Best known for co-writing and producing such films as “Stargate” and “Independence Day” with director Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin has more recently branched out with his company Electric Entertainment to produce the acclaimed documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” He made his directorial debut on the pilot for “Leverage,” starring Timothy Hutton, which he executive produces and continues to direct for TNT.
Devlin spoke with Eric Estrin about the 12-year partnership with Emmerich that put him on the map and the four-year, daily contact with Al Pacino that inspired his to breakthrough.
My father was a film producer, and my mother was an actress, but I actually got my start as Al Pacino’s chauffeur.
I was raised in Los Angeles but felt like getting away after high school, so I moved to New York where I have some family. I was working at a company that rented film equipment there. One day a unit production manager was checking out some equipment and said, “What do you want to do?” And I said I wanted to get more involved in filmmaking. He said, “I’m doing a new movie with Martin Scorsese. Why don’t you come on and be a PA on the show?”
I was like … are you kidding me. So I found a replacement and quit my job. And on my first day of work the guy looked at me and said, “Oh my God, I forgot to call you. I had to hire Scorsese’s nephew.”
So I went home and I was totally depressed. And the next day the same guy called and said, “How’d you like to be Al Pacino’s chauffeur?” I went, “Uh, I’ll take any job I can get.”
I ended up working with Pacino seven days a week for four years. He really changed my outlook on a whole lot of things. I had done some acting earlier in my life, but it wasn’t really something that I took very seriously. It was always a means to an end. But the more I worked with him, the more interested I got in the craft and what it was about.
Just at the tail end of working for Pacino, I found out about this audition for a play called “There Must Be a Pony,” by James Kirkwood, and I thought, You know what, I’m gonna try. And I went out for it and I got the lead role.
I came back to Los Angeles in 1983 with the idea of taking acting really seriously. I started studying with a fantastic acting teacher named Roy London. He coached a lot of people who went on to win Oscars. Brad Pitt was studying with him then, Geena Davis, Sharon Stone -- it was a remarkable period of time to be studying with him.
I got a lot of TV work -- and helped a lot of TV series get canceled.
