Al Pacino's fascinating film transformation into Jack Kevorkian came without having met the the man dubbed "Dr. Death" in person.
Director Barry Levinson says he can only guess why Pacino did not want to meet Kevorkian before making the utterly engrossing HBO original film "You Don't Know Jack." (premiering April 24).
"The Kevorkian in the film is the Kevorkian of 20 years ago," says Levinson. "That was the Kevorkian he wanted to focus on. It's 20 years later and the man had been in jail for 81/2 years. I think he didn't want to mix it up in his mind."
After reading the script, Pacino started poring over the lengthy video tapes made of Kevorkian with his patients before they willingly took their final journey. It was a great character study.
"We must have had like 50 or 60 hours of sometimes unedited tapes," says Levinson. "So (Pacino) got a real sense of it."
The characterization grew as rehearsals started: "He would sneak up and try something," say Levinson.
And then the clothing (Kevorkian's trademark sweaters) and make-up. Not the whole prosthetic nose, but some "tweaks to enhance" Pacino's own sniffer.
"Slowly you started seeing him absorbing all of this information and the visual aspect of all of this," says Levinson.
The final result is a great performance in a great film. Levinson's says Pacino's performance is "extraordinary." A true word indeed.
