Actors on Dog Day Afternoon

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Let's go. Let's go. Are there movies that you love? Oh, endless characters. I was actually thinking about movies that I watched for this performance and another one was Dog Day Afternoon. I think I remember watching a lot of Dog Day I watched Dog Day Afternoon a lot because that urgency of the great Al Pacino in that movie with those phone calls, the the the franticness of trying to get your loved one back at at all odds were was a big influence, but The fact that, you know, that this guy's relentless in his pursuit to save the one that he loves, but he doesn't have all the right answers either. Al Pacino Another very funny movie, but also Right, it is not a comedy.

[00:00:44]Right, for sure. Yeah. seeing it in the theater when it was playing and feeling shocked to my core. Like, Oh my god.

[00:00:52]>> Well, this is what I love too about the movie is that it's an ensemble film.

[00:00:56]Every [clears throat] character who's in the bank, you're just with them and you just you're rooting for them. It's a weird movie because you're rooting for both sides. Well, that was the thing.

[00:01:04]Yeah, watching this, you know, film that took place in Brooklyn and all the craziness in it and how Lumet kept captured it, you know. That crazy energy is just an amazing film.

[00:01:18]>> Yeah, because all of the people that show up outside >> Yeah. they become like this mass character in the film that sort of eggs Pacino's character on gives him energy and I think some of the crowd at least were not, you know, paid background actors. They're people that just showed up >> Showed up because they wanted to see what was going on. They wanted to shoot the movie. Yeah, I mean, they were depicting gay marriage and the thing that amazed me was I don't think I realized right away that who John Cazale was. I had, you know, when I saw Dog Day Afternoon, I was like, who's this guy? But I had already seen him in The Godfather. And you didn't recognize him? Not at all. I just looked at this guy like, who's this guy? Like, wow. I don't know when I realized that he was the same actor.

[00:02:02]That just blew me away. And I also read that Lumet didn't want Cazale initially.

[00:02:07]Oh, is that right? Wow. Yeah, he thought the character should be younger and different looking and but I think because, you know, Pacino sort of insisted, well, just see him.

[00:02:17]Just talk to him.

[00:02:18]And I don't know what that meeting was like, but after that Lumet said, oh, yes. He's the truly scary character in this. You think of, you know, the difference between Fredo in The Godfather, you know, who was sort of the inept brother, right? And in this you believe it when he says that he'll start shooting up the place.

[00:02:38]I've watched Dog Day Afternoon over and over and over again. Sidney Lumet loves all his characters. He loves them all and he doesn't ever distance himself from them [music] or put them over here or laugh at them or other them in any way. And [music] it doesn't matter what that character's behavior is or how unused we are to seeing [music] a certain kind of character on film.

[00:03:00]He greets everybody with a certain amount of love [music] and compassion and that for me was revelatory. I saw it first probably 20 years ago and I remember being riveted by Al Pacino's performance and it made a big impression on me, but I didn't think about it beyond that and then going back to it, I felt [music] like I saw all of these things that were so profoundly important to me.

[00:03:22]>> [music] >> And yeah, one of those things is with Chris Sarandon's character the idea of of portraying that character in that way [music] at that time. And of course, yeah, audiences mapped all kinds of stuff onto that that I don't think Sidney Lumet intended where people brought their own prejudices and [music] bias into the theater.

[00:03:40]But I think what he's doing is he's loving every character. And so, I don't know if >> [music] >> Sidney Lumet was the most progressive person in the world on trans issues, probably not. But I think if you have that base agenda that everyone is to be loved and respected in the story you're telling, what you're going to arrive at is [music] positive about everybody regardless of gender identification or race. I think what you're going to arrive at is >> [music] >> a kind of equalizer. And I just feel like he approached his characters with this tremendous [music] love and empathy and didn't seek to judge them. And I just think of so many filmmakers even today that I admire and love >> [music] >> who would use a character like that maybe not a trans character, but a character like that that's kind of out of step somehow with mainstream society as [music] a moment you know, that could get a laugh or a moment to distance or a moment to sort of become a curiosity.

[00:04:35]>> [music] >> And he just doesn't do that. And and I feel deeply for >> [music] >> Al Pacino's character's feelings for that character and I feel like it doesn't make him to me it connects [music] me more to him and I mean, I just love that character so much. I love how Al Pacino is so he's so tightly wound and yet he's so kind of strangely calm in moments and [music] everything just feels wound so tight and it could explode at any minute, but there's just these moments for humor and play and theatricality [music] and it's so efficient, the whole film.

[00:05:12]It just feels like most efficient thing where the tension doesn't drop for a single second [music] and yet there's space and time for these strangely human moments. I just kind of went on this kick of watching all the films of his that I had seen and all of the films that I hadn't seen of his and just rewatch them [music] trying to find what it was in them that made me feel so deeply connected to something human.

[00:05:37]>> [music] >> And it was that. And Dog Day Afternoon I think is also an amazing example of his ability to be modest and disappear himself as the filmmaker. If you really look at it carefully, [music] the camera's always in exactly the right place and >> [music] >> the camera movements or positions are beautifully choreographed, but he doesn't need you to notice that. He never draws attention to himself. It's all in service of what's happening. So, just that idea of that efficiency of finding the perfect shot, the perfect place to [music] be, the perfect way to move a camera without it needing to become about you and your artistry and centering the story that you're telling and [music] the actors in front of the camera was really inspiring to me. I just feel like there are very few artists where you can just feel >> [music] >> who they are as a person in their work and I just feel you can feel him >> [music] >> and that there's something so deeply good about him in all of his films that just I find [music] endlessly inspiring.

[00:06:36]I don't give a flying [ __ ] into a rolling doughnut >> [music] >> about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:06:44]I don't give a flying [ __ ] [music] into a rolling doughnut about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:06:51]>> [music] >> I don't give a flying [ __ ] into a rolling doughnut >> [music] >> about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:00]I don't give a flying [ __ ] [music] into a rolling doughnut about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:07]I don't give [music] a flying [ __ ] into a rolling doughnut about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:15]I don't give a flying [ __ ] [music] into a rolling doughnut about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:22]>> [music] >> I don't give a flying [ __ ] into a rolling doughnut >> [music] >> about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:31]I don't give a flying [ __ ] into a rolling doughnut about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:38]I don't give a flying [ __ ] into a rolling doughnut >> [music] >> about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:46]I don't give a flying [music] [ __ ] into a rolling doughnut about what Al Pacino thinks.

[00:07:54]I don't give a flying [ __ ] [music] into a rolling doughnut about what