what's the story behind that al and lawrence grobel photo? 👀
It's a sad one. :( The picture was taken by Brett Ratt (I think—based on the tags here) during Larry's 1983 interview with Al. At 6:30 that morning, on November 8th, Al had received word that his American Buffalo co-star, Jimmy Hayden, had died of an overdose. He was only 29. In an eerie coincidence, Jimmy's character, Bobby (!), also had a heroin addiction.
Larry was supposed to put together an EPK (electronic press kit) for Universal, with video of Al talking about Scarface, playing with his dogs (Chi-Chi, get the squeaky toy), walking with Kathleen Quinlan. Al kept both his appointment with him and his onstage engagement that night. He insisted that the show go on in tribute to their co-star and to help him keep his depression at bay.
"A shy man under normal circumstances," Grobel wrote, "he was in no mood to do an interview. But rather than cancel it, he drew his anger over Jimmy's death deep inside him and mocked for the cameras in a way that defied his loner image. But before he sat for the on-camera interview, Arvin Brown, the director of American Buffalo, arrived, his eyes swollen. Pacino stood up, and the two men embraced. Brown was sobbing. Pacino took him up to his bedroom and closed the door."
They reconvened 45 minutes later and continued shooting on the condition that they not discuss his loss. "I loved him, you understand? It's just too soon to talk about it. He was the best young actor I ever saw."
They got together again a few days later to do their Rolling Stone interview. When that went to print the following year, there was a sweet pic of him with Kathleen that could have been taken on the 8th (he’s wearing exactly the same outfit), but I didn't see any of their dogs!
