Al Pacino Was Nearly Kidnapped by Female Fan When She Offere…

Al Pacino narrowly escaped a kidnapping early in his career.

In his newly released memoir, Sonny Boy, the 84-year-old Oscar winner recalled going out for drinks with Gene Hackman’s brother, Richard Hackman, “somewhere in our cross-­country journey,” when he encountered a woman who almost caused him to jump out of her car.

According to Pacino, he “got so drunk that I could not find my way home.” But then, “a woman said to me, ‘Oh, I’ll drive you home.’ And without a second thought, I got into her car with her.”

“But as we drove, even in my daze, I could recognize that she was not taking me back to where I was staying,” the actor recalled in his book. “I said to her, ‘What is going on here?’ And she said straight out, ‘I’m kidnapping you.’ “

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Pacino went on to say that he “was well-known” by that time, having made The Godfather already, and insisted the woman’s behavior “was not” simply “some aggressive flirtation.”

“I am from the South Bronx. When I see some crazy person trying to do something to me, I know how to escape,” he wrote. “I said, ‘No, you’re not. I’m getting out.’ She said, ‘No, no,’ and she kept driving.”

And in an effort to make his point, “I opened the door as if to jump out of the car,” Pacino said. “I was a little drunk, but I was ready to leap from a moving car if I had to. This ain’t happening to me, man.”

Fortunately, he didn’t have to resort to jumping from a moving vehicle, as “she closed the door and took me home.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

In Sonny Boy, Pacino, who is a father of four, also reflected on why he never married, saying he “always shied away from” it.

“I guess I didn’t see how it would help anything,” he wrote. “I just wanted to avoid what I thought, at the time, was the inevitable: an entrance to the pain train.”

The actor recently told PEOPLE he “just didn’t feel [marriage] ever suited me for some reason.” Plus, a rep for Pacino said he and ex-girlfriend Noor Alfallah “are very good friends, have been for years, and are co-parents” to their 16-month-old son, Roman.

“It depends on who you are getting along with,” the actor said, when asked about his feelings toward marriage now. “If you live together with someone … you have to have this communion. If you don’t, it’s almost an invasion. So I like to know that if I find a human that I can connect with.”

Sonny Boy is available now wherever books are sold.