Netflix’s ‘The Irishman’: Al Pacino Reveals Martin Scorsese’s CGI Technique For Creating His Jimmy Hoffa Character

Director and producer Barry Levinson and Al Pacino stopped by The Bill Simmons Podcast to discuss their new film Paterno for HBO, but it was the details Pacino dropped about another film that were particularly intriguing.

In discussing how he transforms into the characters he plays on-screen, Pacino revealed that for his upcoming film The Irishman, a $100 million-plus mob movie being directed by Martin Scorsese and set to premiere on Netflix, he will be playing the infamous Teamster Jimmy Hoffa at several different ages.

In shooting the film, which also stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Bobby Cannavale, Pacino described the following to Simmons: “There [are] computers on the camera, on the sides… so physically, you’re changed. I was playing Jimmy Hoffa at the age of 39, they’re doing that on the computer. We went through all these tests and things, then I’m playing [him at] 48, even in my 50’s. Someone would come to me sand say, ‘You’re 39.’ Your body tries to acclimate to that and think that way.”

Later on in the conversation, Pacino continued, “While it was going on I had no idea. I never saw myself in the character of Hoffa and then I actually saw footage of myself as a 39-year-old Hoffa. So I’d keep wondering, is it gonna work? It just seems like I’m not doing anything, but there were things we did, we had to wear certain things, they tape things on us. We went into a studio here and these guys are geniuses that do this stuff. They put us in these rooms with all these lights and told us to just animate and speak, because they recorded it on a computer for hours and then they put it together. It’s been tried before and it’s been done before well, but I think this may be another step.”

Pacino also speculated that once it’s released, The Irishman will “be longer than two hours.”