Al Pacino is highlighting the upcoming 43rd anniversary of "The Godfather" by admitting he was almost fired from the cast before the film ever made it to the big screen.

The Academy Award-winning Pacino went on to play mob boss Michael Corleone throughout the trilogy, but he recently revealed to ABCNews.com all of it was close to never happening.

"I was so confused at that time, and Francis (director Ford Coppola) was so supportive, you know, and so helping me in it, all of it," Pacino said. "If it wasn't for Francis, I would've just not showed up one day and said, 'Hey, look man, I don't want to be where I'm not wanted.'"

But once he actually saw the footage, Pacino seems to have come to the same conclusion as many who saw his magical performance in th 1972 flick. 

"It was -- yes, a form of innocence or detachment in a crazy way," he said of the role and performance he admits to coming to love. "It was a kind of detachment. And then so that when the character finally emerges ... you say where did that come from? That was what I was really going after."

But in the early days, Pacino said, "Without the great Sterling Hayden and ... little Al Lettieri, I wouldn't be here today. They'd have let me go for -- even Francis couldn't stop them."

Currently, the soon-to-be 75-year-old Pacino is starring as aging rock star "Danny Collins," in a film that opened this month.

Pacino has also gone on to star is such films as "The Scent of a Woman," for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor, and "Glengarry Glen Ross," and "Dog Day Afternoon."