Al Pacino says if he wasn't acting he thinks he'd be a cook

This photo provided by courtesy of Alchemy shows Al Pacino as Simon Axler in the film, "The Humbling." (AP Photo/Alchemy, Christie Mullen) (The Associated Press)

Al Pacino has been acting for nearly half a century and during that time, he says he's never really considered what other job he might be suited for — until now.

Pacino says he thinks he'd be a good short order cook.

He does have experience. Pacino played an ex-con who works in a diner in the 1991 film "Frankie and Johnny," which was shot in a working eatery. "'I could do this, be a short order cook,'" he remembers thinking at the time.

In a recent interview to promote his new film "The Humbling," about an aging actor who is questioning his career, Pacino said being a cook was "really fun to be for the lunch hour or two when you're working back there; very creative and the time just flies by."

The actor notes he never finished high school or went to college and says he "got educated through acting," picking up skills from playing doctors, lawyers, and a cook.

He says that on the diner shoot, his celebrity status gained him "access."

"These guys would just let me sit in the luncheonette," Pacino says. "I'd be with them through the lunches and I would study them by just doing it and watching, waiting and hoping I'd absorb something."