Al Pacino hooked on Bard

After years of gangsters, villains and hard men with a heart, Al Pacino has come back to Shakespeare, and after playing Jewish moneylender Shylock he has his sights set on King Lear and Macbeth.

Pacino, in New York to promote The Merchant of Venice, said he did get hooked on the Bard at school.

"Some actors have an appetite for it, some actors don't," he said. "It's just what rings your bell."

He said The Merchant of Venice might be difficult for audiences given the moral complexities, particularly of his character, who loans a fortune on the condition that he receive a pound of the borrower's flesh if the loan is not repaid.