Al Pacino defends his casting as Jewish Nazi hunter on Amazon show

Hollywood veteran Al Pacino has defended playing the part of a Jewish Nazi hunter in upcoming Amazon series Hunters.

Set in 1977 New York City, the story follows Pacino's character and other Nazi hunters who discover and work to stop a plot by a group of high-ranking Nazi officers who plan to create a Fourth Reich in the US.

Some have raised eyebrows about the casting of Pacino, who is of Sicilian descent, as a prominent Jew.

But the 79-year-old actor argued one will have a narrow experience as an artiste if they only stuck to their ethnicity.

I sort of don't think that way because if you're limited to your ethnicity, you're going to have a very narrow... you're only going to be playing...

No, I have no problem with this. Maybe more in films because it's more literal or more naturalistic, but if you play the oboe, you play the oboe. It doesn't matter what you are, you're in the orchestra, you're doing the thing, you're playing the music, Pacino told The Times newspaper.

That's bulls***. As a Jewish person I can say that. Come on, anybody can play the role, his co-star Logan Lerman added.

The highly-anticipated conspiracy thriller series has been executive produced by Oscar-winning writer Jordan Peele.

Also starring Jerrika Hinton, Josh Radnor, Kate Mulvany, Tiffany Boone, Greg Austin, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Hunters starts streaming from February 21.