Al Pacino Opens Up About His Longtime Friendship with ‘Wild’ Johnny Depp: ‘He’s Wonderful’ (Exclusive) .Linh

Al Pacino is reflecting on his friendship with the “wild” and “wonderful” Johnny Depp.

The prolific actor, 84, spoke about his life and career in a conversation with PEOPLE surrounding his new memoir Sonny Boy, including his decades-long bond with Depp and their new film Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, which Pacino stars in and co-produced with Depp, 61, as director.

“He is a wild fella and he is very creative, and it was fun to work with him. It really was,” Pacino says of their collaboration on the film, which is based on Dennis McIntyre’s play about Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

“The play itself is different, but the movie has got its own charm and stuff,” the Oscar winner says, adding, “And [the producers] got Johnny. I said, ‘Yeah, Johnny’s great for it.’ “

Modi marks Pacino and Depp’s first big-screen project together since they co-led the 1997 crime drama Donnie Brasco — on the set of which they first spoke of making a film about Modigliani, Variety previously reported. And they’ve kept in touch.

“I’m working with Johnny again, and Johnny and I get together sometimes. And Johnny and I, he would just say, ‘Here we are. A couple of toddlers,’ ” ,” Pacino tells , adding of Depp, “He’s wild. He’s wonderful.”

Asked what Depp’s friendship means to him after all this time, Pacino says that even though they “rarely see” each other and hadn’t done so in person “for years” before Modi, he considers the bond a “real” one that falls into a special “category.”

“I have a few people like that that I can say, ‘They’re my friends,’ “ he says. “And the sad part about life, getting older, is losing them. What’s tough when I go to New York … I’m feeling funny because I know so-and-so lived over there, down the street … and so-and-so was there.”

“And that’s what made my life and my relationship to the city, those people, it’s all about people. And they’re not there anymore,” the actor explains. “So it’s weird. It feels as though you’re being dropped in this lonely planet.”

Modi marks the second time Depp has been in the role of director for a feature film; he made his directorial debut with 1997’s The Brave, which he also starred in alongside Marlon Brando.