After decades of silence on the subject, Al Pacino says he's aware of the criticism levied against the 1980 film Cruising — and he agrees with it.
The actor revealed in his recent memoir, Sonny Boy, that he was so uncomfortable with how the final cut of the movie portrayed LGBTQ+ people that he ended up anonymously donating his entire paycheck to various charities.
“I never accepted the paycheck for Cruising. I took the money and it was a lot, and I put it in an irrevocable trust fund, meaning once I gave it, there was no taking it back," Pacino wrote. "I don’t know if it eased my conscience, but at least the money did some good.”
Cruising, loosely adapted from Gerald Walker's 1970 novel of the same name, follows Pacino's character of a young police officer in New York City as he goes undercover at several LGBTQ+ nightclubs to catch a serial killer who has been targeting gay men. Pacino said that he signed onto the production because he wanted to be part of a project that was "pushing the envelope."
However, the actor recalled that Cruising "became very controversial during its production" for its condemning portrayal of the queer community. The film drew protests from LGBTQ+ locals in New York City "almost every day," even facing calls for a mass boycott among LGBTQ+ people at the time.
Pacino said that he "remained quiet" on the controversy despite believing the final product was "exploitative" of the LGBTQ+ community, admitting that “after all they had paid me a lot of money, and I wasn’t going to just abandon them.” Instead, he quietly made his donations instead.
“I didn’t want to make it a P.R. stunt," Pacino explained. "I just wanted one positive thing to come out of that whole experience.”