Veteran screen star Al Pacino was a toddler when he started training for his acting career. “I was very shy, and when I was about 3 years old my mother began taking me to the movies, night after night,” he recalls. “The next day, all by myself, I would enact all the parts of the movie before a mirror. It had a tremendous influence on my becoming an actor.”

Here are Al’s 10 favorite roles and what the 85-year-old actor says they mean to him.

Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (1969)

On his Tony-winning turn as a drug addict, “It was a very important play for me. Francis Ford Coppola saw it, contacted me and said he had a script that was a love story. It didn’t get made, but I got to know him. The next year he called me with a film. It was ‘The Godfather.’”

The Godfather (1972)

Getting to act alongside Hollywood icon James Caan, Marlon Brando and John Cazale was an offer Pacino couldn’t refuse. “It was a huge deal for anyone to be involved with it. But when you’re a young actor … just getting any part in a film is a miracle. Opportunities like those don’t exist for you.”

Serpico (1973)

Portraying the titular NYPD undercover cop, “I absorbed Frank Serpico. I channeled him. I had the real guy there with me all the time.” But, Al quips, “He didn’t want me to be with him all the time!”

Scarface (1983)

Al drops the F-bomb a whopping 207 times as drug mogul Tony Montana. “Bombast was part of what we were trying to say. It’s about a kind of ingenuity, suddenly coming back from the bottom and rising, which is why the original was so inspiring for me.”

Scent of a Woman (1992)

On winning the Oscar, “I was surprised how I felt. There was a kind of glow that lasted a couple of weeks. I’d never had that feeling. It’s kind of like winning an Olympic medal because you’re the best — with the Oscar that’s not necessarily the case. It’s just your turn.”

Looking for Richard (1996)

Al directed and financed this film based on Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” “There’s something liberating about that, because you don’t have anyone to answer to. All you have is your canvas and your paints, and you start putting it up there and seeing where it goes.”

Donnie Brasco (1997)

Of costar Johnny Depp: “He’s wild. He’s wonderful. I have a few people like that, that I can say, ‘They’re my friends.’ And the sad part about life, getting older, is remembering … it’s all about people.”

Angels in America (2003)

Al won an Emmy playing Roy Cohn but his bigger reward was working with Meryl Streep for the first time. “With Meryl, you really feel very close. She just has that ‘thing.’ You know she is looking out for you.”

The Merchant of Venice (2011)

Playing Shakespeare’s famed fiend Shylock on Broadway, “It would be hard to play a character you don’t like — for me anyway — or can’t find something in them to like. Of course, when you do that you’re likely to come across stuff that is relatable to your own life.”

House of Gucci (2021)

Al found his role as fashion icon Aldo Gucci to be just his style. “It’s about a world that for some reason I think is identifiable. You can identify with this world even though it’s exotic. Yet the emotions, the feelings are very identifiable.”