How Brian De Palma introduced Martin Scorsese to Robert De Niro
Hollywood has its fair share of iconic director/actor pairings, from John Ford and John Wayne to Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst. These filmmakers create their best work when their favourite actors are involved, perhaps due to the ease with which they work together. In some instances, it seems as though certain directors and actors were destined to work with one another, and none seem to demonstrate this better than Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.
The pair’s first collaboration came in 1973 with the crime drama Mean Streets, which won De Niro several ‘Best Supporting Actor’ awards, including one from the New York Film Critics Circle. However, just two years after his iconic role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, De Niro gave another spellbinding performance in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. As Travis Bickle, De Niro plays a depressed Vietnam war veteran driving around New York’s grimy streets to ease his PTSD-induced insomnia. The film is considered one of the greatest ever made, and it’s clear that a strong rapport between Scorsese and De Niro propelled Taxi Driver to its astounding heights.
De Niro and Scorsese took an unexpected turn with New York, New York the following year, a musical drama that became a box-office failure. Luckily, all was redeemed with 1980’s Raging Bull, in which De Niro played Jake LaMotta, a hot-tempered and often abusive boxer. De Niro actually suggested the film’s concept to Scorsese after reading LaMotta’s autobiography and ended up winning an Oscar for his performance.
At this point, the pair were far from slowing down. In the decades that followed, they reunited for The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Casino, all of which were incredibly successful. Although the pair took a 20-year break from working together, they joined forces for a 2015 short film, The Audition, before De Niro earned a leading role in 2019’s The Irishman. The actor is set to appear in Scorsese’s upcoming film, Killers of the Flower Moon, alongside another of the director’s favourite collaborators, Leonardo DiCaprio.
However, the story of how the pair met involves another legendary director: Brian De Palma. During a 1978 interview on The Dick Cavett Show, Scorsese appears alongside De Palma, discussing his introduction to De Niro. De Palma explained that De Niro starred in three of his films before working with Scorsese: Greetings, The Wedding Party and Hi, Mom! He explained: “Bob is very quiet”, but whilst working on The Wedding Party, a 19-year-old De Niro said: “I’ve been working on a scene in my scene studies class, could I do it for you?” Despite appearing to be a “timid kid”, De Palma was “shocked” that De Niro could deliver such an explosive performance. Soon enough, De Palma introduced Scorsese to De Niro at a party, and the rest was history.
Discussing De Niro’s brilliance, Scorsese told Cavett that the actor offers “versatility, imagination, and tons of choices, which is what you want”. He claimed that De Niro has always been full of ideas, with De Palma chiming in: “He never takes predictable choices, he’s always coming up with some kind of strange, off-the-wall approach.”
Watch the full clip below.
