The controversy around Al Pacinos film Cruising led the actor to donate his earnings to charity.While the 1980 thriller has become something of a cult classic, as Pacino writes in his recently published memoir, Sonny Boy, Cruising faced protests during its production. Members of New York Citys gay community feared the film, about an undercover cop searching for a serial killer targeting men in the gay leather scene, would present gay people unfairly and stereotypically a position with which Pacino writes that he came to agree. Related Out director Todd Haynes gay romance film reportedly dead after star Joaquin Phoenix drops out The films financing reportedly hinged on the straight actors involvement in what would have been his first gay role. At the time, however, the 84-year-old actor wrote that he thought the films script was good. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today I thought it was exploring something and expressing something that had real insight and posed a couple of questions to the world, Pacino, who had previously played queer band robber Sonny Wortzik in 1975s Dog Day Afternoon, writes in Sonny Boy. I was at a place in my life, too, where I was still a little unconscious but interested in pushing the envelope in a way that I hoped would shed light on certain subjects, open the door to more understanding of an ever-changing landscape, and reveal the evolution of our acceptance I was hoping for a kind of enlightenment, for both the audience and for me.Pacino writes that protesters disrupted production nearly every day while Cruising was filming on location in Manhattan during the summer of 1979. According to AfterElton writer Brian Juergenss 2007 reconsideration of the film, demonstrators were so loud that nearly the entire film had to be dubbed in post-production, and Pacino writes in Sonny Boy that he received bomb threats and had to hire bodyguards.Pacino has since defended his involvement in Cruising, arguing, according to Lawrence Grobels 2006 authorized biography, that the film depicted just a fragment of the gay community, the same way the Mafia is a fragment of Italian-American life and insisting that he would never want to do anything to harm the gay community, at the time he felt it was best to say as little as possible about the film.Ive always thought that the best thing to do is to be quiet in those situations, because once you start yapping, it gets worse, he explains in Sonny Boy. You have to take the punches. Its the nature of the beast. Pacino writes, however, that upon seeingCruising, he understood that it was exploitative.When I said yes to it, I thought it was going to be a murder-mystery thriller with some edge to it, he explains. But I was not as sensitive as I could have been about the stigmatization of the gay community and how this material depicted them.Pacino writes that he resisted doing much publicity for the film. I wanted to go somewhere far away from the madness. Id had enough.In fact, he writes that he never accepted the paycheck for the film. I took the money, and it was a lot, and I put it in an irrevocable trust fund, meaning once I gave it, there was no taking it back, he writes. I gave it to charities, and with the interest, it was able to last a couple of decades. I dont know if it eased my conscience, but at least the money did some good.The actor does not specify which charities received money from the trust and writes that the funds were always donated anonymously because I didnt want to make it a PR stunt.I just wanted one positive thing to come out of that whole experience, he adds.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.