Being a legend, he says, is hard to compute. Pacino says he prefers to keep looking forward, not to the past. He has never lost certain professional insecurities: ‘I always think, the next thing I do had better be good -- it just never changed for me.

On what drives him , Pacino makes several attempts to explain that while ambition is not a bad thing, just wanting to work is his motivation: ‘My grandfather was a plasterer, and the thing about him, because he raised me, was his love of what he did. And he went away and did that for eight hours every day, and you felt he really wanted to go back and do that again.

‘When David Mamet was asked how he could write, write, write his plays and books and movies all the time, Mamet responded: "It beats thinking." I kind of agree.

‘The work is reality. That other stuff is fantasy. What is fame? It can be a pain. Once in Paris I was hounded endlessly. When you're in a public-enterprise thing, that's what you have to expect. But it's the persistence that causes you to react. But the good stuff outweighs most of that.I remember in East Berlin before the Wall came down they knew me at Checkpoint Charlie. That was great.

‘My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness. I once glued on a beard to go to a baseball game but that just got me noticed and I was with ( still steady date, actress Beverly D'Angelo) so that beard is in the museum of mistakes now.'

There is an unusual sound. Al Pacino is giggling. Throughout , Pacino plays the modest superstar, being charming and often self-deprecating, teasing himself for rambling answers which derail his train of thought. ‘It takes me half an hour to answer a question. I'm becoming verbose.

‘Over the years, I've become far more interested in film. That's why I've been doing so many movies back-to-back Also, to give a year to doing a play at my age is a very big commitment.

‘Looking back, I was far too selective at the beginning of my film career. An actor acts, and I wasn't acting because I was waiting to be inspired by the material.

‘As you get older, you realise your time is running out, so you take the best of what is offered to you and do everything in your power to make it work. ‘

Which he is doing at present with ‘The Insider' a powerful drama about the American tobacco industry. Based on a real story Pacino plays television producer Lowell Berman of ‘Sixty Minutes' ( America's ‘Panorama') when the show gets deeply involved in a scandal provoked by cigarette executive Jeffrey Wigand played by Russell Crowe.

This remind Pacino that it is time for another herbal inhalation or two. He is relaxed and smiling. And still reflective of other things that have gone up in smoke:

‘No one ever asked me to play “Hamlet.”

‘I don't think I'm right for the part, but it would have been nice to be asked.'

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