Al Pacino on Fatherhood, Acting

Fatherhood is, in fact, personal for Al Pacino.

Two years after becoming a dad for the fourth time at 83, the Godfather star explained the positive impact his kids have had on his acting career.

Indeed, as the now-85-year-old told E! News’ Will Marfuggi in an exclusive interview, “A lot of my work had a little improvement because of them.”

In fact, Al—who is dad to kids Julie Marie, 35, with ex Jan Tarrant, 24-year-old twins Anton and Olivia with actress Beverly D’Angelo and Roman, 2, with ex Noor Alfallah—explained how Julie influenced his Oscar-winning performance in the 1992 movie Scent of a Woman.

“I was playing a blind man and I remember my oldest daughter was at the time 3,” the actor continued. “I visited blind institutions and they were great to me.”

“I said to my daughter, ‘Hey, Julie, do a blind person. Can you do a blind person for me?’” the Oscar winner recalled. “She did it and I thought, ‘Wow, I can’t do this because kids are geniuses.’ They have that genius and she was blind and she just did it, no preparation, nothing.”