Why Dustin Hoffman rejected working with “crazy” Martin Scorsese
American filmmaker Martin Scorsese entered mainstream consciousness in the 1970s with the success of his movies Mean Streets and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Yet, when he released Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader, the filmmaker secured his status as one of the decade’s most influential figures.
The movie perfectly captures social alienation, with Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle suffering rapid mental deterioration as he drives through the crime-filled streets of New York. Painted in the vibrant hues of city lights and magnificently scored by Bernard Herrmann, Taxi Driver is one of Scorsese’s greatest works.
The movie earned four Academy Award nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Actor’ for De Niro. The actor’s incredible performance buoys the movie, with De Niro embodying the antihero scarily well. Despite the character’s increasingly chaotic journey towards violence and destruction, De Niro’s performance allows the audience to find a strange sense of understanding and perhaps sympathy within the role. At his core, Bickle is lonely, suffering from PTSD after fighting in the Vietnam War, and De Niro conveys his complexities incredibly well. It’s a role few can imagine turning down.
However, before De Niro was cast in the role, other actors were considered to play the now-iconic part, such as Dustin Hoffman, who had previously starred in The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy, with both movies earning him Oscar nominations.
It’s astonishing to think that an actor would dismiss one of Scorsese’s best ideas, but before Taxi Driver, the director didn’t possess the near-universal respect he does today. When Hoffman met with Scorsese, he wasn’t sold by Taxi Driver, even referring to the director as “crazy.”
He explained in 2007, “I remember meeting Martin Scorsese. He had no script, and I didn’t even know who he was. I hadn’t seen any of his films, and he talked a mile a minute, telling me what the movie would be about. I was thinking, ‘What is he talking about?’ I thought the guy was crazy! The film was Taxi Driver. I made so many dumb mistakes [turning down movies]. The list is endless.”
Instead, Hoffman starred in two films in 1976, the first being Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men, which he starred in alongside Robert Redford. The movie rivalled Taxi Driver for ‘Best Picture’, although Rocky took home the prize. Still, Hoffman earned himself a BAFTA nomination for ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’ for his performance. He also reunited with Midnight Cowboy director John Schlesinger for Marathon Man, which was both a box-office hit and a critical success.
While we’re certain that Hoffman would have given a great performance as Travis Bickle, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than De Niro playing the alienated cab driver. The actor was even responsible for improvising the movie’s most iconic line, “You talkin’ to me?”
