Cary Elwes went from starring in 'The Princess Bride' to being unemployed. Then Al Pacino stepped in.

Cary Elwes' star-making turn in Rob Reiner's classic swashbuckling love story "The Princess Bride" would eventually become one of his most iconic roles. But after the movie premiered in 1987, the young Elwes wasn't exactly booked and busy.

"I spent a year not working after 'Princess Bride,'" Elwes told Business Insider.

While the movie performed modestly at the box office, it wouldn't reach a wider audience until it hit VHS a year later. In the meantime, Elwes was only getting offered roles as swordsmen and pirates, which he declined. "It made no sense to try and play another pirate when I played one for one of the great directors and writers of all time," he said.

So Elwes played the part of twenty-something unemployed actor instead, roaming around New York City in search of his next big break — until a chance encounter with Al Pacino at a restaurant ended up changing everything.

"A friend of mine introduced me to him and told him I was an actor," Elwes recalled. "Al asked what I was working on and I told him, 'Not a whole lot.'"

Typically, this kind of story ends when the star gives some sage words of encouragement to the up-and-comer, and they go their separate ways. But Pacino went beyond just words.

"He suggested to me that I audition at the Lee Strasberg Institute," Elwes said, referring to the school named after the famed New York City acting coach who had starred alongside Pacino in 1974's "The Godfather Part II."

Pacino's encouragement would be as life-changing for Elwes as getting the role of Westley in "The Princess Bride." Thanks to Pacino's endorsement, Elwes got to study under Pacino's mentor Charlie Laughton. From there, Elwes' acting talents grew, leading him to score roles in hits like the acclaimed 1989 Civil War movie "Glory" and opposite Tom Cruise in the 1990 NASCAR movie "Days of Thunder." Around the same time, "The Princess Bride" had become a cult classic on home video, raising Elwes' status in Hollywood. Suddenly, he had to decline work because he was too busy.

Elwes, 63, has gone on to forge a nearly 40-year career inhabiting a wide range of roles, from the object of Alicia Silverstone's affection in the 1993 thriller "The Crush" to a loving stepfather trading wits with Jim Carrey in "Liar Liar." In his latest project, the Peacock series "M.I.A.," streaming now, Elwes plays Kincaid, a Miami private eye investigating the murder of a family by a drug cartel.

Elwes said one of his favorite parts of the job was researching the role. After interviewing private detectives and noticing they showed up to meet him dressed like they'd been hanging out by a dock in the Florida Keys, Elwes was inspired to give his character a similar look.

Elwes said that character discovery work is one of the many skills he developed while studying at the Strasberg Institute.

"I don't think I would have had the tools to be able to create the characters that I ended up playing if not for that experience," Elwes said. "In fact, I know I wouldn't have."

For the latest installment in Business Insider's "Role Play" series, Elwes talks about what he learned from being Marlon Brando's PA, befriending Carrey, and working with Rob Reiner for the last time.

On Marlon Brando's nickname for him and being discovered by Rob Reiner

Business Insider: When you were in your late teens, you were a personal assistant on movies like "Octopussy" and "Superman" in England. Did those experiences heighten your desire to get into the business?

Cary Elwes: It's cheaper than film school, and you learn more. The first thing I learned was teamwork: the amount of work that goes into creating a movie, and how everyone is a vital piece of creating that art. Once I stepped in front of the camera, I had enormous respect for the crew right away because I had been one of them.

And I'm sure that greater appreciation comes from being the guy who was responsible for getting Marlon Brando to the "Superman" set on time.

Yes! Marlon was an extraordinary experience. He taught me a great deal, though he didn't like to talk about acting. But he did teach me about acting indirectly because he was a marvelous judge of character. He'd studied psychology and human behavior. If somebody sat down in his trailer or he met them for the first time, he would just look at your shoes, and within two minutes, he knew everything about you.

By the end of making "Superman," did he at least get your name right?

No. Day one, he called me Rocky. I found out later on he was a big fan of boxing and I guess he thought I resembled Rocky Marciano for some reason, which I don't at all. But what are you going to say?!

You'd been in some movies before "The Princess Bride." Had Rob Reiner seen you in anything before you went in to audition?

Yes. Jane Jenkins, who cast "Princess Bride," told Rob he should watch a film I made a few years earlier called "Lady Jane" with Helena Bonham Carter and Patrick Stewart.

He hadn't seen it, so she screened it for him in London. Then, he apparently flew to New York and met with Bill Goldman, the author of "The Princess Bride" book, and screened it for him, and he said, "Yep, that's the guy."

Then Rob got on a plane and met me in Berlin, where I was shooting, and I read for him. I think I only read half a page. And, yeah, it changed my life forever.

So Al Pacino pushed you to go to the Lee Strasberg Institute. When you did the 2025 movie "Dead Man's Wire" with Al, had you thanked him for his recommendation by then?

We became close after I worked at Lee Strasberg. I thanked him right away. The first day I got another job after leaving the school, I thanked him. He said, "You were going to work anyway, Cary."

I remain friends with Al. I owe him a great debt.

On meeting Mel Brooks and being on 'Seinfield'

Rob Reiner and Mel Brooks were practically family. Did Rob help in getting you noticed by Mel for "Robin Hood: Men in Tights"?

Well, he did in an indirect way, because he invited Mel to the very first screening of "The Princess Bride" on the Fox lot and I was there. It was a friends and family screening. He introduced me, and you could have knocked me down with a feather.

Mel was very gracious; he said very, very nice things to me about my performance. Then Mel said, "I might have something for you, I'll let you know." It took a while, but he finally got back to me, and the rest is history.

At the same time you starred in 1996's "Twister," you did your first TV appearance playing a recently separated husband who dates Elaine on "Seinfeld." How did that come to be?

I got a call from my agent saying Jerry wants you to come down and do an episode. It was so unbelievably different from anything on television.

I thought the role they wrote for me was so funny. I didn't dare ask to change anything in the script, but I would sometimes make a suggestion and sometimes they would go for it and sometimes they didn't. It was a live audience, so the timing was specific and I'd never done live television before. That was my first and last time doing it.

On befriending Jim Carrey and his bittersweet final movie with Rob Reiner

Did you know Jim Carrey before "Liar Liar"?

My wife and I happened to be invited to watch an episode of "In Living Color," and we met him on set. He has enormous personal charm, but he happens to be one of the funniest people you'll ever meet, and we became friends instantly.

And then one day you get a call from him saying he thinks he's got something that would work for you to do with him?

100%.

Was it fun being Jim Carrey's straight man?

The Dean Martin to his Jerry Lewis. It was never something I anticipated, but I had a great time making it. People remember my impersonation of him doing the claw; that seems to have stood out. But it was great fun to do. The outtakes at the end of the movie show just how ridiculous the shoot was.

You worked with Gary Oldman on Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and Willem Dafoe on "Shadow of the Vampire." Who was more intense playing a vampire?

They are both remarkable talents and I cannot pick one over the other. Both brought enormous depth and nuance to those roles as Dracula and Nosferatu. And I fell in love with them right away as performers and as people. They are people that I know if I'm going to see them in something, I'm going to be entertained and surprised.

But I have to know, did you ever walk up to Gary during filming of "Dracula" and ask, what are you getting out of sleeping in a coffin?

[Laughs.] I don't question anybody's methods. Everybody has their own way of finding a role. I don't know about other actors, but I have some things I do out of habit in research and preparing. So I never judge anyone else's methods ever; that would be a terrible thing to do.

You starred in "Being Charlie," which was directed by Rob Reiner from a script by his son, Nick. You very much are playing a version of Rob in that movie. What kinds of discussions did you have with him to prepare for that challenging performance?

Rob approached me to make that picture because it was a personal project for him for many reasons. He told me that I would be playing a character who is very similar to him, because he wanted to explore the family dynamic of having a child who was having mental issues.

I jumped at the opportunity to work with Rob — I would say yes to any call I got from him. So it's bittersweet that that's the last thing we worked on. But I tend to want to remember him for the wonderful contributions that he gave to our industry and to the people who loved him rather than focus on anything negative. I don't want to focus on how he died, I want to celebrate on how he lived.

It's a film that is important to be out there for the simple fact that if someone needs help, maybe seeing it can motivate them to get it.

If Rob would want anything to come out of that, it would be that people learn to not brush these things under the carpet, to address these things head on with care, with love, with compassion, and with empathy.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

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