”

Discussing directors with whom he has collaborated, Pacino said, “I prefer ones who tell me what to do and where to go,” such as Sidney Lumet. By contrast, Francis Ford Coppola, who directed Pacino in the “Godfather” trilogy, would collaborate with his actors: “He’d say, ‘What do you want to do?’ I’d say, ‘You know what you want me to do — just tell me.’”

On the other hand, Pacino conceded, “I wouldn’t like to work with myself as a director.”

Pacino also admitted he had agreed to make a couple of movies without having read the script beforehand.

But he also confessed that he has turned down more than his fair share of great films: “It’s heartbreaking,” he said with a generous laugh, declining to further indict himself by listing the titles.

And he insisted that when reading scripts, “I never feel I’m right for anything.”

“I don’t know anything about acting — that’s how I start off every role.”