Al Pacino has said he has never taken cocaine in his life, even though “everybody thinks I have”.

The Hollywood icon and star of The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon and Scarface releases his “astonishingly revelatory” memoir Sonny Boy today (October 8), which you can order here.

He has appeared on the New York Times’ The Daily podcast to talk about the book, in which he explains that, despite believing he has a reputation as a cocaine addict, he has in fact never touched the class A drug.

“They’re shocked when they find out I don’t take cocaine,” he said. “I never took it in my life.”

Check out the interview below:

When asked who these people are who assumed he was taking the drug, he said, “Ah, I have a grapevine over at my house.”

“I’m not the kind of guy to take coke,” he continued. “Any upper, I don’t need. I’m up!”

In another interview to promote the release, the legendary actor, 84, revealed that he nearly died of COVID-19 in 2020. “I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone,” he said. “Like that. I didn’t have a pulse. In a matter of minutes they were there — the ambulance in front of my house.”

“I had about six paramedics in that living room, and there were two doctors, and they had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something. It was kind of shocking to open your eyes and see that. Everybody was around me, and they said: ‘He’s back. He’s here.’”

The nine-time Oscar nominee was then asked if the experience had any “metaphysical ripples” on him, to which he responded: “It actually did. I didn’t see the white light or anything. There’s nothing there.

“As Hamlet says, ‘To be or not to be’; ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn, no traveller returns.’ And he says two words: ‘no more.’ It was no more. You’re gone. I’d never thought about it in my life. But you know actors: It sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there’s no more?”

Pacino is also set to play a Mafia boss once again in a new kidnapping thriller. He made his name playing mob bosses and gangsters in films like The Godfather, The Irishman, and Scarface, and now will play a real-life mob boss in the film Captivated.

Shooting is due to start later this winter in Italy. The director will be Dito Montiel (Man Down), who co-wrote the script with Robin Shushan and Mammoliti.